District Departments » Alternative Programs » Hospital Home Instruction

Hospital Home Instruction

858-679-2530, Ext. 2063

Patty Hurtt, Director, [email protected]
Cindy Long, Administrative Assistant, 858-679-2530, Ext. 2063; Fax 858-679-2630

Hospital and Home Instruction Background

The Home and Hospital Instruction Program provides on-going academic instruction to students who are unable to attend the regular school day for a period of two weeks or longer due to A TEMPORARY illness, surgery, or chronic medical disorders. Home/Hospital serves all students enrolled within the Poway Unified School District. The process takes at least five working days to initiate depending upon the amount of time it takes to complete the necessary paperwork. Instruction will commence no sooner than the 11th day of absence or no later than 5 days after the paperwork has been submitted, whichever is later.  Home and/or Hospital Instruction is, by definition, a temporary program and is not provided for extended periods of time or in lieu of school attendance. The program does not operate over the summer. The program cannot support students who are taking certain electives, such as foreign languages, lab sciences, physical education, auto shop, jewelry making, or any other subject requiring hands-on instruction. Alternative Programs oversees the program by receiving requests, monitoring the appropriateness of the requests and working with Finance to provide attendance information.

Hospital and Home Instruction Instruction

Home and/or Hospital Instruction is initiated at the student's school site. A credentialed teacher is assigned as the tutor to the student and work is provided by the regular classroom teachers. The Home/Hospital tutor arranges an appointment at the home and class work is reviewed and discussed.  You will have the choice of an in-person tutor or your child working with the tutor through Zoom. For in-person tutoring, masks will be required for all.The state limits the hours of tutoring to a maximum of three hours per day, and five hours per week. The state also will not allow a student to attend classes at a school site while enrolled in the Home/Hospital program. No tutoring is allowed on days that school is not in session, and the five hours per week is reduced by that number. The program does not operate over the summer. Please note that most tutor appointments are after school hours because our tutors must be either a PUSD teacher or substitute.

  • IF YOUR STUDENT HAS AN IEP, A CHANGE OF PLACEMENT MEETING MUST BE HELD AND THE TEAM AGREE THAT HOME/HOSPITAL INSTRUCTION IS THE BEST INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING FOR YOUR STUDENT. A COPY OF THE IEP AND MEETING NOTES MUST ACCOMPANY THE APPLICATION.

  • A NEW APPLICATION IS REQUIRED EACH SCHOOL YEAR IF SERVICES WILL EXTEND INTO THE FOLLOWING SCHOOL YEAR. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS FOR STUDENTS WITH TEMPORARY ILLNESSES OR INJURIES. IF YOUR STUDENT IS OUT FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME, AN ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION PLACEMENT NEEDS TO BE CONSIDERED - CONTACT YOUR SCHOOL COUNSELOR.
    PLEASE NOTE:  Your application, once approved, is only valid for 6 weeks.  Your student’s home hospital needs must be reevaluated every 6 weeks by his/her diagnosing physician - a medical doctor with a MD; therefore, a new “Physician’s Statement Requesting Home and Hospital Instruction” form must be submitted every 6 weeks in order to continue home hospital instruction. Please note we will not accept a "physician's request for home hospital" from a Ph.D psychologist; it must be from a medical doctor with an MD. If your student requires Home and/or Hospital Instruction, contact your site Attendance personnel for assistance or Alternative Programs at 858-748-0010, Ext. 2063.

PLEASE NOTE THIS STATE MANDATE:  If a student is in a hospital located in a different school district from the one in which the student’s home is located, there must be an inter-district transfer agreement to the district where the hospital resides, if the hospital’s school district is to provide the instruction.

Those wishing to be placed on the tutor list for Home/Hospital Instruction must be a CURRENT PUSD teacher or substitute to apply, and must be PUSD Board of Education approved specifically for the Home/Hospital program. To apply, contact Alternative Programs with your name and full contact information.