Anyone know anything about public school homebound teachers?

[BamaTanya]

You may remember that I'm teaching in an interim gifted/talented slot this year. I found out there will be an opening for a homebound teacher next year. These teachers go to hospitals and student homes when students are unable to attend school because of health reasons.

 

As a lady who needs a job, I'm tempted to apply.

 

It's such a small group, I don't know anyone who has done this. I can't ask what it is like.

 

A couple of cons are obvious:

* working with students in difficult/sad situations (could be heartbreaking)

* traveling into areas where you might feel uncomfortable

* varied workload (many levels of teaching - not unlike homeschooling!)

 

The pros, of course, would be working with one student at a time and streamlining/fitting assignments to each student's individual needs.

 

Can anyone give me more insight?

 

tia

[Jeannie in NJ]

I am looking into homebound teaching next year. I looked at the regs for New Jersey. The requirements are a teaching certificate (which I have) so you may want to check your state's Dept of Ed. website to see what the requiements are.

 

Also, according to the regs, each child that is homebound taught will have instruction from 5 hours up to 10 hours per week. The homebound teacher is paid $30.00 per hour.

 

About 15 years ago, my neice was taught by a homebound teacher. The teacher at that time only came 3 times a week for a hour each time. The teacher actually ended up becoming a friend of our entire family and when my son went into a language delayed preschool a few years later, she ended up being his classroom teacher for 3 years.

 

Anyway, in this area, since a teaching certificate is required, a lot of the teachers use it as an inside way to eventually get a full time classroom teaching job with the result that there are always openings here for more homebound teachers.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I can't really give much insight. I had a homebound teacher for several weeks after my first child was born (doctor gave release to start back at school at 6 weeks). She gave me the work, made sure I did it all, and gave me new work. Of course, it was 12th grade so maybe they do a bunch more handholding with a 6 yr old. I would suspect so at least.

 

ETA: I forgot. My hubby was homebound for several months (most of the year) in 6th grade due to illness. It was that situation that made him friendly towards homeschooling our own children. I don't know what all was his experience though.

Edited January 15, 2009 by 2J5M9K

[shell in SC]

I think you'd be a great homebound teacher. I think most homebound teachers don't really "Teach" like they should. DD was on homebound off and on after her accident and it really caused her significant problems. All the homebound teacher did was drop off the assignments and pick them up. There was VERY LITTLE instruction, so DD wasn't learning the new concepts and got behind. . .hence why we just started homeschooling.

A teacher that really wanted to teach would make that position such a blessing for many!

[Mandamom]

it in my area and spoke with a friend who did it for several years. She really liked it. The biggest problem being that it wasn't very consistent and most of the parents wanted the teacher there during the after school hours because many times the parents were working and the child was home alone. It ended up filling up her time between 2-5 pm.

 

She also had difficulties dealing with some of the teachers who weren't too thrilled to make the effort to get the work to her in a timely manner. Also, for the most part she really wasn't expected to teach the work just give it to the student and basically check in on him/her.

 

She really liked working with the students which was the best part of the work. The only reason she quit was she had to get another more consistent job.

 

I pretty much decided to do it but got too lazy about applying for the job and then my tutoring schedule became overly filled so I'm now glad I didn't.

[athena1277]

My cousin (8th gr?) had a homebound teacher recently after being injured in a car accident and unable to return to school for a couple months. Her mom said the teacher spent almost all the time on English, which was not a difficult subject for her, instead of math which was. They were rather disappointed in the teacher.

 

My point is this - if you do become a homebound teacher, be ready to teach all subjects, even the harder ones like algebra.

[Jeannie in NJ]

I had forgotten that in the NJ regs, an adult family member has to be at home whenever the homebound teacher is there. I assume this in so that the teacher can not ever be accused of anything inappropiate so if both parents work, this could mean going there at night?

[Mommyof4ks]

We have not had a homebound teacher, but as a family living in cancer land we know many kids who have. Some teachers are good, some not. The way I understand it is supposed to work is that the child gets an aloted amount of time per week with the teacher, and the teacher is supposed to sit down with the child and teach them lessons and leave homework. As a homeschool Mom who is used to this method (minus homework perhaps) you will be a great match! Your desire to teach the kids as oppsed to just getting a paycheck will go a long way!

 

As far as it being heart breaking, perhaps, because some of the kids do pass away, but kids have such beautiful hearts. We know several kiddos with cancer who were smiling and laughing until the day before they passed. Often the terminal kids are taken off of homebound status, so you would not see the worst of it. There are many other kids that are on homebound for other reasons too, so not all of them would be sick. You would have to get used to seeing kids in a bad spot though, and that can be difficult at first. Their smiles will light up the room though!

 

Good luck!

[katalaska]

Since I worked during school hours, obviously all of my homebound teaching was done after school. I had one student who was homebound for medical reasons and another who was homebound while her parents argued with the school district over her placement and special education services.

 

In one situation, because the child had never really been to school, I was the one (in conjunction with his parents) who came up with his educational plan. I brought a variety of different things to do each time I went to his home. The mother was always home and I never met the father. The siblings were also home, which made things a little bit tense because everyone wanted to see what the little brother was doing and the mother had to keep them out of the way (or else I had to include them).

 

In the other situation, the homebound student was actually in after-school-care at a friend's house. The friend's daughter was in my class at school (which probably had something to do with how I was assigned to teach the girl). Again, after school hours, I would go to my student's home to teach the girl who was a friend of their family. In this situation, I was given the things I was to teach but had a lot of latitude in terms of how I presented the material. The biggest challenge with this student was that the mother who was providing the after-school-care loved to talk about her own child (who was in my class at school) and to talk to me, period!

 

The money was very good (very helpful in a time when we were barely making ends meet) but I feel that as a teacher it was less fulfilling...like I didn't and couldn't do enough for these kids.

 

The families were very welcoming (and I felt very comfortable since it was the mothers who were at home). Both of them fed me dinner at least once!! :) They appreciated my efforts and I enjoyed working with them.

 

My only other experience with homebound was when the boy across the street from me was in a three-wheeler accident and broke his legs so severely that he had to stay home in bed for several months. In that case the homebound teacher brought him his assignments from school and basically checked in on him. I do not think there was much instruction actually involved; he was in 8th grade at the time so he was pretty independent.

[saw]

My mother, a former ps special ed teacher, volunteers one day a week at a children's hospital. The kids she teaches usually have work given by their regular school and she teaches them using this curriculum, so she has to be flexible in terms of subject matter, approach and level. She has been doing this for several years and loves it. She's met some fantastic people and, although it can be sad at times, I think from what she has said that the children are very inspiring. If she were more available she would be teaching more days.

 

S.

[flyingmommy]

My son had a homebound teacher his senior year after he was in a car wreck and had his fractured hip repaired. He couldn't put weight on it for three months and sitting in the wheelchair was agony for him.

 

The school board found a fantastic homebound teacher for him. The man even spoke Italian (my son was in Italian 2). The teacher was a middle school math teacher, so he came to our house in the afternoons. We got him two afternoons a week for I think around an hour and a half to two hours at a time. He was very dedicated to giving my son the teaching he needed while he was out of school. We loved him and my son learned a lot from him.

 

I think a home schooling mom would make a great homebound teacher. Good luck to you if you choose to go that route!

 

Jeannie

[LNC]

My son had a homebound teacher for 3 years - k through 2. He has tracheo broncho malacia and his pulmonologist wouldn't let him attend school. I would have homeschooled anyway, but with the dr. insistence I was able to get homebound speech, ot and a special ed teacher from the school and private therapists in my home for years. He had 2 home appts. a day for an hour each for 3 years!

 

The downside was the actual teacher only came 1x a week. Speech and ot was more often. I had to basically homeschool him anyway. We were just working on letters, numbers, HWT, and colors/shapes - more preschool type things bc of his dev. delay.

 

I think it would be a great job! There are kids with severe respiratory diseases that can't be in classrooms, but need assignments. Also, surgical recoveries and things like that. I would love that job actually!

[bettyandbob]

I did this many, many years ago.

 

I'll give you some cons

-you are paid for the hours you work with the student, not the hours you prep to do lessons or labs with the student.

-depending on your school system, you may or may not get reimbursed for mileage--find out, before signing on.

-figure out how much money you need to make. Homebound instructors are hourly in my district--full time is not possible, no benefits. If you think you will get the hours you need for the amount you need to earn, you need to figure in your travel time. Since you may only get 1-2 hour blocks with each student and you may have to drive some distance between students, your teaching and driving time can quickly add up to a full time committment without fulltime pay. Additionally, you'll have wear and tear on the car.

-you won't be able to be as flexible in scheduling as you want to believe. You are dependent on when the family can have you. I did this so long ago, that a parent was not required to be home, so with teens the parents often were not home. Now, there's no way I'd do it without a parent present.

 

Working one on one is a definite plus. I enjoyed my homebound students. Now, your making me think about doing this again.