Nov 9, 2017, Hartford Courant: Investigation: Too Many Students Languishing In Home-bound Program http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-child-advocate-investigates-homebound-program-1108-story.html Hundreds of special-needs children across the state who could be in school are instead languishing in an obscure tutoring program called Homebound that is supposed to be used as a last resort, according to a report by the Child Advocate’s Office released Thursday morning. Child Advocate Sarah Eagan examined 17 of the state’s 206 school districts for the 2014 and 2015 school years. There was an average of 550 kids in Homebound in each of those years for the 17 districts – a number that Eagan said she found alarmingly high. Included in the total were 120 elementary school children. Eagan said the students, on average, were staying in Homebound too long. Some remained in the program for more than six months. Designed for children too ill to attend school, the program’s borders have meandered over time to encompass kids with autism, depression, attention deficits, and intellectual disability…. Yet the child advocate’s investigation found that children who were approved for special-education classes in school were still placed in Homebound instruction – “for non-medical reasons.”…
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