Deciding on an action research project

This week has been full of ideas and ups and downs, trying to decide what I am going to do my action research project on.  I had to do a lot of thinking outside of the box as many of the examples that were in the text and posted by colleagues do not pertain to my particular situation.  I am somewhat limited to what I can conduct my action research on as I do not work on a campus.  While it is somewhat limiting I am also able to explore other topics that administrators on a campus do not normally able to look into.  I have access to many different campuses throughout the district at different grade levels and different socio-economic status levels.

Tha action research project that I have decided to conduct to inquire what kind of supports are currently in place and how we can improve upon those supports for students who are homebound when they return to campus.  As a homebound teacher, I see how easily some students fall behind while they are on homebound.  We see our students 4 hours a week each week for the duration of their time on homebound.  In 4 hours we are expected to teach the instruction given in an entire week of school.  The students are expected to do a good amount of work on their own besides the 4 hours, but they only actually have teaching and support during that time.  Also, many students who are on homebound are very sick, many times they are undergoing chemotherapy or are recovering from surgery so they also miss class time or are just too sick to work.  All of these things factor into students falling behind on their school work despite both their Teacher of Record and their Homebound teacher's best efforts.  My inquiry would involve trying to find out what the campuses are doing to help support these students once they are well enough to return to school.  What kinds of programs do they have in place?  Is tutoring available?  Is there remediation that can be done?  What else can we do as a team when they are on homebound?

Conducting this type of action research will first and foremost benefit our homebound students.  It will hopefully help them get back on track as quickly and easily as possible once they return to school.  It will be very interesting and beneficial to the campuses as well if I am able to get suggestions and ideas or come up with a plan on how to best help these students and share it with our campuses throughout the district.  Hopefully with my action research I can set up a plan that will make the transition back to school a successful one for all of our homebound students.