Home room - American Education

A classroom where a specific group of students from the same grade meet each day with their assigned home-room teacher for administrative functions such as attendance taking, submission of student excuses for previous absences or tardiness, school announcements and collection of student monies for a variety of special purposes. The concept of the home room evolved following early 20th-century curricular differentiation in secondary schools, with students moving from room to room to study different subjects under teacher specialists. By grouping students from the same grade alphabetically in homeroom classes at the beginning of the day, schools assure themselves that they can account for all students and present them with all school announcements.
The home room is unnecessary in most elementary schools, where students of each grade remain in one room most of the day for instruction by a single teacher generalist. In addition to its administrative purposes, home rooms also serve as opportunities for group and career guidance and other nonacademic learning experiences. In secondary schools with heterogeneous populations, the home room permits students normally grouped by academic ability to gather for one period each day by grade and by alphabetical groupings within each grade.