Home instruction allows students to stay at home to work on their school work and learn what they are missing while they are absent due to medical needs.

For Amanda Eichman, Spencer Jefferies, and other students on home instruction, this helps with their schedule in case they have doctor visits. In addition, home instruction allows breaks.

To receive home instruction, a student needs a valid reason on why they need to stay home.

Eichman had an extensive surgery which kept her on crutches for weeks and Jefferies is out due to a sports injury.

For Eichman, home instruction has been a blessing in disguise.

“It’s been really awesome because I learn the material better and the teachers know I have a health problem,” Eichman said.

She feels this is the best situation because she doesn’t get stressed out that she has had an extensive absence.

“It worked really well when my actual teachers came, I was able to get ahead in the material,” Jefferies said.

The home instructors can be the students’ regular teachers, teacher aides, tutors, or teachers from outside the school depending on the students’ schedule. 

“The other great thing about home instruction is that the home instructor is able to teach the student at their own pace and give extra practice so the student can understand a concept better,” Eichman said.

However, home instruction is not always a positive experience.

“When the home instructor wasn’t one of my teachers or just a teacher aide, there was a lack of communication,” Eichman said.

She also cannot always see her friends because they are busy and are in class during the school day.

Eichman also said that some assignment, not weighted heavily in the gradebook, seemed “pointless.” 

In Jefferies case, he was two weeks ahead of his peers in many classes.

To improve home instruction, Eichman suggests her home instructors pick the most important assignments to give to the student so they wouldn’t have to do extra work that didn’t matter.

She also wanted her home instructors to email her more so there was better communication.

“I’d probably want my actual teachers to come instead of having the aids,” Jefferies said.