In the beginning of the school year, senior Aaron Amezquita, wasn’t able to come to school because he had a torn meniscus all the way to his kneecap. Pace set up a program so that he was able to complete his work for the eight weeks while his leg was healing from surgery.
Amezquita said, “They gave me Google Classroom to do work on, and I was doing it, but the moment I got back to school I saw that I was failing my classes, I didn’t know why.”
He felt like the transition from online to in-person school was too different. He felt like he didn’t have enough help with the transition. “There wasn’t that much communication with teachers.”
There are multiple programs dedicated to helping students so that they don’t fall behind. But the one specifically made for people who can’t attend school due to an injury is called the Medically Necessary Instruction.
Unfortunately, Amezquita didn’t qualify for the program and didn’t get the extra help he needed.
The Medical Necessary Instruction program provides extra online instructional time Monday through Friday and some Saturdays from 4 to 8 p.m. It also provides real teaching in-person, actually visiting a student’s home, but the teachers only teach up to three classes.
Students’ health should be taken very seriously no matter what the injury is, something that seems minor like it’s just a hurting leg can turn into weeks of missing school. No student should be so behind that they are failing all their classes and it wasn’t by choice. But if it comes to that then the Medically Necessary Instruction is one option for students.