Connect the Dots
Internet connectivity, and its massively outsized role in our lives amid the pandemic, is something too many of us take for granted.
For many underserved children, however, nothing could be further from the truth.
A recent study estimates that 31% of U.S. households don’t even meet the minimum requirements for broadband access. While the bulk of those are rural users, this remains an issue even in high-density urban areas. There, students may live in large apartment buildings, shelters or other buildings where individual Internet access isn’t easy to acquire. One recent example in Phoenix, AZ involved three seniors, worried about graduation, huddled together under a blanket outside a nearby school to finish their homework using the school’s internet. Bandwidth is another issue, even in homes with internet access can prove problematic when multiple children are simultaneously doing schoolwork with parents also working from home.
The digital divide is at its most disruptive when students are both literally and figuratively “cut off” from their peers due to lack of broadband access. That’s why it’s more crucial than ever to have a multi-tiered plan to address this lack of connectivity for students in your district. Administrators and district decision makers must:
Engage technology providers who have established partnerships with major carriers. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile form the backbone of our national mobile connectivity grid. They’re also ideal to engage for strategic deployment of devices and support to address these challenges.
Obtain and deploy individual mobile hotspots to families. Be certain that you have the partners and inventory necessary to deploy mobile hotspots at volume to serve your students.
Percentage of students 5 to 17 years old, by internet access at home and poverty level
National Center for Education Statistics
