Despite push, hundreds of thousands of students still don’t have computers at home
For the first time ever, the vast majority of California families say their kids have personal computing devices that they can use for school. But even after a year of distance learning, thousands of students still don’t have a computer or access to the internet at home.
After schools had to close their buildings last spring due to Covid-19, most pivoted online, forcing districts and state officials to rapidly shore up resources for extra computers and Wi-Fi hot spots for students who didn’t have their own devices or internet access at home.
Following an outcry from districts, the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation, a private nonprofit fiscal manager for the California Department of Education, launched the Bridging the Digital Divide Fund to raise money to buy technology. The fund prioritized small, rural districts with high numbers of low-income students.