A familiar refrain from the spring has returned: Thousands of students aren鈥檛 showing up for remote learning as a new school year begins, and schools are continuing to scramble for short- and long-term solutions.
As of Sept. 2, 73 percent of the 100 largest U.S. school districts had chosen remote learning only as their back-to-school instructional model, affecting more than 8 million students, according to Education Week鈥檚 school reopenings database. Many more districts are offering hybrid instruction, a mix of in-person and online learning.
More than 3,600 public school students in Cincinnati have been so far. 69传媒 in Flint, Mich., are tracking down who weren鈥檛 showing up for virtual instruction. More than 40,000 students were missing during . And many of New York City鈥檚 114,000 students living in shelters or doubling up with family and friends are as they get ready for school to start next week.
What accounts for all these missing students? Many still lack the basic technology they need at home to access virtual school.
Thousands of laptops are on back order due to supply chain shortages and federal government-imposed sanctions on Chinese computer manufacturers that have used child slave labor.
The country鈥檚 response to millions of students鈥� lack of home internet access, meanwhile, has been chaotic and patchwork, with school districts, states, private companies, and the federal government offering some relief while falling short of a comprehensive nationwide solution. In West Virginia, for instance, schools are using grant funds to purchase hotspots because between 30 and 50 percent of the state鈥檚 students don鈥檛 have internet access at home, the .
The tech shortages prompted some districts, including and in Pennsylvania, to push back the first day of school from Aug. 31 to Sept. 8. Others have forged ahead, supplementing virtual instruction with paper packets and face-to-face opportunities.
For some schools, getting students connected isn鈥檛 as simple as distributing devices and hotspots. The Augusta district in Maine is unable to hand out more than 5,000 Chromebooks sitting in storage because of a licensing glitch between the vendor and Google, the Kennebec Journal .
In Cleveland, district officials last month that many students with home internet access still can鈥檛 access learning opportunities because their download speeds can鈥檛 accommodate the heavy data load. The local internet provider Cincinnati Bell has partnered with the district to offer free internet to all students, but families have to jump through several logistical hoops before they can access the service, district officials said.
Months of disrupted school experiences and persistent tech inequities threaten to leave students from low-income families, students of color, and rural students . The NAACP鈥檚 Legal Defense and Educational Fund has described its advocacy for getting students connected as 鈥渟chool desegregation work.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 one of those problems that we have known was an equity issue since way before COVID,鈥� said Elizabeth LeBlanc, co-founder and CEO of the nonprofit Institute for Teaching and Leading, and the curriculum and data coordinator for the Taos Academy Charter School in New Mexico. 鈥淩eally it was just a collective failure of will to resolve it while the stakes were lower. Now the stakes are higher and we鈥檙e really behind.鈥�
Here鈥檚 how four districts are working to keep students learning despite the challenges and complications.
Denver: Identifying Needs and Redistributing Resources
In July, Denver school district officials began that many digital devices likely wouldn鈥檛 be available until well into the fall. Denver鈥檚 schools were 鈥減otentially up to 6,000 devices鈥� short, said Amber Elias, the district鈥檚 lead operation superintendent.
During the first week of school, school leaders urged families to return any school-issued devices they didn鈥檛 need, particularly if they already had working personal devices they could use instead. The district also established a 鈥渂uy-back program,鈥� reimbursing individual schools for devices they had purchased this spring before the district took over laptop acquisition efforts, and then carefully redistributing those devices to families who needed them most.
鈥淲e had to make sure families that had been issued devices for learning weren鈥檛 feeling pressure to turn devices back in or share devices across students,鈥� Elias said.
Virtual attendance in the district was around 90 percent late last week, a district spokesperson said.
Elias said she鈥檚 hopeful that more live virtual instruction and fewer confusing technology platforms this school year will mark an improvement over the chaos of the spring. The district has also developed a more sophisticated attendance tracking system that will highlight daily attendance rates among specific student groups, 鈥渟o that we continue to understand who is accessing remote learning and who is not.鈥�
When the 6,000 devices eventually arrive, they鈥檒l serve as useful backups, Elias said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to need a natural stock in the building of devices [for students] who may forget their device at home.鈥�
Brea Olinda, Calif.: Bringing 69传媒 to School, and School to 69传媒
When the Brea Olinda district in northern Orange County, Calif., shut down in March, about 1,000 device requests came in from among the district鈥檚 6,000 students. Those numbers slowly crept up as the long-term reality of distance learning set in, said Kerrie Torres, the district鈥檚 superintendent.
The district has now distributed 1,700 Chromebooks and 150 hotspots. The latter have been particularly useful for low-income families and households with as many as six or seven children sharing the connection, Torres said.
The district鈥檚 proximity to a canyon means some families can鈥檛 access the internet at home whether they have a hotspot or not, even on a smartphone. Some students have made arrangements with the district to do virtual school, including Zoom meetings, outside on campus during the school day, supervised by a teacher or principal who can give them help and answer questions.
But not all families have the time or means to transport their students to the school building each day. To keep them from falling behind, the district is planning to take advantage of its state mandate to keep bus drivers employed by sending homework packets on buses to students鈥� homes.
Martinsville City, Va.: Hotspots Are Only a 鈥楾emporary Solution鈥�
At Martinsville City schools in Virginia, 77 percent of households answered an internet access survey in July. Roughly 16 percent who responded said they either don鈥檛 have internet access or it鈥檚 not strong enough to stream live instruction.
As in the Brea district, homework packets have been filling the gap, said Steve Tatum, the district鈥檚 director of instructional technology. Tatum鈥檚 team has also helped teachers load digital content from online courses onto flash drives, which parents can pick up at the school building each week.
鈥淥bviously, you can鈥檛 do that with a video, you can鈥檛 do a hard copy with a video, but you may be able to do a hard copy of a PowerPoint presentation,鈥� Tatum said.
Tatum considers those measures 鈥渁 temporary solution,鈥� and believes providing working internet access is an urgent priority. This week, the district began making appointments with families to test Wi-Fi hotspots with the school鈥檚 tech team on campus so they can be sure the devices will work at home. The instructional technology team has also set up separate help desks for elementary and middle/high parents and students to call when they encounter issues.
Finding every family remains elusive, though. Some didn鈥檛 have a phone number on file with the school, or the phone number that was on file no longer works. 鈥淲e had to build this airplane as we fly it,鈥� Tatum said.
Taos, N.M.: Uniting the Community
In the rural New Mexico community of Taos, hotspots alone won鈥檛 close internet access gaps. Elizabeth LeBlanc from the Taos Academy Charter School helped establish a working group of families and community organizations that have pledged to set up or identify 100 places in the area鈥攃hurches, libraries, town facilities, grocery stores, gyms鈥攚here K-12 students, regardless of which school they attend, can go for internet access.
Taos Ski Valley, a village resort that has seen fewer tourists than usual due to the pandemic, has offered its facilities for schools to set up academic support and learning labs for students. The University of New Mexico鈥檚 Taos campus has also been accommodating, LeBlanc said.
LeBlanc鈥檚 school has designed the academic year with the possibility for tech glitches in mind. 69传媒 are required to log in at least twice a day, two days a week, but 鈥渨e鈥檙e not following our bell schedule, so they鈥檙e not logging in five times a day,鈥� LeBlanc said.
More broadly, with prospects dimming for additional emergency federal funds for schools, LeBlanc is concerned about school budgets that were supplemented with CARES Act funds this summer but simultaneously faced cuts from state and local governments. Getting students technologically capable of engaging in remote instruction is of the utmost importance, she said, but schools can鈥檛 shoulder that burden on their own.
鈥淚t鈥檚 something that should be up there with food, water, and having shelter,鈥� LeBlanc said. 鈥淚t takes outside funding. It takes thinking about it in an entirely different way.鈥�
Photo: Spencer Hollers at the Southside Independent School District in Texas works to equip buses with Wi-Fi to help students without access to the internet. (Eric Gay/AP)