17 Million Students Lack Home Internet. With No Relief From Congress in Sight, Schools Deploy an Awkward Mix of Buses, Mobile Hotspots to Get Them Online

Rolling Wi-Fi-enabled school buses into neighborhoods and distributing personal hotspots to families were part of Washington's Central Kitsap School District's rapid response to getting families online once schools closed in the spring. But such programs have limitations and don’t always provide students the high-speed connections they need for Zoom classes and completing assignments — especially if there are multiple students in the home. While the problem permeates much of rural America, the lack of broadband can even be an issue for students living in tech hubs.

Across the country in California’s Santa Clara County, Lorena Chavez is working as part of a coalition to expand free community Wi-Fi. The effort began six years ago, but in that time, the attendance area for only one of seven high-need school communities was connected. A second community was connected this in Aug, and a third should be hooked up by Dec. “We’re Silicon Valley. You think we have everything,” said Chavez, a school board member in the East Side Union High School District, in San Jose. “It’s crazy how some of these discrepancies exist in our community. Now this is a basic need, like water and energy, to survive in COVID.”

The lack of internet service is not limited to students. According to Common Sense Media, 400,000 teachers in the U.S. lack internet service. But the University of Virginia/EdTech Evidence Exchange survey showed that teachers are expecting their reliance on technology to increase — not only this fall with many schools still operating remotely, but also over the next three years as they continue to address learning loss related to the pandemic.