Food, Internet Access Are Priorities for Georgia Students

Staff from the Georgia Department of Education shared a statewide public education update June 15. Two key issues came to the forefront quickly for school districts across the state, said Tiffany Taylor with the Georgia Department of Education. Those were providing students with continued access to school meals and ensuring families have access to internet connectivity and digital devices for distance learning. The state education department surveyed schools at the start of the pandemic to find out how many students would have access devices outside of school. They learned that 528,000 devices need to be purchased statewide to put laptops into children’s hands, and 187,000 MiFi devices, which provide personal Wi-Fi, are needed because of the high number of students who do not have internet access at home.