How Santa Fe, New Mexico Adopted Remote Learning During Crisis

Like many schools throughout the US, when the coronavirus forced Santa Fe (NM) Public Schools (SFPS) to go online, this 12,000-student district quickly put together an implementation plan and went to work. Though Santa Fe has pockets of wealth, New Mexico is one of the poorest states in the country, and the Santa Fe school district’s free and reduced lunch rate is 75 percent. But the district has received significant community support through a property tax-funded Educational Technology Note. These monies have allowed the district to implement a one-to-one laptop program for students in grades six and above, hire digital learning coaches, upgrade district technology infrastructures, and make other significant technology purchases in support of student learning. At the beginning of the pandemic, over 500 SFPS students reported they didn’t have the home Wi-Fi necessary for remote learning. So the district has gone several routes to address this issue: Working with the city of Santa Fe to install outdoor Wi-Fi hot spots at several district schools in neighborhoods of greatest need, and ordering 500 Wi-Fi mobile hot spots for students’ at-home use.