Looking Back, Looking Forward: What it will take to permanently close the K-12 digital divide

This is the third in our series of reports on the digital divide with Boston Consulting Group, and presents a clear roadmap for closing it once and for all. The report offers new and more granular detail on the root causes of the digital divide, cites work by many other groups in this field, and shows that previous COVID relief efforts have still left millions of kids caught in the gap and have funded mainly short-short-term solutions that are set to expire. Beginning on page 14, you’ll find federal and state policy solutions to address this issue that impacts an estimated 16 million students and 400,000 teachers nationwide. It is our hope that, taken together, this report and the two that preceded it will spur policymakers and stakeholders at the federal, state, and local levels to embrace the student digital divide with the sense of urgency that it deserves and act quickly to close the digital divide now and keep it closed.