Schools Work to Speed Up Internet in Rural Homes for Remote Learning

School districts and cities across the country are racing to bridge a digital divide that has existed for decades. At least 39 states have said they would use funds from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act to help school districts close the tech gap. The fixes can be fairly simple. School-district and municipal IT departments are using technology that has been around for years, such as solar-powered antennas to transmit Wi-Fi, or wireless broadband, closer to more peoples’ homes. With fresh funding comes more elaborate fixes, such as extending a school’s network infrastructure right to students’ doors.

The hardest part is determining exactly who needs access. School districts survey parents about their internet needs but don’t always get a high response rate. Administrators can narrow down which students are likely to be in need based on the families that qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. Some districts are pairing that data with geographic information system software—a technology used for decades to draw school boundaries and create bus routes—to map out neighborhoods with the highest concentration of families with bandwidth needs. That enables districts to place radio or broadband antennas strategically to have the broadest reach. Districts also can look at internet service providers’ coverage maps to determine who might have connectivity, but they aren’t always accurate.