In Rural Virginia, Remote Schoolwork Is Powered by the Sun

At least 40 percent, or 2,000, students from Lockhart ISD didn’t have access to reliable internet. To address the issue, the school district built seven towers. They also installed antennas on individual homes so they can receive the signals from the towers. As a result, 1,300 students got connected. “This is about equity,” Estrada said. “Every one of our Lockhart Lions needs to have access to the opportunities they deserve to grow and truly thrive.”

Around 20% of high school students in rural Moulton Independent School District in Texas don't have the vital internet connection they need to complete their assignments. Students at Shiner Independent School District, also a rural area school, faced similar issues. Both districts teamed up with Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, a non-profit utility company, which distributed 20 unlimited data hotspots to Moulton at a $40 monthly cost, as opposed to $200+ cost. Along with individual mobile hotspots, GVEC also turned the Shiner school parking lot into a larger hotspot.

The Rochester School District in New Hampshire has figured out a way to connect students with limited or no internet access during the pandemic—school bus hotspots. The school district has equipped nine school buses with a mobile hotspot that delivers internet within a 300-foot range, each parked within an identified area of need, all at no cost to families.

Texan cities, like McAllen and El Paso, are bridging the digital divide for students and building infrastructure to connect whole communities. In El Paso, the city used $150,000 of the $84 million it received in federal funds to purchase hotspots, which are now available for check-out from public libraries. In McAllen, the city has taken on the $1 million annual cost to provide Wi-Fi to the entire city.

Evictions can have devastating effects on a student’s access to education, forcing some to drop out of school. In Delhi, a city in India, a school was built by students, community members, and volunteers using locally-sourced materials. The community had been forcibly removed from their homes, and the students were left without a school.

School districts and cities in California are looking to create their own local Wifi networks as a long-term solution to the digital divide, and an alternative to hotspots. Some are even becoming internet service providers themselves (ISP) — efforts, they say, that will make it easier to provide internet access to those who can’t afford it.

In Jackson, Michigan, 1 in 5 children have access to wifi through school buses. Out of the roughly 5,000 children, 70 percent qualify for free and reduced lunch. The buses guarantee they have reliable access to the internet during a pandemic. The buses park outside apartment complexes, a homeless shelter, and the rec center from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s just one way the school district is adapting to student needs during a health pandemic.

In Denver, learning pods are helping students access virtual classes during a pandemic. At the Adams 12 school district, 4000 students, district-wide, participate in the pod. Similarly, HOPE Online Learning Academy Co-Op launched a learning center. Students can sit in a classroom, access Wi-Fi, and count on the support of an adult. They also distributed 600 computers, 400 webcams from PCs, and 1,077 laptops to enrolled middle and high school students.

In South Carolina, 180,000 households don’t have access to Wifi, according to estimates. A problem for students who are trying to attend virtual classes. Using CARES funds, the state purchased hotspots. In one county, almost all of the students are connected. “The hotspots are working well, with just about all of the county’s 77,000 students logging on to learn.”

In order to bridge the digital divide one school district in Virginia is putting Wi-Fi routers on its school buses. They call them Smart Buses. They buses drive out to neighborhoods where students don't have access to fast, reliable internet. “Four of the Smart Buses go out every day. Each can serve about 40 students, covering about three-quarters of the need in the district.”