19,000 students who requested devices from the city still don’t have them


Five weeks after New York City moved to remote learning, 19,000 students who requested devices still don’t have them. The education department has pledged to deliver them by the end of the month.

Department officials and educators have been mobilizing to fill the technology gap — mailing hard copies of assignments home, dropping off 175,000 devices that schools already owned, and distributing 231,0000 of 300,000 newly purchased iPads since online learning began.

Despite that massive mobilization, big challenges remain. The department is still working to ascertain the true number of students without devices. Many students have gone weeks without consistent access to schoolwork and have slipped further behind their peers. Even families who are now getting devices might have difficulty getting up to speed using them. On top of that, many low-income families may be dealing with food insecurity, job losses, and disproportionate health impacts of the coronavirus.

Read the Chalkbeat Article here.