Schools used federal COVID aid to provide students with Chromebooks and other personal devices they use in school and at home. But with the COVID dollars gone, a state report presented this week shows 82 of 115 school districts and 101 of 221 charter schools/laboratory schools and regional schools can’t afford new devices.
State Board of Education members and their advisors said something needs to be done to ensure that schools can continue to provide every student with their own device that is also up-to-date.
“More and more, technology has been integrated in the instruction in the classroom, and for teachers to do that effectively every student needs their own device,” Cumberland County Superintendent Marvin Connelly, an advisor to the state board, said on Wednesday.
LAPTOPS NOW PART OF DAILY INSTRUCTION AT NC SCHOOLS
But things changed in 2020 when schools switched to online instruction during the pandemic. Schools across the country used one-time federal COVID relief aid to purchase devices, usually Chromebooks, to give to students to use at home.
Now all 115 school districts and 75% of charter schools, laboratory schools and regional schools give a device to every student.
“Through devices, students are able to engage in the standard course of study in a very interactive way that they hadn’t gotten with pen and paper,” said Ian House, a student at Green Hope High School in Cary and an advisor to the state board.
Laptops are now used on a regular basis in class. They’re also used on remote learning days when students work from home due to weather emergencies.
“Access to technology is an issue of equity,” said Kimberly Jones, a Chapel Hill High School teacher and advisor to the state board. “It’s not an extra for our students.”
$160 MILLION A YEAR TO REPLACE COMPUTERS
It’s recommended that schools replace devices after four years, according to Ashley McBride, a digital learning initiative consultant at the state Department of Public Instruction.
But 71% of school districts told DPI they don’t have money to update their devices.
Some schools are so worried about computers being damaged that McBride said they require students to leave them at school if they have a device they can use at home.
It would cost $160 million a year — at $400 per device — to enable schools to provide new devices every four years, according to McBride.
The state board is considering asking the General Assembly to provide money to help cover the cost of replacing the out-of-date devices. The state board is working on its budget request for this year’s legislative session.
“I would argue that these computers and devices are just as essential in the past as textbooks and chalkboards and all of the basic elements that our teachers need and our students need,” said state board chair Eric Davis. “It’s incumbent upon our state as the primary funder for our public schools to provide funding for these devices.”
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