State is assessing where to deploy free Wi-Fi and Chromebooks

On April 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that Google is donating 4,000 Chromebooks and 100,000 WiFi hot spots to students in rural areas to support distance learning. But it is still unclear exactly how the California Department of Education will distribute the Chromebooks and Wi-Fi devices. State education officials are now in the process of collecting and analyzing data about where students lack access to the internet and devices, according to Kindra Britt, spokeswoman for the California Department of Education. “Once we have the data, we can begin to make decisions about distribution,” she said.