California school districts can now apply for funds to help close the digital divide

California school districts scrambling to afford technology and other distance learning supports before school starts can now apply for a portion of a $5.3 million fund created to mitigate learning loss during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Since schools closed in March, California education officials have made closing the digital divide a priority by requesting and collecting donated devices as well as funding to purchase technology. As of July 17, the state had distributed over 56,000 laptops and 94,000 Wi-Fi hot spots, according to the California Department of Education. 

But hundreds of thousands of students still remain without laptops or internet connectivity. California still needs more than 700,000 laptop devices and 350,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, according to Mary Nicely, senior advisor to California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.

“School will open in just a few weeks, and we know most of our districts will open with distance learning,” Thurmond said in a digital divide task force hearing on Thursday. “We have to really move quickly to continue to make a dent in the number of folks without a computing device and hotspots and we need to have a longer-term conversation about the need to build infrastructure.”