Tech support and broadband for all are part of next phase for Oakland students and families

Oakland Undivided, a partnership of nonprofits, the City of Oakland and Oakland Unified, has achieved an initial target to close the digital divide: 98% of Oakland’s low-income public school children will start the school year with a computer and working internet at home, compared with 12% before the pandemic. The nonprofit raised $13 million to distribute 25,000 Chromebooks and internet hotspots, it said.

But, with the resumption of in-person instruction next month, the organization will shift to the next stage, not close up shop, the news site Oaklandside reported.

“This is a great first step, but we have a lot more to do,” Oakland Unified Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell said.

The next steps include maintaining an inventory of laptops for all schools to have laptops on hand and providing tech support for families.

Through Sydewayz Cafe, an Oakland information technology business, the parent advocacy group The Oakland REACH has offered tech support to hundreds of families in its virtual family hub. In the fall, it will give students and families more intensive training in technology, Executive Director Lakisha Young told Oaklandside.

That will be critical as a third of The Oakland REACH parents polled said they hadn’t decided whether to return to school or pursue a remote learning independent study option that Oakland Unified and other districts must offer as an option, Young said.

Young said the next phase should be to replace hot spots with more reliable and powerful broadband through the city. “Hotspots are not connectivity, they’re back-up connectivity. If we’re going to set folks up, they have to have broadband. Without that, there will keep being a deficit around technology.”

OakWifi, a city initiative, is providing free Wifi in parts of the city through fiber optic cables, lying next to city transit lines, that can reach homes and businesses within a radius of 1,200 feet. The next phase is to extend Wi-Fi to more neighborhoods though interconnected wireless nodes at schools and city facilities.