How to reach students without internet access during coronavirus? Schools get creative

This article about students without internet access at home was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.On the Friday before spring break at Meigs Middle School in Decatur, Tennessee, special education teacher Matt Coe was busy preparing new lessons for his students now that schools were set to close because of the coronavirus crisis.But while many districts around the country have moved to remote learning platforms like Google Classroom, Coe was using the school’s copy machine to put together printed packets for his students to take home. In this rural Tennessee county of just 12,000 residents, online learning simply isn’t an option for most families.“A lot of our kids don’t have internet access,” said Coe, who knows students who routinely head to the library or the town’s McDonald’s to get online.The Federal Communications Commission estimates that about 21 million Americans lack broadband access, while an independent research group reports that the actual number may be twice as high. For those not able to make the trip, school buses have been converted into mobile hot spots, and will be stationed throughout the district, offering free broadband.While these efforts are important and meaningful, everyone acknowledges that the learning challenges facing students extend beyond simply receiving educational materials, whether they come on paper, over the airwaves or in gigabytes.“There’s a lot more distractions when kids are at home than when they’re sitting in a classroom,” said John Windhausen, executive director of the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition, an advocacy group for wider internet access.