EDUCATION
School closures are leaving students without
home computers o r I nternet b ehind
BY KATIE REILLYhen new York CitY Closed sChools
to c ombat the coronavirus outbreak and
ordered remote learning for its more than
1 million students, English teacher Steph-
anie Paz wasn’t worried about how she
would virtually teach her ninth-graders
to take notes in the margins of their books or how they
would discuss each other’s essays without being in the
same room. Her biggest concern was whether t hey would
have the basic technology needed to access their virtual
lessons.
Paz teaches at a school in the Bronx, where she says
more than half her students did not have a computer or In-
ternet a t h ome when the transition to online learning was
announced in mid-March. The school handed out laptops
to s ome s tudents but did not have enough for e veryone
before remote learning b egan on March 23, s o o thers got
paper learning packets.
“I a m c oncerned that, in 2020, all of our students don’t
have access to technology or Internet at home,” Paz says.
“I worry that, as a district, we haven’t prioritized that. And
as a nation, we haven’t prioritized that.”
She is right to be concerned. As the virus t hat c auses
COVID-19 spreads, the nation’s K-12 schools and col-
leges have been forced to weigh health recommendations
against the needs of students, many of whom are caught in
the d igital d ivide s eparating those who have Internet ac-
cess a nd t hose who do not. About 15% o f U.S. households
with school-age children lack high-speed Internet access,W
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LEARNING DIVIDE
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