Lack of access to technology hindered students

When classes went online, thousands had no device or WiFi

When the coronavirus pandemic hit Connecticut in March, forcing schools to rapidly shift to distance learning, Raquel Smith’s five children were all given laptops to complete their school work from home. There was just one problem — the internet connection at her Hartford apartment wasn’t strong enough to support five simultaneous Zoom calls with teachers, instructional videos and other online programs.

“If three kids were on, it would boot the rest of the kids off or reboot the router. Two of my kids would have to get up at midnight to complete their work,” Smith said.

Smith’s problem isn’t unusual for families who lack the technology that learning at home requires. A new survey released by the state Department of Education shows that 29,000 Connecticut students did not have access to reliable WiFi and 50,000 did not have access to a device.

The issue was even greater in urban school districts, where students were five times less likely than their suburban counterparts to have a computer or tablet or phone to do school work on and three times less likely to have the necessary WiFi connection.

As the state prepares to reopen schools this fall, the learning divide exacerbated by the pandemic shines new light on an old education story in Connecticut.

“COVID-19 is unprecedented and we’re all navigating this for the first time, but the notion of unequal access is not new,” state child advocate Sarah Eagan said. “But it is starker and more urgent in the context of this pandemic … the pandemic has laid bare a shameful inequality for our children that is untenable and unsustainable and immoral.”

The first step, Eagan said, is for the state to decide whether access to technology is a basic need.

“We have to first and foremost determine whether the state will be responsible for ensuring that all children have access and equal opportunity to engage in education and a meaningful education,” she said. “Is technology a luxury in the age of COVID or is it a basic need and a civil right?”

Technology as a basic need

With a return to distance learning a possibility in the fall, education advocates agree that having a