Connecting Kids announced today that the coalition formed under the governor’s COVID-19 Task Force has reached and connected every K-12 student in Nevada participating in digital learning, whether full- or part-time.
In all 17 of the State’s school districts, as well as State- and district-sponsored charter schools, every student participating in online learning due to COVID-19 restrictions has confirmed at-home access to the internet and a computer.
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This represents enormous progress in closing the digital divide since Connecting Kids began its work in early August, when schools were unable to confirm connectivity for more than 120,000 of Nevada’s nearly half a million public school students.
The governor’s COVID-19 Task Force formed Connecting Kids in early August as a Statewide public-private coalition including businesses, school districts, State agencies, local municipalities, non-profit groups, education advocacy groups, chambers of commerce, food banks and other organizations to address the immediate and time-sensitive need to connect every kid so they can participate in digital learning at home.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jhone Ebert said Nevada is one of the first states in the nation to confirm that every student participating in digital learning is able to connect to school. Prior to this milestone, some students learning from home in Nevada had been sitting outside of restaurants, libraries or even WiFi-equipped school buses to participate in online school.
In addition, many students had been sharing family-owned devices during the school day or relying on cellular data plans to connect to learning.
