School District Deliver Home Broadband to Students

School District Delivers Broadband to Students’ Homes

Millions of Dollars from the Federal Emergency Connectivity Fund Remain for Public Education Broadband Applications

During the pandemic, the FCC made $7.2 billion dollars available to fund off-campus broadband applications through the Emergency Connectivity Fund. After a second and third round of funding, the FCC announced on July 27th, 2022 that they would make an additional $77 million available to address the “homework gap” in remote learning.

The School District of Hazelton, Pennsylvania took advantage of this opportunity to provide home internet access for up to 1,000 of their students. The Pennsylvania school district will provide in-home routers and broadband coverage to their students who lack reliable internet coverage, while also hoping to raise interest in the Hazleton Area Cyber Academy.

In late July, the Hazelton School Board decided to acquire as many as 1,000 routers along with a year’s subscription to Verizon’s internet service for their students. They decided to go with Cradlepoint routers from their E100 series, which deliver cost-effective routing, security, traffic shaping, and Wi-Fi coverage.

Families whose students attend Hazelton schools will be required to sign statements that their children need home broadband coverage.

Providing internet to the homes of all the students in their district has been a goal of the Hazelton, PA school district since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Recognizing that many pupils lacked access to internet coverage, they have been working since then to bridge the digital divide in educational opportunity.

Prior to this initiative, the district could offer Internet access in the parking lots outside of some schools, but many students were still left behind— they remained offline while their peers met virtually in classrooms.

Although in-person learning has returned to Hazelton, they recognized that the problem of students without home broadband coverage was not confined to the pandemic.

It is essential that all students in the district be able to access remote learning during virtual snow days or if district schools need to close following incidents such as a broken boiler—which shut down Hazleton Area High School for several days last winter.

In addition to virtual classrooms, these days students need broadband internet access to complete homework assignments. (This is why lawmakers and public school officials refer to the problem of bridging the digital divide in education as the “homework gap.”)

Teachers Struggle with Homework Requiring Internet Access

Teachers and school administrators have long struggled with the issue of assigning homework that requires students to possess a computer and internet access because many students across the United States do not have them.

There’s no doubt about it—access to a computer and a reliable internet connection is no longer a want, but a necessary utility, similar to electricity and water in the home. Public school students across the country are being asked to complete and turn in their homework assignments via the Internet.

The Hazleton School District recognizes that this is the new reality in public and private education. Yet, still many students struggle because they can’t afford broadband service.

In Hazleton, PA school administrators are hoping that the new routers in students’ homes and yearlong subscription to Verizon will spark interest in their newest initiative: the Hazleton Area Cyber Academy.

The Hazleton Area Cyber Academy allows students to take classes with Hazleton teachers, participate in extracurricular activities, and even receive their diploma, the same as students who attend regular, in-person classes.

Embracing remote learning as we have embraced remote work will mean that public and private schools across the country will have to ensure that their students have the equipment and broadband access necessary to make the virtual classroom a consistent feature of education going forward.

USAT Works to Close the Homework Gap

At USAT, we’ve worked with countless schools and districts across the country to deliver the internet access their students need to be successful. We’ve collaborated with schools to install purpose-built mobile routers on their buses so students can complete homework on the way to and from school.

We have the capability and experience to provision, install, and select the best routers for any school district looking to provide home broadband access for their students. Our routers from top manufacturers like Cradlepoint and Sierra Wireless come pre-activated for Verizon and other carrier networks.

With USAT, all your students have to do is plug in one of our routers, and they’re ready to learn.

Contact USAT

USAT can help public and private educational institutions update, manage, and replace cellular hardware for fixed and mobile applications with new 4G and 5G devices from top-tier manufacturers like Cradlepoint.

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