CT Delivered 141,000 Laptops To Students In Coronavirus Outreach

CONNECTICUT — The state is the first in the nation to provide learning devices to every student who needs one, Gov. Ned Lamont said Wednesday.

Lamont called the news conference to announce the delivery of 141,000 laptops to students in need in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. The achievement was the capstone on the state's $43.5 million "Everybody Learns" initiative, launched in July.

The program used funds from the federal CARES Act to buy 82,000 laptops and spark 44,000 at-home internet connections for students across the Connecticut. It followed in the footsteps of nonprofit organization Partnership for Connecticut's spend of $24 million in March to provide 60,000 laptops to needy high school students. Combined, these two initiatives have invested more money per student in remote learning since March than all but Mississippi and Alabama, and makes Connecticut a leader among Northeast states, according to Lamont.

"Over the past eight months, we made significant progress in closing digital divides, especially for students of color and those in low-income communities," Lamont said.

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Since the outset of the pandemic in the spring, every local school district has been sharing data with the State Department of Education on the number of students who indicated that they were without a learning device or internet connection in their homes.

"This is definitely the single greatest collaboration between schools and families in the history of education," said Manchester Schools Superintendent Matthew Geary. The news conference was held at Manchester High School.

No state has claimed to be the first to fully close the digital divide. Maine is the closest at this time given its small gap size (8,000 students) and investment in 7,500 computers and 14,000 internet-enabled tablets.

According to a senior official in Maine’s Department of Education, Maine is currently conducting a second survey to estimate the gap, but will not know for sure whether the gap is fully closed until December.

"We are now leading the nation in removing the tech barriers that stood in the way of every child receiving a world-class education," said Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona. "While today’s milestone is one to be celebrated, we need to continue leading with a laser-like focus on accelerating learning and prioritizing equitable access to high quality content, especially for our most vulnerable students."