Beaverton School District, Sprint Corporation To Award 400 Students Internet Access Annually

BEAVERTON, OR — School may be out for the summer, but Beaverton School District officials want parents to know about an opportunity for high school students beginning in September.

Thanks to a grant award from the Sprint Corporation, the Beaverton School District for the 2017-2018 school year will award wifi hotspot devices and up to 3GB per month of internet connectivity to 400 eligible students. The devices, officials said, will give a leg up to students who may otherwise struggle to complete assignments that require internet access — a practice that's becoming all the more common in a world hurtling toward a digital future. (Sign up for our free daily newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Beaverton Patch)

"More and more, things are going paperless," district spokeswoman Maureen Wheeler told Patch. "Students need to be prepared for that by using the latest technologies."

To help low-income students across the country gain access to the internet — where roughly 7o percent of teachers are now assigning homework — Sprint partnered with the Sprint Foundation to fund the Sprint 1Million Project, which seeks to put internet-connected devices into the hands of 1 million high school students nationwide.

Click here to read Sprint's letter to parents about the program.

Beaverton was awarded 2,000 hotspot devices that will provide wireless service for up to four years to students in grades 9 through 12. The district will award the devices to 400 eligible students each year for the next five years.

But what makes a student eligible for the award?

"We're prioritizing students in high school who don't have adequate access to internet," Wheeler said, noting the district will accept applications from all parents but will likely focus on students who may also be eligible for free or reduced lunches. "It's an equity and access issue that we're trying to solve."

All applications will be held until the start of each school year, when the 400 students will be selected, Wheeler said.

Many students who don't have reliable home internet access have told district officials they go to coffee shops, libraries, restaurants, and other businesses to use wifi to complete their homework assignments. Even parent access to school resources and student information is mostly done online now, Wheeler continued, adding that report cards and school registration are also transitioning to an electronic format.

From college and financial aid applications to social services, health care, and employment, so much is done online now that students without home internet are cutoff from success, district officials said.

"Everything is online — bills, shopping, movie tickets, you name it," Wheeler said. "That's why we got to move in the direction our world is moving."

A Parent Consent Form is available (online) for interested BSD parents. The form can be returned to the front office of the school your student will attend in the fall.

Image: Tomasz_Mikolajczyk via Pixabay.com