The second anniversary of pandemic-related school closures has passed, and we all know students have suffered major learning losses. Yet some students in Missouri still don’t have the technology they need to access education.
As the founder of TOTES 4 Tomorrow, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting individuals experiencing homelessness, I want my community to be a place where all can thrive, especially those who are traditionally underserved and under-resourced. As a parent of four children in St. Louis Public Schools, I know students needed technology to learn over the last two years.
At times during the pandemic, my kids’ entire schools were virtual only. Other times, my kids had to attend school virtually due to quarantine. Even when my kids have been learning in person, they still use iPads or Chromebooks in their classrooms, and they need devices to do homework.
School districts can make pandemic education even more difficult for students by refusing them access to technology when their parents can’t afford to pay technology fees. At some point after we turned my now-fifth-grader’s device into his school at the end of the school year, it was damaged. We were still charged a fee for the damage.
My son was told that he couldn’t have another device until we paid a $320 fine. Trying to figure out how to clear up this mistaken charge was confusing and infuriating. I had to speak multiple times with the technology specialist at my son’s school and with administrators at the district office.
Eventually, I was able to advocate for my son and obtain another from his school. But I know other students are still unable to get devices because of outstanding technology charges. For example, pencil lead got stuck in my son’s friend’s iPad port when it was in his backpack. The school told his family they had to pay a $320 replacement fee before he could use another iPad. Like my son, this child did nothing wrong. He was penalized and could not do homework due to these unfair charges. Because this happened when schools were frequently closed due to the omicron variant and bad weather, this child had no way to access school for many days.
Fines for lost, stolen, or damaged devices are huge barriers that create inequitable access to technology. District communications to families, including mandatory technology agreements, often leave them feeling helpless and lost. Many districts still have not adjusted their technology practices—for example, to provide clarity around long-term consequences and data tracking—to the “new normal” of technology in education.
There is so much families don’t know: Could hundreds of dollars in technology charges prevent a student from graduating? Are students of color, students with disabilities, and/or students experiencing homelessness being disproportionately affected by technology barriers? Do insurance options exist that could shift the entire burden of repair and replacement costs away from families?
In the process of advocating for my child and for other students who lack technology for school, I connected with the Education Justice Program at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, which recently released a white paper on the issue of technology access in education. This paper shares the real stories of families like mine and uses public records requests and legal analysis to explore the issue. This paper shows us the problem with inequitable technology access in our community. All Missouri students deserve equal access to the technology they need to learn and succeed in school, whether their families have the resources to pay fines or the time to advocate persistently like I did. I hope we can now start talking about how to increase equity in education by equalizing access to technology.
Tiffany Nelson is the Founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization, TOTES (Today’s Outreach To Encourage Spirits) 4 Tomorrow. TOTES 4 Tomorrow serves those who are homeless or near homelessness.
