Chicago Offers a Blueprint for Expanding Urban Internet Access

Across the United States, tribal lands have the lowest access to internet, an issue that restricts opportunity and education in those areas. In New Mexico, several small tribes have partnered to lay fiber-optic cables that connect the libraries, which serve as primary sources of internet connection, to faster, cheaper internet.

Since Upstart launched in rural Utah in 2009, 30,000 children have completed the online personalized preschool alternative from their homes. Upstart provides participating families with computers and internet access in addition to planned group gatherings intended to simultaneously encourage students' socio-emotional development. Following Utah's success with the program, an additional seven states are now piloting the model.

Online kindergarten readiness certificate programs in several states are offering low-income families, without reliable preschool programs, an alternative to expensive private care centers. Acknowledging criticism of the model, a North Carolina State Representative noted, “We simply don’t have the money to provide a quality pre-K experience to every child in North Carolina, even though I absolutely agree that a face-to-face, high-quality pre-K is the best option. But when it’s not an option for the child, I refuse to ignore that child.”

As colleges and universities across the United States have shifted to online classes and shut down their campuses, not every student simply has the ability to move home. To help support these students, many of whom are low-income or international, the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project began working with local communities to find housing for displaced students, as well as to provide other support like money or supplies.

Upon seeing a need for educational resources to support the out of school transition due to the COVID-19 outbreak, two high school seniors in the San Jose area stepped up to fill that gap. Sarika Sriram and Uditha Velidandla coordinated 90 volunteers to offer free tutoring in a range of school subjects. So far, over 350 students have benefitted from these comprehensive online learning sessions.

To reach kids who must stay at home as a result of the coronavirus and may not have access to reliable internet, teachers in Tennessee's Shelby County schools are recording easily accessible TV lessons. Though teachers can no longer get the same level of feedback from students or adjust to their on-the-spot questions, the lessons are to some degree interactive and aim to reinforce lessons students learned before schools went remote.

When the coronavirus pandemic shut down school buildings and led to many people working from home in New York City, a city child care program was launched to give children a place to go while they were learning from home. However, the program failed to accommodate children with disabilities who required the assistance of a paraprofessional. After realizing the gap in care, the city is now working to increase access.

Chicago Connected is a $50 million four-year program that has already provided high-speed broadband to over 40,000 households in need, representing around 64,000 Chicago public school students, and plans to expand. On-the-ground community outreach in multiple languages was key to connecting residents to the program quickly, which was needed as school went virtual due to COVID-19. The public schools helped identify eligible low-income students whose parents were then contacted by outreach workers.

Liberty Cleaners co-created a curriculum to train immigrant women workers about tech education, green cleaning, and workers’ rights. As the first women-led workers’ hub in the country, the group is organizing and enabling its members with skills that can ensure they receive the fair wages, opportunities, and respect they deserve but are often denied.

A data analyst who is a Microsoft-certified trainer uploads videos on social media teaching digital technology skills in the Yorùbá language. The videos are free to watch and break the language barrier that arises with most English-only tech information available online.