Access to remote learning poses hurdles for students in D11

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- District 11 in Colorado Springs is among one of the largest districts in the city, serving students from diverse backgrounds, but not everyone has access to the internet needed for some types of distance learning.

"We have all kinds of students, demographics, populations in our school district. We have 26,000 students in our school district so there are a lot of different needs across our populations," said Devra Asby, spokesperson for District 11.

With public libraries now closed and the state under a stay-at-home order, not having a computer or internet is increasingly a detriment for students.

"We've identified tech plans and no-tech plans. So we have some teachers who are making lists of what families need. And we're using U.S. mail to mail out packets of information to those families," she said.

With school closed for more than a week already and potentially the rest of the school year to go, they're working on closing the digital divide.

They've ordered over 2,000 laptops and Chromebooks for students who aren't able to access their online school work. But finding and reaching the students who need the tools the most has proven difficult.

"We did send out a survey online and a phone survey to determine those needs," Ashby said.

She says in total they received about  6,000 responses, but are also keeping in mind that most responses are skewed to families with access to the internet.

"Our phone survey was a little more indicative of families who may not have technology at home. From those surveys we found we need to delve deeper and that's why our teachers were reaching out this week via phone, email and sometimes face-to-face interaction as well," she said.

On top of that, Ashby says they will be working to make computers safe for kids by adding school firewalls.

They hope to identify families who need help within the next few weeks, to be able to send out the devices in mid-April.