The good news is that LAUSD has been providing computers and internet access to these students. The bad news is that many will still reject it because of the 'what ifs'. https://twitter.com/PalmTreesnGz/status/1247182182293975041

I've mentioned before how our parent group spent YEARS begging LAUSD to give computers and internet access to our low-income students and they ignored us. They did wind up getting Chromebooks for some kids. They went to the richer schools first.

By the time Chromebooks and iPads were offered in our areas, the first thing we noticed was how many parents flat out ignored our letters home offering them.

After a month, of almost no responses, I held a workshop for parents about the computers and opened up to questions. The main concern was "Do we have to pay for them if they get damaged or stolen?"

Turns out, with so many kids in and out of the house, they've already been burned on the ridiculous book replacement fees and a computer is that much more expensive.

The fact that the computers were tied to one kid was another big issue. One mom had a 3rd grader, 5th grader, 8th grader and 10th grader. Only the 5th grader was offered the computer. The other kids couldn't use it.

The 3rd biggest concern: Lack of tech skills. A lot of the parents has no idea of how to even find a file on the computer. The only tech they had was their phones and they were only using like 5% of it's power.

I held several workshops on basic computer skills, apps/software, and social media over the course of a 2 years. A lot of the parents did get comfortable enough to feel like they could get a computer, but it was still a much smaller number than we expected.

Keep in mind, that even before we started asking LAUSD for this stuff, we had already surveyed parents and something like 97% of them said that a computer in the home would help their kids be better in school. Only about 6% of those actually took a computer.

LAUSD should be more proactive in pushing the fact that they do have computers and a partnership to add internet access at home, but they also need to do A LOT of work to make sure parents are also up to speed on what they need to do.