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New Jersey Schools Issuing Laptops in Case of COVID Surge

Many school districts across the state have started giving students laptops again this year, which will help them with homework assignments but also accommodate a quick pivot to remote learning if necessary.

New Jersey schools 2.jpg
Brianna Thorn demonstrates a sign language letter to one of her remote learning students at Lillian Drive Elementary School in Hazlet in April 2021.
Ed Murray/NJ Advance Media for
(TNS) — Rafaelina Benitez was happy her son, Bryan, received a laptop last year while his Camden charter school was offering remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic. It helped him complete assignments, interact with friends and stay connected to teachers, she said.

She’s equally — if not more — elated that he will be reunited with his peers for in-person classes in September. But she’s still hoping the high school student will get to hang on to his laptop, just in case he ends up having to learn at home again.

“I am worried about him being exposed. You never know where others have been, but after a year of remote he needs this. We hopefully don’t have to go back (to remote learning), but we’ll be ready if it does happen,” she said.

Across New Jersey, many school districts say all students will be issued laptops again this year with the dual purpose of helping with homework assignments and making the potential shift to online learning much smoother.

Public schools in the Garden State are not permitted to begin the year with virtual classes, state officials have said. Still, state guidelines say when coronavirus makes in-person instruction impossible, districts should provide an at-home learning option, “in a manner commensurate with in-person instruction to the extent possible.”

That should be helped by the progress New Jersey has made as far as technology access, officials said.

Last summer, New Jersey estimated about 350,000 students lacked either a device or Internet access at the close of the 2019-20 school year, based on a survey of districts — including roughly 231,000 low-income students. This past March, Gov. Phil Murphy announced the closing of the state’s digital divide, affirming that every New Jersey student should now have a laptop and Internet access for online classes.

Several school district officials said they have already provided laptops to students, will distribute them when the school year starts or have devices at the ready in case remote instruction is needed.

Ahead of the school year, Murphy said he expects districts to return fully in-person. On Monday, Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver — who touched on the safety of children ahead of in-person instruction — shared statewide case figures thatcontinue to trend up in large part due to the virus’ Delta strain.

District officials said last year’s mix of in-person and remote learning forced them to learn how to prepare for a switch to at-home classes.

“One of the things that has been beneficial for us as a district throughout this whole COVID pandemic experience is that it forced us to really have a strong plan of action for conducting remote learning in a way that met the academic needs of our young people — and that includes having devices to do that,” Camden Superintendent Katrina McCombs said.

Camden’s 6,800 students spent most of last school year under a remote model — transitioning K-8 students to a mix of in-person and online in the spring.

McCombs said the district collected laptops and tablets when the academic year concluded. It provided Chromebooks to students in summer programs, but later collected those as well.

The district’s technology team will ensure all devices work, are clean and updated prior to being redistributed in September, McCombs said.

In Newark, the state’s largest school district with over 40,000 students, families have held onto devices since receiving them in the spring of 2020.

Back then, Newark school officials handed out over 20,000 computers — only asking students who were transferring out of the district or graduating to return them.

“We wanted to make sure that if, in fact, we had to go remote the very next day, we didn’t have to then re-issue Chromebooks at the start of the year to students. We wanted to outsmart the virus,” said Superintendent Roger León.

León said that the district was able to achieve a 1:1 format — in which every student has a school-issued tablet or laptop — as a result of the pandemic.

Both Camden and Newark school officials said wide availability of hot spots for fast Internet speeds remains a priority. Camden worked with Comcast and Newark partnered with Altice to increase Internet access.

Millburn Township Schools, Hawthorne Public Schools and Hazlet Public Schools are also among the districts that say they have a computer for every student.

Several districts have also taken advantage of additional technology tools, including the Lakewood school district,where every classroom now has a webcam installed to improve virtual interactions. At Cherry Hill High School East, students were asked to, “continue to utilize (devices) to further your learning and pursue interests during the summer break.”

In Union Township and Franklin Township last year, “students took their devices home each day in case we had to move to remote learning at any given time,” said Superintendent Nicholas Diaz, who heads both districts, which include over 600 students.

“The rationale was both academic and the potential of an unexpected quarantine — need to go remote. We also gave out about 15 hot spots for families who had Internet issues,” said Diaz.

Diaz said that laptops will be re-distributed on the first day of classes.

The Paterson school district, which has about 28,000 students, began its work to close the digital divide when the pandemic hit in 2020.

“Having overcome many obstacles to provide devices and Internet access to thousands of students in time for the start of the last school year, it was decided that students would keep their devices until they graduate high school,” Paterson schools spokesperson Paul Brubaker said.

Brubaker said the decision was made, “as a matter of practice,” because devices are often used for classwork and not over how the instruction format may shift during the school year.

Elizabeth school spokesman Pat Politano said the district, which early in the pandemic provided technology to all students in need, has distributed over 29,000 devices encompassing its entire student body. Laptops for older students and tablets for kids in Pre-K to kindergarten, because they don’t use the keyboard as often.

Politano said all families have Wi-Fi — 80 percent have T-Mobile hot spots and 20 percent have cable modems to keep students connected.

In Jersey City, which has close to 30,000-students, families have received and held onto laptops as well.

“We do have the blueprint for (remote instruction) that we used last school year… so that if the worse happens we will be ready,” said Norma Fernandez, deputy superintendent of Jersey City schools.

©2021 Advance Local Media LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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