Keep Calm and Connect All Students
Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Digital Transformation in Learning¹
At the Office of Educational Technology (OET), we have had the privilege of seeing firsthand the work of thoughtful, reflective innovators collaborating with education leaders and students to explore new learning models, new digital learning environments, and new approaches to working, learning, and sharing.
Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness
As schools and colleges implement COVID-19 closure and remote learning measures, we have witnessed the leadership of the thousands of teachers, professors, librarians, school and campus staff, building and campus leaders, school district leaders, and state education leaders taking action to support millions of students and their families and communities during this uncertain time. We’ve seen school librarians emptying their shelves to send books home with students and bus drivers delivering meals to students along their routes.
Your Resolve
We commend education leaders for making difficult decisions and supporting those students from low-income communities who are already underserved, as they will feel a disproportionate impact, and for grappling with issues of equity — ranging from access to the Internet and devices, to accessibility of technology tools for students with disabilities, to access to meals.
As vendors and service providers inundate the education community with a variety of offers for low- or no-cost technology tools and resources, we will be highlighting information and resources that can support effective use of technology and provide excellent remote learning experiences for all students. Our primary goal now is to support students, families, and leaders to address immediate and pressing concerns as they pivot to remote learning.
We want to begin by highlighting the 3 important considerations when pivoting to remote learning —
Access to the Internet & Devices at Home
Access to affordable Internet and devices outside of public school buildings remains a barrier to remote learning for many students. Some students and families may not be able to afford home Internet access, or they may live in a community where broadband connectivity is not available. Additionally, students and families who rely on accessing the Internet at their local public library, community center, or business (e.g., coffee shop) will be particularly hit hard during the current crisis as anchor institutions close their doors and social distancing recommendations and isolation policies are heeded.
Mobile Hotspots
To quickly ramp up access to the Internet, district leaders, institutions of higher education, and public libraries are considering loaning mobile hotspots to students and families. The following Department programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA) provide funds that may be used to support access to devices for students (e.g., tablets, computers) and mobile hotspot devices and data plans²:
● Title IV, Part A³
● Small, Rural School Achievement (SRSA)
● Rural and Low-Income School (RLIS)
● Impact Aid, 7002 and 7003(b)
● Promise Neighborhoods
Low-cost Internet Programs⁴
Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer Internet packages for low-income families that cost about $10/month. The non-profit organization EveryoneOn serves as a clearinghouse for this information, allowing users to search for low-cost internet, affordable computers, and digital literacy training on their website based on their zip code. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, over 200 broadband and telephone service providers and trade associations have taken the FCC’s Keep Americans Connected Pledge to ensure that Americans do not lose their broadband or telephone connectivity as a result of these exceptional circumstances.
Device Access
Other students may have home Internet access, but still have difficulty completing homework because they share a single computer with multiple family members or may only have access to a mobile device. Organizations such as PCs for People refurbish recycled computers and provide affordable technology to low-income individuals and families.
Data Privacy & Security
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records, and the personally identifiable information (PII) contained therein, maintained by educational agencies and institutions that receive funds under any program administered by the Secretary of Education⁵. Educational agencies and institutions should carefully review the Department of Education Student Privacy Policy Office presentation “Student Privacy — FERPA and Virtual Learning During COVID-19,” which presents 10 common scenarios and questions about FERPA.
Educational agencies and institutions may also find helpful the Terms of Service (TOS) Checklist. The following technical assistance guidance provides a framework for evaluating TOS agreements for warning signs and potential illegal practices, and best practices for protecting PII from student education records:
Protecting Student Privacy While Using Online Educational Services: Model Terms of Service
For additional information, the Departments’ Student Privacy Policy Office offers educational agencies and institutions, and families examples, training, and other assistance in navigating privacy concerns through the Privacy Technical Assistance Center.
Accessible Educational Materials
Schools and colleges are required to ensure that the technology they use is fully accessible to individuals with disabilities or otherwise provide equal access to the educational benefits and opportunities afforded by the technology⁶. In addition, education leaders are required to ensure that all apps and tools meet the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended in 1998, such as conformity with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.
The Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) have provided a resource for school districts and clarification of misunderstandings that these federal laws prevent schools from offering remote learning opportunities for all students, including students with disabilities.
The POUR principles of Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust are helpful when determining whether resources meet these requirements. For example, initiatives such as Bookshare, allow eligible learners with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other print disabilities to customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading.
In addition to enabling students with disabilities to use content and participate in activities, technology developed following the principles of universal design for learning can accommodate the individual learning needs of students such as English language learners, students in rural communities, or from economically disadvantaged homes.
Our Resolve
These are challenging times, but as schools rise to the occasion, the Department stands ready to assist you in your efforts.
The CARES Act provides $30.75 billion in emergency relief funds that the U.S. Department of Education will provide to States, school districts, and other entities. Of that, approximately $13.5 billion will be used for K-12 emergency relief grants, $14.2 billion for higher education, and an additional $3.5 billion would be reserved for governors to use and distribute based on local need. We will continue to share information with the field as it becomes available.
The National Education Technology Plan and the Higher Education National Ed Tech Plan highlight a holistic set of factors for school and district leaders and institutions of higher education to consider as they plan long-term for the effective use of technology for learning. At OET, we will continue to explore long-term solutions and opportunities for the technology we deploy to truly allow everywhere, all the time learning for all students and empower education leaders, families, and students to connect and care better for one another.
Please reach out to us at tech@ed.gov or via Twitter @OfficeofEdTech and let us know how we can continue to support you in this time. All Department of Education information about COVID-19 is available at: https://www.ed.gov/coronavirus.
² Please note: The allowability of costs is always situation and program specific. For that reason, if you decide to use funds under one of these programs for costs related to device or mobile hotspot access, you must be sure that the use of the funds is, under the specific circumstances of the expenditure and the program authority selected, reasonable and necessary for the purposes of that program, and does not violate other program requirements, such as supplement not supplant, if it applies to program. We also note that, while funds under one of these programs can be used on device or mobile hotspot access in some appropriate circumstances, the programs’ purpose is not primarily focused on that issue.
³ A Special Rule in the Title IV, Part A, Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) program states that no more than 15 percent of funds for activities to support the effective use of technology may be used “for purchasing technology infrastructure as described in subsection (a)(2)(B), which includes technology infrastructure purchased for the activities under subsection (a)(4)(A).” To clarify, LEAs or consortiums of LEAs may not spend more than 15 percent of funding in this content area on devices, equipment, software applications, platforms, digital instructional resources and/or other one-time IT purchases. (section 4109(b) of ESEA, 20 U.S.C. § 7119(b).
⁴ Please note that the organizations named in this section are being provided for your convenience as a potential resource for parents, students, schools, teachers, and other educators and education leaders to use during this challenging time. They are not in any way associated with the U.S. Department of Education, and we do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of their services or their information. Furthermore, the inclusion of any hyperlinks and the content presented is not intended to convey their relative importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed or products or services offered. The Department does not control, direct, or encourage any particular curriculum or the information related to curriculum, and do not have views on whether of any stakeholders should use any particular service or information. The use of services or information by a school or educator is strictly a State and local matter.
⁵ The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records, and the personally identifiable information (PII) contained therein, maintained by educational agencies (for, e.g., school districts) and institutions (i.e., schools) that receive funds under any program administered by the Secretary of Education. Among other things, FERPA provides students and parents with certain rights to access their education records and to seek to amend their education records. FERPA also generally prohibits educational agencies and institutions from disclosing student education records, or PII contained therein, without the prior written consent of parents or students (if 18 or older or in attendance at an institution of postsecondary institution), unless an exception applies. Under one such exception to FERPA’s general written consent requirement, educational agencies and institutions may non-consensually disclose PII from education records to third parties, such as online educational service providers, if such third parties meet the criteria for constituting school officials and have been determined to have “legitimate educational interests” in the education records, pursuant to criteria set forth in the educational agency’s or institution’s annual notification of FERPA rights, and certain additional conditions set forth in 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(1)(i) are satisfied. In addition, FERPA includes provisions that generally require educational agencies and institutions to maintain a record of each such non-consensual disclosure of PII from education records with the education records of the student for as long as the educational agency or institution maintains such education records. 34 CFR § 99.32(a)(1).
⁶ Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.
