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Vermont schools are finishing out the academic year during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing remote learning for students.
But top educators say that many students lack reliable internet connection, presenting a major challenge for teachers and students.
Jay Nichols, the executive director of the Vermont Principals’ Association, told the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday that the state’s schools are doing the best they can to provide students with remote learning within an infrastructure that is “quite frankly built on inequities.”
He said the biggest issue with remote learning has been internet access, with some students in rural areas having only poor connection, and others lacking it completely.
Nichols also noted that some families want to limit the time their children spend in front of the computer screen.
These factors have led many teachers to focus on offering what he called “packet learning.”
“It leads to worksheets, books being sent home, games, activities, directions — that’s all stuff that can help,” Nichols said.
But he also added that “it can be a nightmare for schools to put it together to try to get it out to parents, and it’s not the best learning.”
Nichols said that the state needs to continue to expand cellphone and broadband access throughout Vermont, and called it a “real equity issue for the state.”
“And if we don’t tackle that, then it’s going to be really hard to support kids if we go through another crisis like this in the future,” he said.
The Vermont Agency of Education does not know how many students live in homes that lack an internet connection. School officials in the Northeast Kingdom have already said they expect 25%-30% of students don’t have internet access.
But Deputy Education Secretary Heather Bouchey said Tuesday that the state will have a better idea when schools submit their “continuous learning plans,” which are due on April 13.
These plans will detail how schools will be carrying out remote learning in the coming months, and will have to include methods of instruction for students who lack access to the internet.
Jeff Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, told lawmakers Monday that families in the same school district often have varying access to broadband. He pointed out that in Thetford, for example, less than 3% of families lack broadband connections.
But in the town of Newbury, which is in the same supervisory union, 30% of students don’t have internet connection.
He said that he’s getting requests from superintendents to ask the state to fund or require telecommunications companies to provide emergency broadband connections for the families of students that don’t have it.
He also pointed out that with parents working from home and multiple household members sharing the same broadband service at once, it may make it difficult for students to maintain a good connection for remote learning.
“The fact that you have connectivity does not mean that you have connectivity consistently for the learner,” Francis said.
Francis said that in general, the pandemic has put the educational system under “extraordinary stress.”
“We are in a period of crisis response where we need to do our absolute best to serve children but the expectations for the system cannot be the same as they would be under normal circumstances,” Francis said.
In recent days, some local internet providers have started providing free broadband service to families of students who lack it.
The Springfield-based telecommunications company VTel is offering free service to families that don’t already have internet connections through the end of the school year.
The company has already installed 35 wireless connections and 65 fiber connections for families of students.
It has also donated 100 wireless routers to children in the Rutland City School District.
“Where we can, we’re providing service through the end of the school year,” said Gordon Mathews, VTel’s vice president of legal and regulatory affairs.
ValleyNet, the nonprofit company that operates ECFiber, a community owned fiber optic network that serves more than 20 towns and 3,000 households in eastern Vermont, has also started offering free internet for families of low-income students.
The company is installing and providing internet service at no cost for families of students who are eligible for free and reduced school lunch through the end of the school year.
Chris Recchia, ValleyNet general manager, said he has received a list of 50 to 60 students from local schools who lack internet connection, and has connected half a dozen households so far.
Consolidated Communications is offering households with students who are new customers free internet for the next two months, Jeff Austin told the finance committee.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the company for which Chris Recchia is general manager. It is ValleyNet.
