When remote classes began for Boise students on Monday, roughly 9,900 — or 39% — went without the Chromebooks the district had promised them in June. But a delayed shipment of 13,000 Chromebooks the district ordered in May is set to arrive Friday, said Dan Hollar, the district spokesperson.
The Chromebooks must be processed before they are distributed, Hollar said, so a small portion of the laptops will be distributed beginning early next week. The rest will go out “soon after,” Hollar said.
A recent study from the State Board of Education found that over half the K-12 students in Idaho do not have access to a remote learning device at home. After distributing 8,600 Chromebooks in the spring and 7,000 in August, the district is confident that all students who expressed a need for a computer have one, Hollar said Tuesday.
The remaining students who haven’t yet received district-issued devices have likely used at-home devices to attend class. All district students eventually are expected to have district-supplied devices as part of a one-to-one device plan.
Students without reliable internet at home to access their classes can expect to receive their district-issued internet hotspots soon. After shipment delays, the district announced in a tweet Thursday it has received 1,000 wireless internet hotspots. There are 28,521 students and 2,739 teachers in Idaho without internet connectivity, according to the State Board’s survey.