SACRAMENTO – (INT) – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced Wednesday that the California Department of Education (CDE) is collaborating with Apple and T-Mobile to connect up to 1 million students in need.

Most schools across California expect to begin the next school year with distance learning.

The California Department of Education (CDE) estimates more than 700,000 students still lack computing devices and another 300,000 lack hotspots to connect to the internet and make distance learning happen.

Closing the Digital Divide Task Force is identifying new resources and partnerships to help equip all students with computing devices and connectivity as schools prepare for the new academic year.

The task force says more than $5 billion is available in the state budget to school districts to acquire devices, strengthen distance learning and address learning gaps. There is a multi-million dollar initiative spearheaded by Intel Corp. to support online learning.

Story Date: September 17, 2020