DOE Says 250,000 iPads Are Now In Students' Hands, Meeting Mayor's Deadline
May 6, 2020, 5:28 p.m.
The city Department of Education says that it’s met Mayor Bill de Blasio's deadline, just as Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that remote learning would continue for the rest of the academic year.
In recent weeks Mayor Bill de Blasio repeatedly vowed that hundreds of thousands of New York public school students who need devices to connect to remote learning would have that technology in hand by the end of April.
That amounted to a $269 million purchase of 300,000 iPads, procured through Apple.
“We needed them really quickly to be able to meet our deadline of putting the iPads in the hands of each child by the end of April,” de Blasio said at an April 12th briefing.
This week, the Department of Education says that it’s met that goal just as Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that remote learning would continue for the rest of the academic year -- if not longer.
“We’ve distributed a quarter of a million internet-enabled iPads for remote learning, and will make sure students who participate in summer school continue to have the devices they need,” said DOE spokesperson Isabelle Boundy in an email statement Wednesday.
While de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza have repeatedly invoked a statistic that 300,000 students of the 1.1 million kids in the public school system had no access to devices to connect them to remote learning, the DOE now says the real number is 250,000.
“(The quote of) 300,000 was an estimate based on both a survey from principals prior to moving to remote learning which asked them to estimate how many of their students would need a device, as well as a survey from the Mayor’s Chief Technology Officer on the City’s connectivity needs for families with school-age children,” Boundy said. “A quarter million is the number who’d requested one that had been delivered. We’re still receiving requests and making shipments.”
One parent told Gothamist that her kids are having issues with the DOE-supplied iPad because of the apps interfaces -- in particular, Google Classroom.
“Many parents and kids are experiencing pervasive issues with compatibility of the Google Classroom system on the DOE-issued iPads,” Kelly Agnew-Barajas wrote in an email.
The glitchy apps have been a source of frustration for her kids, who are in first and fourth grades. “In many instances work is unable to be saved so that when it comes time to submit work the work is blank. As you can imagine, this is extremely frustrating and demoralizing for children (and parents who are trying to work simultaneously!)," she wrote. "With the iPad my child has spent hours diligently writing a poem or doing math and then it’s all gone when he submits.”
“The folks at Google Classroom could also do well to work to make their system way more user friendly. Frankly, it’s a disaster to navigate. Some things need to be clicked three times in different places in order to ensure that they are actually turned in,” Agnew-Barajas added. “Not great for a six year old!"
The DOE said the city-supplied iPads come standard with safety protocols, though individual student devices may have different setups depending on need. “Each device comes preloaded with unlimited data and a suite of apps that have safety features designed to protect our children. Additional software applications are being considered for student use on a case by case basis,” Boundy said.
Meanwhile, the DOE said the percentage of students participating in remote learning continues to grow. In the week of April 23rd-29th, an average of 88.3 percent of students “interacted each day” with their remote learning modules, the DOE said. That’s an increase from the April monthly average of 85.9 percent. Schools have reported data for an average of 91 percent of students per day since the DOE began tracking attendance.
City officials believe there are still more students who haven’t been accounted for -- de Blasio said he wants to reach the students who have yet to request devices but still need them. “We still think there are kids out there who need help and we don’t know,” de Blasio has said. “We’ve asked school administrators and teachers to identify any families they think may not have a device and reach out and confirm whether they do or don’t.”
If any student still needs to request a device for remote learning, they can fill out a request form here or call 718-935-5100 and select option 5.