Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

Funds Available for Computing Devices

In just a few short weeks, most of our state’s students will begin the next academic year in distance learning—and the need to ensure all of them have the basic technology to access their learning grows increasingly urgent.

I am writing today to make sure you are aware that California schools are receiving $5.3 billion to acquire devices, strengthen distance learning, and address learning gaps. We know through your survey responses this summer that immense needs remain: more than 700,000 students still lack computing devices, and another 300,000 lack hotspots to connect to the internet.

This funding makes it possible for all school districts to close the digital divide—and remove inequitable barriers to remote learning—immediately.

Schools can apply now for their share of the Learning Loss Mitigation Funds (https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/cr/learningloss.asp) authorized by the 2020–21 state budget. The California Department of Education (CDE) has posted online (https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r14/documents/llmf20alloc1.xlsx) each school district’s initial allocation of Learning Loss Mitigation Funds and answers to Frequently Asked Questions (https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/cr/llmffaqs.asp).

We strongly encourage you to earmark these funds in ways that strengthen and ensure continuity and equity in distance learning. As an additional resource, our agency also will be sending messages to individual districts that match their allocation to the estimated need for computing and connectivity devices based on survey results.

If you have questions about procuring devices, please contact DigitalDivideTaskForce@cde.ca.gov. Thank you for taking advantage of these resources now to ensure no student falls behind when we resume learning in just a few short weeks.

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction

TT:dt