Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

Instructions for Ordering Student Devices from Apple and T-Mobile

We are reaching out today to provide school leaders with resources and information about how they can acquire computing devices and connectivity for students during the critical back-to-school period in distance learning.

As the supply chain for laptops and devices has slowed, we know this information is urgent.

How to order Apple and T-Mobile devices now: During today’s special Closing the Digital Divide webinar, we heard about an incredible opportunity in collaboration with Apple and T-Mobile to fulfill orders from districts—which could reach up to 1 million students—with discounted iPads already equipped with high-speed internet connectivity. You can read more on the CDE Year 2020 News Releases web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr20/yr20rel65.asp.

At least 100,000 devices can be ready to arrive through the back-to-school time frame, according to Apple and T-Mobile. The companies expect to be able to fulfill school district demand through the end of 2020.

With rare one-time funding available to schools now, this is an exciting opportunity to meet the needs of our most vulnerable students right away. Read more on the CDE Learning Loss Mitigation Funding web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/cr/learningloss.asp.

Here’s how to order:

• Contact your Apple or T-Mobile Education Account Manager. Don’t know who your representative is? Call 1-877-386-4246 and a dedicated education agent will set up a live meeting for your school district with a T-Mobile representative.
• Don’t want to call? Submit a lead here, and a representative will follow up within 24 hours: https://www.t-mobile.com/business/government.

Questions? Contact DigitalDivideTaskForce@cde.ca.gov.

Missed the August 5 Closing the Digital Divide webinar? It’s archived on our CDE Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CAEducation/videos/1746945095479046/.

What’s next? The CDE is hosting a “Tech Planning for Distance Learning 101” webinar tomorrow, August 6, 2020, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. We will have districts share best practices in preparing devices, connectivity, and other technical planning to successfully support distance learning. This is first in a series to support our local educational agencies.

Register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qtMV8VLmRnmvYIMcYp0U3A [Note: this event has passed]

AUDIO ONLY CONNECTION INFORMATION

Dial by your location

1-669-900-6833 (San Jose)

1-408-638-0968 (San Jose)

1-646-876 9923 (New York)

Meeting ID: 819 4719 5484

Passcode: 186448

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction