Internet Access for All

Online learning a challenge for hundreds of families without available broadband 

By Kathy Knotts 

Crystal Weade feels like she is out of options. With no internet access and an unreliable cell signal, she doesn’t know how her first grader is going to participate in virtual learning in three weeks. 

“When Anne Arundel County schools announced all virtual learning back in July, I started calling them and my local school the very next day to ask how we were going to be able to do this. They had no idea,” the single mom says. 

Across the nation, families are scrambling to find ways to get connected. Internet access is hard to come by in low-density rural areas where providers will not spend the money to build a network for just a handful of homes. A state task force reported that nearly 324,000 rural Marylanders don’t have access. 

Weade lives off Grays Road in Harwood, a rural section of southern Anne Arundel County, where new homes are built internet-ready but older homes go without such connectivity unless the homeowner pays steep costs. Extending an existing network can cost $20,000 to $30,000. That’s money that Weade doesn’t have, leaving her to look elsewhere for her son’s educational needs. 

In the spring, when the coronavirus pandemic closed schools, classrooms went online. For families like Weade’s, a paper packet picked up during free meal distribution was the only alternative. “It was one piece of paper, front and back. It was supposed to last a week,” she says. 

Last week, the Governor’s Office of Rural Broadband announced $10 million in grant awards to support expanded broadband access for education. Of that amount, $8 million will go to increase access for public school students. In urban areas where students have access to broadband infrastructure, the grants will be used to help currently unserved students obtain internet service from an existing provider. In rural areas where broadband infrastructure does not exist at all, the grants will be used to provide wireless access to students with cellular hotspots or similar resources.  

“Our administration is committed to expanding broadband to every corner of our state, and as many local school systems prepare for remote or hybrid learning models in the fall, this access is more important than ever,” said Governor Larry Hogan. “These grants will support partnerships between the state, local governments, and internet service providers to ensure distance learning options are available and accessible for all Maryland students.” 

The money will also go to designing a statewide fixed wireless network for students in rural areas. The Governor’s Office of Rural Broadband will work with local partners to use existing vertical assets like communications towers and water towers as part of the network infrastructure. This network is expected to be operational by the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. 

Anne Arundel County is receiving nearly $59,000 from the governors’ connectivity program to address the issue. AACPS spokesperson Bob Mosier says the funds will help address the access needs of about 500 families.  

“The grant will help us with a mixture of assistance options,” Mosier said. “Some of it will help us cover wireless bills for families and the purchase of additional mobile hotspots for others.” 

Weade and families like hers will have to rely on those mobile hotspots for the fall semester. Hotspots connect to a cell phone network to provide Wi-Fi access using cellular data. Most smartphones can be used as a hotspot and the regional library system also allows users to check out mobile hotspots. 

Yet Weade reports that the mobile hot spots she tried on various family members’ phones in the spring were unreliable. “They would either never connect or just connect for a few minutes. I tried to watch a work conference recently using a hotspot. I was able to see about 20 minutes of a two-hour program. I don’t know how my son is going to be able to use that.” 

Mosier is well aware of the drawbacks of the mobile hotspots. “We know that the hotspots don’t work everywhere. In the far southern part of our county, that’s a real issue. Same in spots in the western and easternmost parts of the county. So we are working in a number of ways to address these families’ situations on an individual basis.” 

The students who were unable to participate in online learning in the spring due to access issues are at the top of the list of about 200 families that the school system is trying to get connected. “We know who they are and we are working with them, and the schools’ principals know who they are and will be reaching out to them,” Mosier told Bay Weekly. 

AACPS reported about 600 students did not participate in the online program in the spring, likely due to technological barriers. AACPS does provide a list of carriers who offer low-cost services for families—if those families live somewhere where they can connect in the first place. 

Weade’s first-grader also requires IEP services and speech therapy, added stress for an already busy single mom who works fulltime as a caregiver and relies on her aging father for childcare. “For the school system to tell me as a parent that we have to do all of this online—I work during the day. We don’t have internet and my father has only just figured out how to use the smartphone. My child can’t sit still for four hours of online learning and we are getting his extra therapy in the evenings, in person. I am feeding him in the car at night. He can’t sit still long enough to watch a recorded lesson and I shouldn’t have to be sitting in my car in a McDonald’s parking lot at 8 or 9 at night when he should be in bed, just for him to do schoolwork.” 

Mosier says that these students, those with special needs and IEPs, will be some of the first to go back to in-person classes when a hybrid format is feasible. “None of this is really anyone’s first choice,” he says. “It is the reality we are in. So it’s up to all of us to make the best of that.” 

Just across the county line, Calvert County Public Schools will receive over $15,000 from the broadband grant. CCPS Superintendent Dr. Daniel Curry, information technology director Jonathan McClellan and other executive staff determined the funds will be used primarily to buy approximately 280 mobile hotspots for families, “and other grant funds will pay for the rest,” says Catherine Page, CCPS’s public information officer. “We also upgraded the data packages to unlimited data, once families use 15 GB per month.” 

The upgraded plans should alleviate the problems Calvert County faced in the spring when they provided hotspots but realized the families needed more data for a reliable connection. The school system will be able to filter the content that is available through the hotspots, says Page. 

Mosier says that AACPS is in pretty good shape, with the new school year just under three weeks away. “Grace and patience and flexibility are the three key words as we approach this semester,” he said. 

The first day of school for students in Calvert County is Sept. 2. In Anne Arundel County, school starts Sept. 8.