More than 28,000 Chicago Public Schools students will have access to free internet at home this year thanks to the extension of the Chicago Connected program.
The program launched in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a shift to remote learning. Since then, more than 60,000 students have gained access to reliable home internet to complete homework and access online resources, the city of Chicago said in a news release.
“Making sure that our young people and families have access to Wifi, the internet, it’s a critical component of their development,” Mayor Brandon Johnson told the Sun-Times. “As a former public school teacher, I know how important it is for students to have access to the world, to the internet.”
About $2 million was dedicated to the effort, with much of the up-front costs covered by the continuation of service from prior years, according to a city spokesman.
The Department of Technology and Innovation saved money by moving IT services to the cloud and other cost-saving measures, meaning the cost of the program could be funded by CPS and the city instead of through partnerships with internet providers and community organizations.
Around 93% of the program’s families were categorized as economically disadvantaged, and almost all of the 20 community areas with the largest improvement in connectivity rates are on the South and West Sides of the city.
“That economic disadvantage did not go away with the pandemic; the pandemic exposed what many of us have always known, that the world is cut off from families who are historically left out,” Johnson said.
Families also noted internet access benefitted them beyond schooling, helping with email communication and searching for information online, according to the news release. Johnson said he’s heard from families who are also able to stay in contact with family members when they’re away from the home, like a student whose marching band practices can go late into the evening.
“It becomes, really, a safety mechanism, where they’re able to monitor the whereabouts of their loved ones,” Johnson said. “It’s those kinds of elements that I think people sometimes take for granted.”