FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kansas City, MO: LEANLAB Education, a KC based non-profit focused on innovating in public education, is announcing an effort to coordinate the procurement and distribution of wifi hotspots and devices for families to support remote learning in the Kansas City region. To help meet the urgent needs of area schools as they transition to remote learning environments, LEANLAB is organizing local school districts to report their students’ internet connectivity and device needs and participate in a regional technology distribution process.

"More than ever before, in response to Coronavirus, school communities need to organize,” said LEANLAB Education CEO, Katie Boody. “We’re supporting their efforts to identify what families have access to the internet and devices and to create a unified strategy to get hotspots and devices purchased and distributed to families across the Kansas City metro as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Boody said.

The strategy emerged Wednesday on the first of daily conference calls convening school leaders, mostly from Kansas City Missouri Public Charter Schools, to share their strategies in response to COVID-19. Boody identified quickly the need to coordinate the demand for devices across the city.

“We’re behind the bigger cities who have already put into place distance learning plans for their students and the concern is there may be a shortage of devices if we don’t act quickly, said Boody. “We also want to protect families in our community from entering into any contract agreements with providers that may be predatory or opportunistic.”

“Based on our initial survey feedback responses from families, approximately 15-20% of our city’s students live in homes without consistent access to internet connectivity. As we prepare to transition to remote and online learning, we need to prioritize making sure every child has access to the necessary tools to keep students on track.”

Through this effort, school leaders in the Kansas City metro area can access LEANLAB’s bilingual needs assessment survey to send parents at their school and access to a lending library of hotspots and devices to distribute to students, and then fill out an intake form communicating their immediate needs to LEANLAB.

The first deadline to submit district needs through the intake form and order is this Monday, March 23. Rolling deadlines will continue through March 30.

“Once we get an overview of the needs, through coordinated action, we can ensure all KC area kids have access to the resources they need to continue learning so they don’t fall further behind their connected peers,” Boody said.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

School leaders who would like to participate can fill out this short form stating intent to participate in LEANLAB’s technology and distribution process. For an invitation to join LEANLAB’s weekly regional school-leader conference calls email jorge@leanlabeducation.org.

For more information, visit LEANLAB’s website.

LEANLAB Education is a Kansas City-based nonprofit focused on innovating in public education.