The City of Philadelphia and the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) has spent the last few months grappling with how students will complete the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year totally online, as announced last week. Today, they announced a plan to extend internet service and devices to 35,000 K-12 student households.

The plan, called PHLConnectED, is the first step in the City’s larger strategy to address digital access and inequity, which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

After initially introducing a “hybrid” plan for learning — with a mix of in-person and online instruction for K-12 students — last week Superintendent Dr. William Hite said that instead, all students will spend at least the first marking period receiving fully online instruction. But this plan highlighted the issues on view when schools first went online in the spring: Many households don’t have the proper internet connectivity or devices for each student to learn online all day.

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