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Tools and resources to help you successfully promote Low-Cost Options to Your School District’s Families


If your school district is unable to purchase or manage home Internet solutions for your students’ families, take steps to collate and communicate low-cost provider options.

HOW TO PROVIDE  GUIDANCE FOR FAMILIES TO PROCURE INTERNET SERVICE DIRECTLY

To ensure effective adoption for your families, a best practice is to support parents through the application process, as some of the forms and requirements can be confusing or burdensome. 

Some districts have led proactive calling campaigns to reach out to families by phone and explain the options, while others have leveraged existing technology support help desks to respond to inbound requests – in either case, some district staffing capacity is needed for effective implementation of this solution. 

  • If the district is simply communicating options without additional support, minimal logistics required for districts
  • Families own their own connectivity

  • If the school district intends to support families with low-cost applications, district staffing required
  • Cost burden on families
  • Lengthy applications are a high barrier to entry for low-cost options
  • Minimal oversight ability to monitor adoption
  • The school district needs to collate low-cost provider options (find solutions using our look-up tool)

Resources:
Use our
Low-Cost Internet Offers Look-Up Tool to search by zip and uncover low-cost and other Internet service options, along with contact information to facilitate direct outreach.  

Once you have identified Internet service options, use our Low-Cost Internet Communication Template to share them directly with families. 

PARTICIPATION

It is vital to ensure the Internet service plans you are recommending have service agreements that are viable for students in low-income households. Review your options for these four categories:

1

The plan must be affordable.

2

Signing up for service should be simple.

3

The plan must meet the minimum bandwidth speeds to be considered broadband (25 Mbps download / 3 Mbps upload).

4

Activation of service needs to be measured in days, not weeks.

ELIGIBILITY

Remember that some ISPs have eligibility requirements that families must meet in order to qualify for their low-cost plans. For example, Comcast Internet Essentials requires that families must be eligible for at least one public assistance program and cannot have been a Comcast Internet customer within the last 90 days.

Resources:
Case Study: Learn How Chicago is Providing Stable High-Speed Internet Access to Students who Need it the Most