Originally, Lake County Schools had set a five-year goal of providing universal access to a student device to provide equity and to support collaboration between students and authentic learning experiences. Information and Instructional Technology began building out the infrastructure in every school to accommodate the increase of student technology. The Chromebook was selected for its ease of use, relatively low cost and the inclusion of the Google Apps for Education.
These plans were accelerated over the summer in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the late summer, Lake County Schools presented four instructional options for families. Three of those options included a virtual component in which students would use a device for instruction.
“Because of the new learning options made available to families under our reopening plan, we felt it was important to go 1:1 as quickly as logistically possible,” said Duane Weeks, Executive Director of Information and Instructional Technology. “Supply for these devices has been unbelievably tight. Many other districts will be waiting until October and November to get their orders filled. We have worked with our vendors to streamline the delivery process while making the devices ready out of the box so these devices can get into our student’s hands as quickly as possible.”
Since April, Lake County Schools has purchased and deployed 15,500 Chromebooks directly to the schools. Over 4,000 Chromebooks have been delivered to schools this past week. Another 5,400 Chromebooks are expected to be delivered in the next week and a half.
Students were able to keep their Chromebooks over the summer to use the devices for extra learning opportunities. All students with a district-issued Chromebook are expected to bring their devices back to school on the first day.
These devices will be checked out to individual students and be available for take-home use or used in virtual learning situations such as the Lake Live or Lake County Virtual School option. Lake County Virtual School students will be notified by their zoned school when to pick up a Chromebook after they have completed a form to reserve a Chromebook. Chromebooks will then be picked up at their zoned school during a scheduled day and time.
More information about the program can be found at the district’s Start of School website at lake.k12.fl.us/startofschool. Parents can also monitor approximate delivery dates through the 1:1 Dashboard provided by Lake County Schools.
Parents are also asked to continue to monitor the district’s Facebook Page, as well as their child’s school’s Facebook Page, for the latest news.
