BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – As districts scramble to prepare for the upcoming school year in the coronavirus era, Buffalo Public Schools is keeping busy by supplying all 33,000 students with tablets or computers to accommodate remote learning in less than two weeks.
In a visit to the former School 28, now the IT hub for the district on South Park Avenue, a line of dozens of parents and families stretched outside of the building. Sarah Edwards, the district’s Director of Instructional Technology, told us most students already have their devices. Still, they are distributing 7,000 devices to accommodate new students and students who need a grade-appropriate device.
They anticipate hundreds of families each day will pick up a device, though the process is controlled. Parents and students are told to pick up the devices on a specific date and time window that is sent to them ahead of time.
“Initially, first the high school students to get ready for freshman orientation,” Edwards said. “We grouped some so we addressed our multilingual households. In a couple specific days, we had multilingual supports here to help with translation so we grouped those families together. Now we’re approaching the end where we are getting through our youngest students now.”
Along with staff that is helping in the distribution process, Edwards said there are student interns at the district who are also assisting with everything from receiving a username and password, acquiring a hot spot, check out, and more.
To ensure a smooth process, Edwards said parents should bring the letter they received in the mail with the specific dates. For parents picking up a device on behalf of a high school students, Edwards said they should also have their child’s username and password for the device. If parents don’t have that information from their child, Edwards said the district can reset the devices, though it may make the process take longer.
Superintendent Kriner Cash said last week that the district is planning to go door-to-door to help students who are not able to visit the IT Hub. Edwards said this is a process the district has done since the pandemic began through social workers and agency partners.
“We are really trying to get people to come here to the IT center in part because it is a lot. It’s overwhelming,” Edwards said. “You want to get a little bit of an orientation to the device. We can provide that if people can get here.”
The district is also utilizing their food distribution sites as a way to get the remote learning devices to students who are in low-income families.
“We don’t want anyone to be excluded,” Edwards said. “Everyone needs to be prepared for the next few weeks of instruction.”
Edwards praised the district’s reuse of School 28 as an IT hub and said the centralized model is effective at helping the students compared to the school-by-school basis.
Any students with an issue using their device is asked to call the community hotline at 816-7100 to speak with the help desk staff.
“If it’s a physical problem with the device that needs a repair or is not working right, parents can bring the device back here to this IT center for either a quick repair if something can be fixed instantly or we swap the device out if it’s something that’s going to take more time,” Edwards said. “That parent will not leave without a working device.”
She said there are not many unique challenges specific to the school district and said cyber-security and making sure kids are using their devices appropriately are among the challenges they will face.
“We’ve put a digital citizenship curriculum into place,” Edwards said. “That’s something we’ve been doing. We have our 1-to-1 initiative for a few years but that’s a continuous process. It’s a daily conversation on how to do things the right way and be a good digital citizen instead of going down the wrong road.”
When using the devices, students are expected to follow the same protocols as they would if they were using a device at the building. The devices will have the same internet restrictions as they would if they were in the school itself. Edwards said they are constantly trying to upgrade the restrictions for when students try to bypass the limits.
The district also has the ability to lock out the devices for students. Edwards said the district will also lock out the devices if they are stolen.
Classes begin at Buffalo Public Schools on September 8.
