The A+ Solution to the Homework Gap
Last updated Aug 2, 2024.
The Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) is a federal program that allows schools and libraries to provide laptops, tablets, and home internet service to students and library patrons who would otherwise lack them. It was created, in part, based on our research into the homework gap. To date, the ECF has connected over 12 million people nationwide. However, the fund will soon run out of money, and, when it does, the millions of students and patrons it is connecting may fall back into the digital divide.
We can't allow that to happen. Devices and internet service are as vital to a student's daily life as textbooks. They enable homework, extracurriculars, internships, creativity, and socializing. Colleges and employers expect applicants to be fluent in their use. By providing access to these technologies, the ECF is giving digitally divided kids the same opportunities as their connected peers.
The interactive map below shows how much money each state has been awarded by the ECF and what that money is being used to purchase. If the ECF ends, the connectivity represented in this map will, too. Help us highlight the ongoing need for student connectivity by sharing your story below.
National ECF Data
Total awards and purchases
7,158,442
Home internet connections
11,454,375
Laptops and tablets
$5,556,829,766
Total ECF awards
State ECF Data
Alabama ECF Data
In Alabama, there are 79,477 Home internet connections 173,959 Laptops and tablets and $62,550,199 ECF awards
Alaska ECF Data
In Alaska, there are 8,919 Home internet connections 21,803 Laptops and tablets and $47,963,938 ECF awards
Arizona ECF Data
In Arizona, there are 80,335 Home internet connections 391,679 Laptops and tablets and $158,339,350 ECF awards
Arkansas ECF Data
In Arkansas, there are 28,549 Home internet connections 108,289 Laptops and tablets and $40,940,465 ECF awards
California ECF Data
In California, there are 1,235,175 Home internet connections 1,297,058 Laptops and tablets and $782,494,368 ECF awards
Colorado ECF Data
In Colorado, there are 36,148 Home internet connections 113,091 Laptops and tablets and $45,301,392 ECF awards
ECF Data
In , there are 25,073 Home internet connections 122,969 Laptops and tablets and $49,055,123 ECF awards
Delaware ECF Data
In Delaware, there are 760 Home internet connections 37,019 Laptops and tablets and $14,030,430 ECF awards
Washington D.C. ECF Data
In Washington D.C., there are 53,067 Home internet connections 35,467 Laptops and tablets and $22,306,053 ECF awards
Florida ECF Data
In Florida, there are 168,747 Home internet connections 544,746 Laptops and tablets and $235,176,593 ECF awards
Georgia ECF Data
In Georgia, there are 113,106 Home internet connections 450,876 Laptops and tablets and $178,433,325 ECF awards
Guam ECF Data
In Guam, there are 9,013 Home internet connections 9,013 Laptops and tablets and $6,327,126 ECF awards
Hawaii ECF Data
In Hawaii, there are 88,735 Home internet connections 117,115 Laptops and tablets and $73,016,048 ECF awards
Idaho ECF Data
In Idaho, there are 11,876 Home internet connections 79,504 Laptops and tablets and $31,793,081 ECF awards
Illinois ECF Data
In Illinois, there are 135,934 Home internet connections 542,026 Laptops and tablets and $219,236,283 ECF awards
Indiana ECF Data
In Indiana, there are 37,631 Home internet connections 178,156 Laptops and tablets and $72,522,473 ECF awards
Iowa ECF Data
In Iowa, there are 16,635 Home internet connections 71,866 Laptops and tablets and $28,356,233 ECF awards
Kansas ECF Data
In Kansas, there are 36,737 Home internet connections 58,819 Laptops and tablets and $28,932,676 ECF awards
Kentucky ECF Data
In Kentucky, there are 139,082 Home internet connections 172,922 Laptops and tablets and $80,584,901 ECF awards
Louisiana ECF Data
In Louisiana, there are 38,430 Home internet connections 211,081 Laptops and tablets and $84,281,844 ECF awards
Maine ECF Data
In Maine, there are 8,339 Home internet connections 15,022 Laptops and tablets and $7,695,059 ECF awards
Maryland ECF Data
In Maryland, there are 95,592 Home internet connections 169,912 Laptops and tablets and $81,758,171 ECF awards
Massachusetts ECF Data
In Massachusetts, there are 56,267 Home internet connections 187,229 Laptops and tablets and $74,802,524 ECF awards
Michigan ECF Data
In Michigan, there are 152,115 Home internet connections 296,002 Laptops and tablets and $144,755,205 ECF awards
Minnesota ECF Data
In Minnesota, there are 53,477 Home internet connections 197,540 Laptops and tablets and $68,402,395 ECF awards
Mississippi ECF Data
In Mississippi, there are 53,241 Home internet connections 42,549 Laptops and tablets and $30,226,393 ECF awards
Missouri ECF Data
In Missouri, there are 106,774 Home internet connections 217,116 Laptops and tablets and $96,412,330 ECF awards
Montana ECF Data
In Montana, there are 2,003 Home internet connections 15,036 Laptops and tablets and $5,356,846 ECF awards
Nebraska ECF Data
In Nebraska, there are 2,253 Home internet connections 91,404 Laptops and tablets and $34,042,942 ECF awards
Nevada ECF Data
In Nevada, there are 21,079 Home internet connections 29,814 Laptops and tablets and $20,104,391 ECF awards
New Hampshire ECF Data
In New Hampshire, there are 2,487 Home internet connections 20,952 Laptops and tablets and $6,310,333 ECF awards
New Jersey ECF Data
In New Jersey, there are 147,661 Home internet connections 331,393 Laptops and tablets and $135,505,762 ECF awards
New Mexico ECF Data
In New Mexico, there are 56,267 Home internet connections 123,321 Laptops and tablets and $69,244,444 ECF awards
New York ECF Data
In New York, there are 2,237,946 Home internet connections 1,264,951 Laptops and tablets and $763,726,821 ECF awards
North Carolina ECF Data
In North Carolina, there are 108,717 Home internet connections 376,700 Laptops and tablets and $154,187,523 ECF awards
North Dakota ECF Data
In North Dakota, there are 797 Home internet connections 8,421 Laptops and tablets and $3,586,152 ECF awards
ECF Data
In , there are 125 Home internet connections 125 Laptops and tablets and $ ECF awards
Ohio ECF Data
In Ohio, there are 157,751 Home internet connections 269,079 Laptops and tablets and $127,752,912 ECF awards
Oklahoma ECF Data
In Oklahoma, there are 137,831 Home internet connections 223,891 Laptops and tablets and $109,036,507 ECF awards
Oregon ECF Data
In Oregon, there are 36,020 Home internet connections 211,312 Laptops and tablets and $87,795,389 ECF awards
Pennsylvania ECF Data
In Pennsylvania, there are 108,530 Home internet connections 202,228 Laptops and tablets and $98,057,615 ECF awards
Puerto Rico ECF Data
In Puerto Rico, there are 198,497 Home internet connections 21,486 Laptops and tablets and $106,623,733 ECF awards
Rhode Island ECF Data
In Rhode Island, there are 7,361 Home internet connections 50,813 Laptops and tablets and $19,789,887 ECF awards
South Carolina ECF Data
In South Carolina, there are 16,452 Home internet connections 104,568 Laptops and tablets and $47,926,171 ECF awards
South Dakota ECF Data
In South Dakota, there are 4,629 Home internet connections 22,387 Laptops and tablets and $7,561,123 ECF awards
Tennessee ECF Data
In Tennessee, there are 63,137 Home internet connections 124,727 Laptops and tablets and $60,859,321 ECF awards
Texas ECF Data
In Texas, there are 684,981 Home internet connections 1,287,594 Laptops and tablets and $570,618,552 ECF awards
Utah ECF Data
In Utah, there are 18,506 Home internet connections 106,402 Laptops and tablets and $33,727,055 ECF awards
Vermont ECF Data
In Vermont, there are 5,683 Home internet connections 9,412 Laptops and tablets and $5,409,940 ECF awards
Virgin Islands ECF Data
In Virgin Islands, there are 80 Home internet connections 0 Laptops and tablets and $4,869,872 ECF awards
Virginia ECF Data
In Virginia, there are 76,489 Home internet connections 180,593 Laptops and tablets and $82,501,697 ECF awards
Washington ECF Data
In Washington, there are 65,176 Home internet connections 249,862 Laptops and tablets and $107,309,668 ECF awards
West Virginia ECF Data
In West Virginia, there are 81,247 Home internet connections 21,378 Laptops and tablets and $44,455,568 ECF awards
Wisconsin ECF Data
In Wisconsin, there are 45,528 Home internet connections 237,208 Laptops and tablets and $75,346,534 ECF awards
Wyoming ECF Data
In Wyoming, there are 1,975 Home internet connections 6,490 Laptops and tablets and $3,825,365 ECF awards
Sources: USAC Emergency Connectivity Fund FCC Form 471; FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund Waves 1-11 Obligations by State.
Stories
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Contact Name: Chad Geston
School/District: Phoenix Union High School District
Story:
ESS students who participate in Upward and Onward, a work based learning program, are able to travel to multiple sites while they are learning job skills at different sites and still use their laptops and hotspots to stay connected to school.The laptops and hotspots created the conditions that allowed them to continue to learn and minimize disruption to learning while not physically present at their schools.
If ECF is discontinued, PXU will have to look towards other funding sources to continue to provide laptops as part of our 1:1 initiative.The lack of access to digital resources and courses creates barriers to completing homework, class assignments, graduation and developing real world work based skills. PXU's ability to support the flexibility of learning in some of our schools, particularly PXU Digital Academy and our newest school, PXU City could be significantly impacted.
Location: Oakland, CA
Contact Name: Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell
School/District: Oakland Unified School District
Story:
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed many inequities affecting OUSD students. At the onset of school closures, we found that only 12% of our low-income students had the resources needed to fully participate in distance learning. We were fortunate to be part of a citywide coalition, namely #OaklandUndivided, that raised this to 97% today. However, existing District funds and philanthropy cannot permanently close the digital divide for our students.
The Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) has become a critical and continuing means for us to ensure that every OUSD student has access to a home computer and internet connection. We hope to see this program continue for years to come so that we can confidently state that every OUSD student has the necessary digital tools to graduate college, career, and community ready.
Location: Reno, NV
Contact Name: Chris Turner
School/District: Washoe County School District
Story:
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, there was a significant gap between the haves and have nots. Our 1:1 schools were well prepared having already supplied students with devices before sending them home for pandemic break. But the non 1:1 schools were forced to distribute paper packets, which was a tremendous logistical effort.
A district-wide 1:1 device ratio would have been extremely helpful before the pandemic, but it remains critically important going forward. It would simplify textbook delivery and access to digital materials and help students develop 21st century technology skills, such as information and digital literacy — skills that local employers and colleges expect our students to have.
Location: Chattanooga, TN
Contact Name: Michael Watson
School/District: Chattanooga-Hamilton CO Library
Story:
Through the Emergency Connectivity Fund, we seek to address connectivity issues for Library patrons which represents a smaller fraction of the possibly eligible households. Two of the CPL's branches are located in high poverty areas. The East Lake/East Chattanooga communities, which are primarily Hispanic, have a poverty level over double the state of Tennessee average. The South Chattanooga branch services a predominately African-American population, and nearly half of residents around this area live below the poverty level. Above all, these two areas would benefit from this grant. Whether children or adults, CPL offers online learning, reading materials, story time for children, local history content, and much more. In awarding this grant, the FCC becomes a catalyst in life-long learning, walking side-by-side with the Chattanooga Public Library in the community.
Location: Roseville, MN
Contact Name: Christopher DeWuske
School/District: Concordia Academy
Story:
As we look to the future, especially in light of COVID, we realize the need for devices that are flexible in how they are used and equitable to students of all backgrounds for how they are accessed. To this end, rather than having a myriad of outdated devices checked out to students from carts, we want to be prepared if another wave of distance learning occurs and look beyond the scope of COVID learning to apply best practices in all technology areas proactively. This has historically not been the case for our school. I've noticed a lot of missed opportunities, and I'm hoping to remedy these through this ECF funding. We are not presently a 1:1 school or even a BYOD school. Most teachers are not technology literate, and our students are further behind than their public school counterparts in operational skills to access technology.
This should not be the case, and our students deserve better. With the opportunities provided through this funding, I would be able to train staff and students for 21st century competencies and close the digital gap, especially as it relates to technology access skills. It is also my goal to establish a digital coaching team to facilitate professional development opportunities and from there build a student team for peer support.The first step to many of these goals is to put devices in the hands of our students so they can access the tools that most other schools have access to. Without having these devices, I fear the digital gap for our students will only grow.
Location: Hamburg, NY
Contact Name: Michael Sullivan
School/District: Frontier Central School District
Story:
We found that the laptops change classroom circumstances (especially during COVID), making it easier for teachers to engage students in substantive, collaborative, project-based work. With laptops, student and teacher research can happen anywhere at anytime, at home, note taking, or journal writing can get done on the spot, preserving first impressions and providing immediate feedback. Classroom dynamics changed when each student had their own laptop or device every day. Computer based work - such as writing and revising, printing, and sharing or collecting data became one of many activities happening in the classroom. Teachers became more able to engage students in inquiry-oriented, project-based learning. Teachers tried new kinds of projects with their students and they conducted original research and authentic scientific experiments. Continuous access, for both teachers and students, to computer-based tools like this and data analysis programs facilitates this kind of long-term, in-depth teaching and learning.
Location: Mountain Village, AK
Contact Name: Gene Stone
School/District: Lower Yukon School District
Story:
Used their Emergency Connectivity Funding to pay for infrastructure to extend affordable internet access to the homes of students and teachers If the ECF funding ends in 2023, "...while the district's teachers and students will still need home access to the Internet, without a new source of funding, it will be out of reach." The fact remains that residential Internet in remote Alaska is simply not affordable. ECF made the critical infrastructure affordable, and it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars to just let that infrastructure go unused if ECF funding ends.
Location: Bangor, ME
School/District: All Saints Catholic School
Story:
All Saints Catholic School in Bangor, Maine was able to use ECF support to purchase 1:1 laptops for students in grades K-8 through the pandemic: "We were able to make a bulk request for state-of-the-art laptops and travel bags to allow students to get them home and back to school safely. Throughout the year many students got Covid and had to isolate and miss 5- 10 days of school. Nearly all children were well enough to continue to participate in their daily classes through Google Classroom due to mild symptoms. The laptops allowed this to happen without interruption in most cases. Teachers were also provided MacBooks for home use so they could continue to deliver instruction when remote learning was required. Normally a request like this would take our school 5 or more years to complete. With the ECF grant, we requested all that we needed at one time!"
Location: Baltimore, MD
School/District: Baltimore County Public School
Story:
Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland has found ECF funding to have been instrumental in ensuring that all of our students who need high-speed internet receive it. "We are a mixed urban/rural school district/County, with varying needs of students from families not being able to afford high-speed internet in their homes, to families who live out in the countryside where high-speed copper or fiber services are not available at their homes. We have been able to utilize the ECF funding to provide equal access to any family who needed it, thus balancing the availability of high-speed mobile internet to any family who requested the service. The continuation of ECF-provided funding for the purpose of outfitting our buses, which transport approximately 80,000 students per day will help to extend the learning from home to school in the morning, and from school to home in the evenings. This will provide students access to educational resources no matter if the student only has a five-minute ride to/from school, or if the student has a thirty+ minute ride to/from school."
Location: Rockester, NY
School/District: Rochester City School District
Story:
Rochester City School District in New York utilized over $11.5M in funding from ECF and EducationSuperHighway's Bridge to Broadband Program to accurately identify all unconnected students in the district and cover the costs of laptops, tablets, wi-fi hotspots, modems, routers, and broadband connectivity purchases for off-campus use by students and school staff during the pandemic. Rochester City School Districts' efforts and the funding provided by ECF ensured that all students, regardless of zip code or circumstance, had equitable access to the internet and the opportunity to continue learning.
Location: Rockester, TX
School/District: Cypress-Fairbanks ISD (CFISD)
Story:
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD (CFISD) in Texas made the decision to provide every student a Chromebook device in 2020. In order to provide 118,000 students with a Chromebook device, "our district purchased approximately 75,000 Chromebook devices in addition to our existing inventory. CFISD has utilized the ECF funding to implement a replacement cycle for our 1:1 program as our older Chromebook devices begin to reach the point that they no longer receive operating system updates. The ECF program has afforded us the opportunity to purchase replacement devices; therefore, keeping students connected and playing a significant role in closing the homework gap."
Location: Houston, TX
School/District: Harris County Public Librar
Story:
Harris County Public Library in Houston, Texas conducted the largest Emergency Connectivity Fund tablet (15,000) and MiFi device (40,000) distribution program of any public library in the country. With more than 13 percent of households in Harris County lacking access to the internet, it is essential that the ECF program be continued and that additional funding be available to help continue meeting the critical need of our patrons who depend on this program for their internet connectivity.