New Data Shows How Digital Inequality Affects Lower-Income Students and Their Families

Drawing on a survey of lower-income families, Corporation grantee New America shares recommendations for reimagining digital access and focusing on social and emotional needs as students and schools resume in-person learning

Sixty-five percent of families below the federal poverty line report that in the last year their child either couldn’t participate in class, was prevented from completing their schoolwork, or had to participate over the phone because they lacked access to a computer, according to a New America survey supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York. The new data from a survey of more than one thousand lower-income families with students ages 3–13 reveals that 56 percent have slow internet connections; 34 percent hit their data limit in 2020; 59 percent have a poor-quality computer; and 28 percent have limited devices to share.

In Learning at Home While Under-Connected: Lower-Income Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic, New America reports the findings of the survey, primary among them that lower-income families are still facing challenges associated with digital inequality. Additionally, the survey finds:

• Black, Hispanic, and low-income families have been hit hardest by digital inequity.
• One in seven children still does not have broadband internet access at home.
• Cost remains the primary reason many families lack internet access.
• Even among families with computers and broadband internet access at home, a majority are “under-connected,” meaning that they report insufficient and unreliable access to the internet and internet-connecting devices.

Despite these digital challenges, parents report more involvement and understanding around their children’s educational and emotional needs:

• A majority of parents report a deepened understanding of their children as learners.
• Many parents are now more confident and comfortable being involved in their child’s education.
• Half (50 percent) of parents whose children will be entering first grade or higher say the most important priority for school next year is either their child’s social and emotional well-being (30 percent) or simply getting to spend time with other kids (20 percent).

The report offers recommendations for education leaders and policymakers to ensure that schools and community-based organizations better serve lower-income families, especially around issues of connectivity and strengthening parent-teacher partnerships. In addition to calling for policymakers to extend the Emergency Broadband Benefit, a federal program that provides a temporary discount on monthly broadband internet service to qualifying households, the report emphasizes that community-based programs that serve parents will also be vital moving forward.

“When a lower-income family has a computer but cannot afford repairs when it malfunctions, or their internet connection is disrupted by having to prioritize other bills, the family enters a cycle of ‘dependable instability’ that our survey reveals to be an enduring form of digital inequality,” the report concludes. “Resolving these challenges will require partnering with and expanding the capacities of trusted, local organizations and institutions to ensure that families know exactly where to go when they need something fixed or require other forms of digital assistance.”

Top: Alayjah Burnett, 12, attends an online class at her home in Vallejo, California, in April 2020. (Credit: Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)