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Some Kindergarten Students In Sunset Park Left Without Devices For Remote Learning
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David Cruz
Published Sep 19, 2020
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Courtesy Joanna Cohen
By
David Cruz
Published Sep 19, 2020
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More than two-dozen kindergarten students at a school in Sunset Park may be unable to log on remotely for the first week of school, or perhaps longer, as orders for much-needed iPads remain unfulfilled.
Administrators at P.S. 169 now fear this will be a repeat of March, when the intensity of the pandemic suddenly forced public schools to move completely to virtual learning, leaving some students in limbo without devices to log onto classes.
The need for internet-enabled iPads for families at P.S. 169 is great, as a school survey showed 934 students — or more than 77% of the school’s 1,200 students — have no internet access at home, administrators said. The school is predominantly attended by Asian families, and DOE statistics show Asian communities have the highest rate of opting for remote learning exclusively. P.S. 169 officials estimate that 78% of their students have opted for remote learning only.
Joanna Cohen, the school’s assistant principal, is now pressing the city Department of Education’s Borough Technology unit to track down these iPads. She also outlined other troubling aspects to reopening in the new school year, including the lack of a part-time technician to handle teachers’ questions about devices.
"I don't think they have enough devices, and I think they lost a not insignificant number in the spring. And for some reason they haven't prioritized getting more and getting them quickly," said Cohen. "I don't know if they're on backorder. I don't know if Apple is overwhelmed."
Cohen wants to avoid the crisis of the spring, when several didn't receive iPads to continue their studies remotely.
"We had one family who had twin girls who were in fifth grade, they both had pretty serious, special needs, and the only device that they had in the home was their mother's cell phone. And they would just take turns logging onto their mother's cell phone, to do whatever they could for school,” said Cohen. “Certainly we had kids who just couldn't join and didn't join and missed out on months of school, but our families tried as hard as they could to join, but they didn't have the access.”
PS 169 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Joanna Cohen
Eva Garriga, an English as a New Language teacher working with the two students, recounted that they did not receive the iPads until the beginning of June (the school year ended on June 26th). The DOE insisted that the two students did receive an iPad.
“It was really hard for them to get any work done because they didn’t have access to Wi-Fi,” said Garriga.
Missing iPads have remained a problem for Cohen, who pointed to the number of times where students did not receive an iPad in March despite delivery notifications showing they had been signed off. "We can actually see on the FedEx tracking that it was signed for. Somebody signed the mother's name, but it wasn't her signature. So somebody took those two iPads," said Cohen despite the DOE’s system showing the iPads were delivered. "Then we had to submit a ticket to the DOE to investigate to find out what happened to that iPad, and meanwhile, the child had no iPad."
In a statement to Gothamist, Sarah Cassanovas, a spokesperson with the DOE, told Gothamist through a statement that the agency has responded to the blended learning phase through the delivery of 320,000 internet-enabled iPads and 175,000 other devices to families.
“We’re shipping more devices to the school, have additional ones on hand for those that need across the city, and are using our instructional orientation days to troubleshoot any issues,” said Cassanovas.
The DOE did not explain when those devices will be delivered.
Tagged
schools reopening
brooklyn
sunset park
David Cruz
David is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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