Executive Summary
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS NOT MADE THE INTERNET INDISPENSABLE—IT HAS REVEALED THAT IT ALWAYS WAS.
On Friday, April 17, 2020, Illinois joined over 30 other states, and counting, in extending its mandated statewide school closure through the remainder of the 2019-20 school year, in response to the public health crisis surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
State and local officials are requiring the use of online instruction to effectively implement remote learning plans, but the “homework gap”—that is, the barrier that students face at school when they don’t have access to a broadband internet connection at home—disproportionately plagues Chicago’s low-income families and people of color.
About 1 in 5 children under the age of eighteen lack access to broadband, and are primarily Black or Latinx/a/o.
As Claiborne W., a CPS father of four residing in Austin, said, “The need for internet access has been going on for a while now, but remote learning is making it more evident.”
With COVID-19 forcing school districts to adopt remote learning for the remainder of the school year, the students who were already the most vulnerable to falling behind will now face even more challenges to keeping pace with their peers.
Without swift action to close the Digital Divide right now, we will witness a widening of the achievement gap.
The need for internet access has been going on for a while now, but remote learning is making it more evident.
—Claiborne W., CPS Parent
Internet Solutions to Connect and Educate Chicago’s Children
The Crucial Need
As stated, 1 in 5 children under the age of eighteen lack access to broadband citywide, equating to more than 110,000 kids. Predominantly black and Latinx/a/o neighborhoods show startling gaps in internet connectivity, including:
- Just over 1 in 3 households in Austin, including 33%, or nearly 8,000 of all residing children
- Nearly 1 in 3 households in Humboldt Park, including 33%, or 5,100 of all residing children
- Nearly 1 in 2 households in West Englewood, including 46%, or 3,100 of all residing children
Increased internet access for these communities, some of which have seen disproportionately high rates of COVID-19 cases, would provide a plethora of telehealth and other ancillary benefits, in addition to closing the Digital Divide which contributes to a significant racial equity gap in Chicago’s education landscape.
Rena R., a CPS mother of twins living in the Austin community, cited the difficult challenge in effectively participating in remote learning for the many families in Austin who don’t have reliable internet at home.
Predominantly white, more affluent neighborhoods, without exception, show rates of connectivity near or above 90%.
You would need to combine more than 15 community areas north of Lincoln Park to find an equivalent number of children under 18 without broadband access across Chicago’s North Side as just the two community areas of Austin and Englewood.
Aggregating to community areas can’t even fully capture the inequity, as there are individual census tracts in some communities where less than 40% of households have connections to broadband.
The country’s leading data and internet providers already have infrastructure in place in Chicago to allow for broad adoption within every household.
This is not an infrastructure issue, but an adoption issue.
One CPS parent on the South Side, who lost her job due to the COVID-19 closure, said that she now has to decide between paying for food, paying the gas bill, and paying for internet service to ensure her kids continue learning.
No parent should be forced to make such choices.
“...Padres deben recibir apoyo para capacitar su conocimiento de tecnología y así reducir el estrés de ayudar y supervisar a sus hijos. En algunos casos, este problema es más pronunciado para padres que tienen el Inglés como barrera y los estudiantes de aprendizaje de Inglés (ELL).”
– Alma S., Back of the Yards Parent
Translation: Parents should receive technology support to reduce the stress of helping and supervising their students. In some cases, this problem is more pronounced for parents that have English as a language barrier and for students that are English language learners (ELL).
110,000
Chicago Children Under 18 Without Broadband Internet
46%
Of West Englewood Children Under 18 Without Broadband Internet
8,000
Austin Children Under 18 Without Broadband Internet
33%
Of Humbolt Park Children Under 18 Without Broadband Internet
This has impacted my daughter’s access to schooling. it’s hard to fill in the gaps. we need access. access to the internet, to laptops.
—Humbolt Park Family
Digital Equity in the Coronavirus Era
Dive Deeper into the Underlying Data
On Friday, April 17, 2020, Illinois joined over 30 other states, and counting, in extending its mandated statewide school closure through the remainder of the 2019-20 school year, in response to the public health crisis surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. State and local officials are requiring the use of online instruction to effectively implement remote learning plans, but the “homework gap”—that is, the barrier that students face at school when they don’t have access to a broadband internet connection at home—disproportionately plagues Chicago’s low-income families and people of color. With COVID-19 forcing school districts to adopt remote learning for the remainder of the school year, the students who were already the most vulnerable to falling behind will now face even more challenges to keeping pace with their peers.
About Our Partners
For more than 85 years, the metropolitan planning council (MPC) has made the Chicago region a better, bolder place to live and work by partnering with businesses, communities and governments to address the area's toughest planning and development challenges. MPC work to solve today's urgent problems while consistently thinking ahead to prepare the region for the needs or tomorrow.