DALLAS — Dallas Independent School District will begin virtual learning for at least the next four weeks when classes start next week.
On Friday, the district's director of technology, Jeff Kelanic, said it will be unlikely that all students will have a device on Tuesday morning.
“I don’t think we’ll be 100% at this point, and that’s very difficult for me because we’ve been trying," Kelanic said. "The team has been working very hard."
Kelanic said the second largest district in the state with over 153,000 students, likely has sufficient supply of Chromebooks, tablets and hotspots but that, as of Friday afternoon, had not connected with approximately 20% of students. He says many families are still registering their students.
"Our issue is more just making sure that we get connected with every student at that school.”
Kelanic says the district ordered more laptops from the state last month and are still waiting on those to arrive to help provide surplus supply.
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"We do have additional devices coming in here in the next couple weeks and that will help us out," Kelanic said.
In Tarrant County, virtual learning starts in Fort Worth ISD on Sept. 8 as well, where the district says it believes each student will have a device when school starts.
District spokesperson Clint Bond said, some students may be using their parents' devices at the outset, but that the district has ordered 24,000 additional laptops and internet hotspots to meet the demand during the fall.
Christine Childress said her three Dallas ISD children had all received their Chromebook devices, but the password on one of the tablets still wasn't working.
"I don’t really know how Tuesday is going to go," Childress said, "For our end it’s like well, they’re going to have to get it figured out eventually.”
