Lawmakers Call for Billions to Bridge Homework Gap (Corrected)

At Justin Racette’s West Chicago elementary school, instructors rarely assigned homework online before April.

That changed after Howe School of Excellence and other campuses across the country closed their doors in response to the coronavirus pandemic. But weeks after the school switched to online instruction, fewer than half of Racette’s 50 third-grade students have even logged into video lessons in Google Classroom, in part because of technology and connectivity barriers.

“There are some students who still don’t have technology. Others still don’t have Wi-Fi or have to share it,” said Racette, who teaches math and science, in an interview. ...