Tucson Standard

During its May 9 meeting, the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) approved a renewed budget item to help provide home internet access for students who need it.

Prior to the 2021-22 year, TUSD had provided T-Mobile hotspots out of its utilities budget for students who could not get internet access at home. Rabih Hamadeh, TUSD's interim executive director of Technology Services, noted that the district received federal Emergency Connectivity Funds (ECF) for 2022-23 to help cover the hot spots this year, but ECF money expires on June 30, shifting the burden of paying for the hot spots back to the district's utilities budget.

"What the hotspots provide, of course, is connectivity for the internet, for our students who do not have internet at home," Hamadeh said in the meeting. "We started that process during the COVID pandemic, as you know, when we had to be remote on remote learning in 24 hours. And since COVID ... we became a 1-to-1 device initiative district. So a lot of our students still need that connectivity to the internet so that they're able to use the device."

The mobile hotspots are available to any student who needs internet access at home, and families can apply for them through the school district. The hotspots are filtered for educational purposes, so they have restricted access.

Based on current usage levels, Chief Financial Officer Ricky Hernandez told the board that the district is recommending a decrease to 2916 available hotspots, which would cost TUSD approximately $700,000 a year. He recommended using Medicaid reimbursement funds to pay for the hotspots. The split between students and staff using the hotspots would be approximately 90/10, and Medicaid funds could be used because approximately 20% of students who use the hotspots are eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Hernandez also noted that E-Rate funding might be another possible source to pay for the hotspots.

“E-Rate is a fund that that is developed by the Universal Service Corporation in the Federal Communications Commission,” he said in the meeting. “And the dollars are available to public schools, to libraries, for example, in order to provide network connectivity, like basic internet, basic repair for internal connections. And the district does apply for those funds. We received over $3 million to fund 80% of our internet, for example, and a lot of our maintenance and internal connections costs across the district.”

By Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, E-Rate funds are not currently allowed to be used on expenses such as hotspots, but Hernandez said that could change soon. In the meantime, the board adopted the department's funding plan.