The Sprint Foundation is giving out free tablets to low-income students across 30 states, including MCPS, as a part of their “1 million” dollar program designed to help bridge the “homework gap.”

The tablets are being given out so that students who do not have access to the internet at home can complete their homework. These tablets connect to the internet without a router. MCPS students can talk to their English teacher or guidance counselor to see if they meet the criteria to receive a tablet: being low income, not having access to the internet or not having a tablet of their own.

Five million U.S. families do not have connection to the internet and 70 percent of teachers assign homework that requires access to the internet in order to be completed, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center study.

“Education is the foundation for our society to prosper, and the internet is an incredibly powerful tool for learning,” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said on Sprint Newsroom Oct. 11. “Those kids [that lack internet connection at home] have a huge disadvantage and we are failing them.”