A good internet connection is key to remote learning.
That's why Lawrence County Schools took additional measures to make sure students had access to Wi-Fi if Covid-19 leads to a transition back to virtual learning — like it did this week.
When school goes virtual, there will still be buses throughout Lawrence County. Even though they're not filled with students, they're still assisting both students and parents as a Wi-Fi hotspot.
"We have a team of buses and bus drivers that dispatch, and we put them throughout our communities and make internet access available to, hopefully, all our students and all our parents,†said Lawrence County Schools Superintendent Jon Smith.
Parents and students can park next to the buses and connect to Wi-Fi, then do schoolwork from the car.
“Our parents want to make sure they’re taken care of, and we try to lessen that loss of learning as much as possible and to do that with virtual as well," said Smith.
The coronavirus has forced Lawrence County Schools to go virtual before. Smith told Â鶹Çø that deploying the Wi-Fi bus stations is the best way they're able to continue teaching students when the pandemic prevents in-person learning.
“Each and every time, we’re ... perfecting this and making sure this is a decent replacement for classroom instruction," Smith said. "It’s not an adequate replacement but a decent one."
Each of the schools has Wi-Fi in their parking lot, too, so students can do schoolwork there as well.
Students are set to return to in-person learning Monday.
