For many school children, summertime means days of fun in the sun, family road trips, and visits from the ice cream truck. But many parents don’t realize that summer can also mean learning loss. Studies have found that nearly all children lose knowledge over the summer. In fact, when children head back to school in the fall, they are already one month behind academically! This loss adds up year after year, especially for students from low-income families who may not have access to summertime enrichment opportunities, like camp, tutoring, and regular trips to the library. This can significantly impact a child’s success in school.
Summer Learning Loss
One way families can overcome summer learning loss is to make sure they Internet access at home for their children. While it’s easy to slip out of the routine of learning, kids can stay engaged over the summer with online educational games, research on topics of interest, downloadable programs to brush up on math and grammar, or simply by reading a book online.
Internet access at home has become an important component of success in the classroom and well beyond. For example, the internet connects students with their teachers’ and school’s online educational resources, plus provides families with critical access to job applications, healthcare and government service information, and much more.
Unfortunately, about 30 percent of Americans, many of whom live below the poverty line, do not have Internet access in their homes. This is particularly concerning because children from low-income families have been found to have a steeper rate of learning loss over the summer, specifically in the area of reading.
Bridging The Digital Divide
To help connect these families to the Internet, Comcast is offering Internet Essentials, the nation’s largest, most comprehensive broadband adoption initiative designed to help close the digital divide. It provides families who have at least one child eligible to participate in the National School Lunch Program with Internet for $9.95 a month; the option to buy a computer for less than $150; and access to digital literacy training.
Programs like Internet Essentials have the capacity to change the lives of students by providing opportunities for learning when school is not in session. To learn more visit InternetEssentials.com or InternetBasico.com for Spanish. Parents looking to enroll students can call 1-855-846-8376 or for Spanish, 1-855-765-6995.
