A recent study shows that 30% of K-12 public school students and 10% of teachers in the US do not participate in online learning because of lack of connected devices, Internet access or both. Out of 50 million students who had to take classes from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 15-16 million do not have devices needed for attending school online and 9 million students do not own adequate devices or Internet access. 

The study also shows that 3-400 000 teachers are not equipped for delivering online classes due to the lack of Internet access. As the school year is about to start, and students will, in many federal states, remain at home due to the pandemic, civil society has called on the US Congress to take immediate action in order to resolve the digital divide affecting both students and teachers across the country.