Dallas County and the Dallas Independent School District are working together to try to spread information about free and reduced price internet available to families. They say 210,000 households in Dallas County are eligible for the service but have not signed up.
"This is not slow internet," says Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. "300 MBPS is enough to where one member of the family is watching HD Netflix, another member is on a Zoom, another person is working on their homework and another person has finished their homework and is playing games on the WiFi on their phone."
Families must meet income requirements, making less than about $55,000 for a family of four or $27,000 for a single person household.
"This can help you with job applications," Jenkins says. "There are people out there who don't have email at home."
Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde says reliable internet access is no longer a luxury and should be viewed as a necessity like running water or electricity.
"All our students need access to be able to investigate, to research. That's now a fundamental part of teaching and learning," she says.
Elizalde says the district and Dallas County are working with AT&T and other companies to provide access that can accommodate several people at once.
"Even the hotspots we were deploying [during the pandemic] were not the quality our families needed," she says. "If more than one child was trying to utilize that, then other members of the family were not able to access it."
Services are available across Texas for people and families who meet income guidelines. People can learn more about requirements and how to sign up at getinternet.gov.
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