A video that recently circulated on Twitter shows a young student apparently using a model tablet at a mall store to finish his homework. A commenter's response to it went viral: “Schools making it mandatory for kids to have internet access to do homework is just another way for poor kids to get left behind and continue the cycle of generational poverty. I’m bothered.” With over 185,000 retweets, the message clearly struck a nerve about the extreme lengths students sometimes have to go to complete basic educational responsibilities.

According to a 2018 Pew Research Center report, nearly one in five students lack a high-speed internet connection at home. As with many other educational inequities, low-income students and students of color are much more likely to lack this resource.

News coverage often focuses on the underserved students in rural communities, where extending broadband can be difficult. A 2018 report by the U.S. Census Bureau noted that counties classified as "mostly rural" and "completely rural" lagged behind counties classified as "mostly urban" in broadband access, across income levels. But the story is a bit more complicated.

The same Census Bureau report featured an analysis of internet subscription rates in Memphis, Tennessee, showing high connectivity in the suburbs around the city, but noticeably large gaps in both the urban core, and in rural areas. As a recent Washington Post headline put it, “cities, not rural areas, are the real Internet deserts.” And education experts interviewed by Teen Vogue say that internet connectivity is just one of many issues creating a digital divide among students.

According to Roxanne Garza, a senior policy analyst for educator quality at New America and Kristina Ishmael, senior project manager for the teaching, learning, and tech program at the same foundation, broadband connectivity needs to be addressed in concert with providing enough devices for efficient student access and requiring teacher training to incorporate digital skills into their classrooms and homes. Without all of these pieces, schools, teachers, and students are left trying to decide if and when to incorporate digital learning. Educators lacking this needed support, Garza says, are put in the difficult position of deciding whether or not to assign homework knowing students cannot complete it. “There's like a level of unfairness there...and then there's the decision to not assign because of that unfairness...and it's like choosing the least awful choice out there," she said.

While the issue of internet connectivity gets most of the attention, it is this combination of factors and difficult decisions that Garza says presents the biggest problem. Whether it's a lack of computers or even basic physical resources like textbooks, the challenges force students to jump through hoops in order to complete assignments. "I've seen a lot of high school students type papers with their thumbs...I saw a student sitting in front of me on the Metro here in D.C. who had taken pictures of a textbook page on their phone so they could read it because they didn't have another way to access [it]," Ishmael said.

According to Garza, a lack of digital skills can translate to lower levels of academic achievement and lower test scores: "We all have experienced by now that being comfortable in a digital environment is so key to being successful."

Shandiin Herrera , 22, is all too familiar with the struggles that Garza and Ishmael describe. Herrera grew up on the Navajo Nation reservation in Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border, commuting to school over 20 miles away in Kayenta, Arizona. Growing up, she lived in a household without broadband access, and little cell service. The same was true for most people in her community, she told Teen Vogue.