HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Almost 5,000 Henrico County elementary school students have received Chromebooks distributed by the county to assist with homeschooling during school closures.

While middle and high school students are issued laptop computers by the school division for use during the school year, Chromebook devices used by HCPS elementary students previously remained in school classrooms.

Before the April 6-10 Spring Break, HCPS elementary schools surveyed parents and guardians to find out which families needed a computer to use for schoolwork. After the survey, Chromebooks were distributed beginning April 16 susing a drive-up method, to comply with social distancing practices.

A limited number of Wi-Fi hot-spot devices were also distributed to families who didn’t have home internet access.

“The logistics of the effort required extensive planning to best serve families in a safe and efficient manner,” said Brian Maddox, director of the HCPS Department of Technology. “Over the course of seven weekdays, our team distributed 4,984 Chromebooks to Henrico elementary families in need of technology.By the end of the seven days, we were distributing Chromebooksto vehicles at an average rate of one per minute, which is exceptionally fast and efficient.We also distributed more than 150 hotspots to elementary families without internet service.