Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
In a remote learning world, should WiFi be considered a right? We may soon have a clue.
More than a hundred thousand homeless students in New York City will soon be fighting for their right to WiFi, in a class action lawsuit that has been confirmed to proceed to trial.
In a ruling last week, US District Judge Alison Nathan allowed the suit brought by the parents of 114,000 homeless students and the Coalition of the Homeless to advance to an expedited discovery phase, according to a report in Business Insider. The suit demands immediate access to WiFi so that homeless students can access classroom education.
Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many students to learn remotely, but a large number of lower income or homeless students have limited access to the internet. A 2019 study reported by the New York City Comptroller’s office found that approximately 44 percent of New Yorkers who live in poverty have no broadband connection, and for the homeless communities living in areas with good broadband, they may not even be able to access it.
“Without internet connectivity, homeless students are deprived of the means to attend classes,” Nathan stated in her decision. “And because homeless children who lack internet access and reside in New York City shelters cannot attend school for as long as that deprivation exists, the City bears a duty, under the statute, to furnish them with the means necessary for them to attend school.”
Following pressure from the media and a front page news story about students missing classes because of a lack of internet, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in October that he instructed his administration to ensure that “every shelter gets Wi-Fi, to send teams out to literally go shelter by shelter and simply ensure not just for that student, but for the whole shelter, Wi-Fi is in place”, according to NY Daily News.
No clear timeline has been offered for the WiFi rollout to homeless shelters, and city officials said the project may not be complete until summer of 2021, according to Business Insider. The WiFi program followed a previous idea to equip homeless students in the NYC school system with cellular enabled devices but those devices encountered connectivity issues early on.
Susan Horowitz, supervising attorney of the education law project at the Legal Aid Society told Business Insider that the WiFi program has been a disappointment and called for immediate action to address the issue.
“Despite months of pushing the city to address the root cause of the problem, City Hall continues to advance ineffective solutions while families in shelters suffer. We look forward to seeing all shelters equipped with working WiFi, far in advance of the city’s stated goal of summer 2021.”
Have you been affected by COVID-19 remote learning requirement? Let us know in the comment section below.
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
7 thoughts onHomeless Students’ WiFi Class Action Lawsuit Heads to Trial
Also we were denied Food because of the p-ebt which was the most cruelest thing ever not asking why or not caring they just assumed we did not participate in which we could NOT participate rather!!!-
Hammond Indiana 46320
Yes we were without internet wayy before this Pandemic hit and after was homeless for 6mths during and after still never having internet by the time portable Hotspots came out my daughter who was an a-b honor role student shifting into senior year was unable to graduate because she was forced to work to help her family stay afloat she was already 12 credits behind and wasn’t able to catch up because of our circumstances due to this damn Pandemic and didn’t get to graduate sending my daughter into a downward spiral with depression anxiety and host of other things!!! These schools expect these children to just catch they could not stay focused long enough to catch up!!!
Also we were denied Food because of the p-ebt which was the most cruelest thing ever not asking why or not caring they just assumed we did not participate in which we could NOT participate rather!!!
Not only are the homeless in school effected. But the homeless who cannot keep up with meetings or emails or phonecalls ,web calls. Are being denied assistance and or cut from programming monies and then shoved out of system to act as if we were never there or lied on in paperwork to other grant funding parties above them. I have been cut from help because i had no way to get an email out during Co vid 19 and other covid situational urgencys from work, workerscomp, workforce, loans and gov assistant programs
Add me please
This should be a National case because in the state of NJ this is a problem as well.
Thank you my thoughts exactly another epidemic!!!