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Week 5 Blog

     Nearly half of Strong Tomorrows students attend a fully virtual school requiring consistent internet access. Teen parents face compounding systemic barriers — lower household incomes, unstable housing, and hidden costs of broadband — that make maintaining connectivity disproportionately difficult (Mickler & Tollestrup, 2024; McClain & Bishop, 2026). Addressing this digital access inequity is important for Strong Tomorrows. Currently, many students receive assistance through their schools, but as is common with marginalized communities, many students slip through the cracks and need additional help in gaining consistent, reliable internet access. Strong Tomorrows site coordinators currently connect students with T-Mobile Cares, which will remain the primary method of closing the digital access gap under my TIP (T-Mobile, 2026). However, the needs assessment reiterated that this solution is not always sufficient. 

Strong Tomorrows site coordinators are not educators. Most have backgrounds in social work (Strong Tomorrows, 2023). Therefore, an additional concern has been a lack of foundation and common understanding concerning best practices for introducing educational technology. One of the goals for the TIP is for coordinators to incorporate digital equity best practices aligned to the ISTE Knowledge Constructor and Creative Communicator standards into the parent engagement workshops that they already present monthly (ISTE, 2025). The ISTE Guidance document provides ISTE resources, including ISTE U, that will be valuable for establishing a common language and understanding for coordinators (ISTE, 2020). One of the organization's central goals is to equip expecting or parenting students with what they need to achieve success. A major focus is high school graduation and college and career readiness. The ISTE document also mentions professional development available via Common Sense Media, which would support ISTE digital citizenship goals and naturally fit into the larger goal of supporting student success (ISTE, 2020; Strong Tomorrows, 2023). 

The FCC’s E-rate program allows schools and libraries to request funding for a Wi-Fi hotspot lending program that can provide wireless internet service to students, school staff, and library patrons for off-premises use (Federal Communications Commission [FCC], 2024). Strong Tomorrows maintains strong partnerships with the Tulsa and Union school districts, so this is an important option to help parenting students, especially those with unstable housing, to maintain internet access. Additionally, funding through ESSA Title IV-A via the school partnerships may potentially be used to address some of the digital use inequities experienced by this population. Unfortunately, Strong Tomorrows won’t qualify for ESSA Title IV-A funding directly, so coordination of this type of partnership may be complicated (Crossland, et. al., 2018). As a community non-profit, funding via community outreach grants might be the most promising avenue for funding both digital access and use goals. Strong Tomorrows’ parent organization, Amplify Youth Health Collective, currently receives grant funding from the George Kaiser Foundation. Grants such as the Spectrum Digital Education Grant also show promise for funding (Charter Communications, 2026).

At this time, Strong Tomorrows does not have a budget dedicated to technology adoption. Because they partner with school districts, the assumption has been that this area falls within the purview of the districts rather than this non-profit organization. However, digital equity is a concern that has a major impact on marginalized communities, so it will be important for Strong Tomorrows to look at funding sources and begin to budget specifically for this need. 


References

Charter Communications. (2026). Spectrum digital education grants. https://corporate.charter.com/digital-education/grants

Crossland, A., Gray, T., & Reynolds, J. (2018). ESSA and digital learning: Closing the digital accessibility gap. American Institutes for Research. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED602482.pdf

Federal Communications Commission. (2024). Universal service program for schools and libraries (E-Rate). https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/universal-service-program-schools-and-libraries-e-rate

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2025). ISTE Standards for students. ISTE. https://iste.org/standards/students

International Society for Technology in Education. (2020, April). Using ESSA to fund edtech: Getting the most out of Title IV-A.

McClain, C., & Bishop, W. (2026, January 8). What we know about internet use, smartphone ownership and digital divides in the U.S. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/01/08/internet-use-smartphone-ownership-digital-divides-in-u-s/

Mickler, A. K., & Tollestrup, J. (2024, August 28). Teen birth trends: In brief (CRS Report No. R45184). Congressional Research Service. https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R45184/R45184.7.pdf

Strong Tomorrows. (2023). Our impact. Strong Tomorrows. https://www.strongtomorrows.org/our-impact

T-Mobile. (2026). Project 10Million. https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/project-10-million

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