2020-2021 impact update
Supporting Critical Needs
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, we launched the CMS COVID-19 Relief Fund in March 2020 to help extend learning and support critical needs for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students and families. Our primary focus was to help fill technology gaps for students like access to home internet. Through a combination of private and public support, we’ve exceeded our ambitious goal.
More than 2,000 individuals, community organizations, businesses, and public entities have provided the resources needed to fill the estimated connectivity gap in CMS.
connect for tech
Keeping Students and Teachers Connected
As students across the nation engage in remote learning, it has never been more important to have reliable internet service at home. Unfortunately, thousands of students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools have not had home internet access. This creates an urgency in our community to ensure that every student, regardless of economic circumstance, has access to education this school year.
Following the school closures in March of 2020, the CMS Foundation raised more than $1 million to purchase 6,000 mobile hotspots for students without home internet. But at the start of 2020-21 school year, an estimated 16,000 households with CMS students still lacked adequate home connectivity.
In response to this need, we asked our community to “Connect for Tech” and close the connectivity gap by helping us raise $3.2 million to cover the cost of internet service for students in need of support during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
