For families with students in Uintah School District with limited internet access at home, a grant may soon help improve your resources at home. Uintah School District announced in a press release on Monday that they have been awarded a $300,000 dollar grant to provide broadband internet for students enrolled in district programs who do not have broadband internet or adequate broadband speeds at home. “With our blended learning model in place, home access to broadband internet connectivity has never been more important for our students,” shares Uintah School District Superintendent Rick Woodford. “Many of our students’ families cannot afford to pay for broadband service. The broadband access grant will provide our families who qualify with broadband service, allowing their students to access their blended learning curriculum and lessons at home.” The grant is part of funding received by the state of Utah through the CARES Act. To qualify, families need to meet the federal criteria for free and reduced lunch and not have broadband service or adequate broadband speeds in their home as of October 1st. For those that qualify, the broadband connection will be provided for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year. Families cannot cancel or downgrade existing broadband service in order to qualify for the grant. “We’re going to do as much good with this money as we can,” says Woodford. “This is not designed to be a welfare type program; it is designed to ensure that students have access to education.” To apply, link to the form in the announcement posted on www.uintah.net.
