As parents across the nation prepare for an education for their children that involves extended periods of online instruction, there’s one thing missing: High-speed internet connections. Almost 24 million U.S. households in unified school districts don’t have a broadband internet connection, a major handicap when it comes to online education, according to a Social Explorer analysis of 2014-18 American Community Survey data.

The Social Explorer analysis found that school districts with the highest percentages of broadband generally were on the East and West Coast, especially in New Jersey and California. The Mountain Lakes Borough School District in northern New Jersey reported 99 percent of its households had broadband connections, the highest penetration of any district with more than 1,000 households. The lowest percentage, 13.6 percent, was found in the Kiryas Joel Village Union Free School District, a Hasidic enclave just north of New York. 

Find these districts and the percentage of households in your unified school district with broadband internet using Social Explorer’s online mapping tools here.

Broadband Internet Subscriptions by Unified School District. Click here to explore further.

Author: Frank Bass