Grayson County Schools has been awarded a $14,000 grant from the WHAS Crusade for Children that will bring new technology into special needs classrooms.
The district requested the funding to bring updated Chromebooks to high school self-contained and resource classrooms.
The COVID-19 pandemic made access to individual technology devices an imperative, whether students were on a strictly virtual or hybrid learning path. Students thrived with the options provided by personal access and the district wants to keep that growing with the return to a more “normal” classroom setting in the upcoming school year.
Individual Chromebook access will allow students to participate with their classroom virtually, even when absent. For those in the classroom, teachers can more precisely differentiate content comprehension and completion. The technology has even brought out students’ more social side as they often share personal thoughts while engaging in lessons.
District Special Education Director Monica Heavrin noted that individual access helps students grow many of the skills vital to transitioning into adulthood and the workplace, a requirement for schools in the state of Kentucky.
“With the right tools in hand, the gap lessens between them and their peers - which is our highest goal,” she said.
“As students are required to do more and more online - which seems to be the way the world is going - and with access to individual Chromebooks to complete day to day tasks, they will be better prepared to step out into that world.”