When students head back to school Monday in the second largest school district in Massachusetts, basic supplies will include school-issued laptop computers.
In a first for an urban school system in Massachusetts, the Springfield Public Schools will assign a laptop to each student in grades 3-12.
Superintendent Dan Warwick said the laptops will be used in classroom lessons and in the future students may be allowed to take the computers home.
" A lot of our kids don't have computers at home and they need this exposure to technology if they are going to compete in the 21st century," said Warwick.
The school department leased 20,000 laptops for four years at a cost of $20 million. Work was done in more than 50 school buildings to improve wireless internet access.
