Memo from the State Dept. of Education

We anticipate that the legislature will be acting soon to appropriate significant funds for
expansion of broadband internet in South Carolina. The South Carolina Office of Regulatory
Staff (ORS) is creating maps of our state indicating which areas are in most need of high-speed
internet. Because internet for educational use is a high priority, ORS has asked for our assistance in determining which students and staff live in households without adequate high-speed internet, whether it is because of service providers’ unwillingness to provide it to the home, the cost, or the lack of cell coverage. To that end, ORS has created the I Need Internet survey. Data from the survey will be used to update the maps with more specific information on internet service around the state. We would very much appreciate your distributing this information to your students, staff, and families so that decisions on where to spend broadband resources can be fully informed of the educational needs for broadband in our state.
If you have questions, please contact me at bcarpentier@ed.sc.gov or Jim Stritzinger at
jstritzinger@ors.sc.gov.
Survey link: https://survey123.arcgis.com/s...
Link to current maps: https://www.scdigitaldrive.org...