Justice Grant Aids Advanced School Communications

Woodbridge, Va.

The proliferation of cellphones, laptops, and other wireless gadgets gives school districts more ways of communicating than ever. Unfortunately, incompatibility among many different devices results in an “electronic Tower of Babel,” as Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., put it last week.

Rep. Davis was on hand at Freedom High School, in Woodbridge, Va., for the ceremonial presentation of a $246,000 grant from the Department of Justice to the Prince William County school district.

The grant will be used to pilot-test a new type of software that allows communication among a wide range of devices that school districts already have—including cellphones, walkie-talkies, personal digital assistants,...