IT Infrastructure & Management

What Districts Can Do With All Those Old Chromebooks

The devices districts bought en masse early in the pandemic are coming of age
By Caitlynn Peetz — July 16, 2024 3 min read
Art and technology teacher Jenny O'Sullivan, right, shows students a video they made, April 15, 2024, at A.D. Henderson School in Boca Raton, Fla. While many teachers nationally complain their districts dictate textbooks and course work, the South Florida school's administrators allow their staff high levels of classroom creativity...and it works.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Pandemic-era virtual learning prompted most districts to invest heavily in technology for nearly all students, including millions of Chromebooks, iPads, and other devices.

Most school districts now have 1-to-1 technology, meaning every student has a school-issued learning device. Eighty-five percent of educators said their district has a device for each student at all grade levels in a 2022 survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center.

Those devices, eventually, will come to the end of their usable lives, and it will be districts’ responsibility to recycle, repurpose, or dispose of them. Finding ways to dispose of those devices in an environmentally friendly way is a key consideration, as schools can play a role in combating the climate crisis in part by reducing unnecessary waste.

Here are four ways districts can extend the lives of their devices and prepare for recycling and the disposal of technology that has aged out.

1. Invest in repairs so devices last as long as possible

The easiest way for districts to get the biggest bang for their buck is to extend the life of their technology as long as possible, said LeeAnn Kittle, executive director of sustainability for the Denver school district. It’s a well-known fact that students aren’t the gentlest users of their Chromebooks and tablets, especially schools’ youngest learners. Creating a budget each year for repairs and performing routine maintenance can help extend the life of devices, keeping them out of the waste stream longer and deferring the need to purchase replacements.

2. Start ‘end-of-life’ planning early

No matter how hard districts work to extend the life of their devices, the time will come to say goodbye. District leaders should start planning now for that inevitability so they’re not caught flat-footed with hundreds or thousands of devices that need to be recycled or disposed of, said Jun Kim, director of technology in Moore, Okla.

“End-of-life” planning for school devices should include budgeting for new technology and creating a staggered cycle for replacements so the district doesn’t have to purchase a whole new slate of devices at the same time, Kim said. Districts should also establish partnerships either for refurbishing or recycling devices, whether through local companies or larger vendors. Having those partnerships and plans in place can make the process less stressful when it’s time to replace machines, Kim said. These companies also have the expertise and manpower to dispose of devices in bulk.

See Also

Brandon Hernandez works on a puzzle on a tablet before it's his turn to practice reading at an after school program at the Vardaman Family Life Center in Vardaman Miss., on March 3, 2020.
Brandon Hernandez works on a puzzle on a tablet before it's his turn to practice reading at an after-school program at the Vardaman Family Life Center in Vardaman Miss., on March 3, 2020. Districts that acquired devices for every student for the first time during the pandemic are facing decisions about what to do at the end of the devices' useful life.
Thomas Wells/The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP

3. Consider student internships for technology maintenance and recycling

Another partnership districts can consider is with their own students.

Schools can tap into their career and technical education programs, and recruit students interested in tech careers to work on repairing and refurbishing devices.

The Moore, Okla., district, for example, offers courses and paid internships within its IT department for students interested in careers that involve repairing technology and breaking down devices to recycle reusable parts.

In the past year, students have repaired about 1,000 devices and provided hundreds of hours of customer support services to staff and families in need of technology help, according to Kim.

The program has also helped the district financially.

Along with not having to hire additional staff to do the same work, which is not in the budget, the district has saved about $90,000 by repurposing salvageable parts from otherwise broken, unfixable devices to repair other devices that merely need replacement parts, Kim said.

4. Donate or sell discounted devices to give back to the community

Devices that don’t require disposal but are being replaced as part of a district’s routine technology upgrade schedule can be donated to other districts with fewer resources, local families and organizations, or even sold at a discounted price to community members. These efforts can help provide families that otherwise cannot afford them with devices to use at home, Kim said.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in Schools
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by Panorama Education
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Science Webinar
Spark Minds, Reignite Students & Teachers: STEM’s Role in Supporting Presence and Engagement
Is your district struggling with chronic absenteeism? Discover how STEM can reignite students' and teachers' passion for learning.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
Recruitment & Retention Webinar EdRecruiter 2025 Survey Results: The Outlook for Recruitment and Retention
See exclusive findings from EdWeek’s nationwide survey of K-12 job seekers and district HR professionals on recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction. 

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

IT Infrastructure & Management Sizing Up the Risks of Schools' Reliance on the 'Internet of Things'
Technology is now critical to both the learning and business operations of schools.
1 min read
Vector image of an open laptop with octopus tentacles reaching out of the monitor around a triangle icon with an exclamation point in the middle of it.
DigitalVision Vectors
IT Infrastructure & Management How Schools Can Survive a Global Tech Meltdown
The CrowdStrike incident this summer is a cautionary tale for schools.
8 min read
Image of students taking a test.
smolaw11/iStock/Getty
IT Infrastructure & Management Schools Can't Evaluate All Those Ed-Tech Products. Help Is on the Way
Many districts don't have the time or expertise to carefully evaluate the array of ed-tech tools on the market.
2 min read
PC tablet with cloud of application icons floating from off the screen.
iStock/Getty
IT Infrastructure & Management FCC Pilot Program to Help Schools Fight 'Real and Growing' Cyberattacks
School districts and libraries can soon seek new federal grants to protect against the cyberattacks.
4 min read
Dollar Sign Made of Circuit Board on Motherboard and CPU.
iStock/Getty