NLRSD: Making Tech Leaps for Digital Equity in Education

The North Little Rock School District (NLRSD) serves nearly 8,000 Pre-K to 12th-grade students across 15 campuses in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Around 98% of the district’s cohort come from low-income backgrounds, rely on free school meals and often lack WiFi access and devices at home, leaving NLRSD supporting children academically, socially and emotionally.

Randy Riddle, the district’s Director of IT, works tirelessly to ensure every child has equal and equitable access to education. With every student receiving a Chromebook at the start of the school year – and younger children having a more tactile version in the form of an iPad – pupils from middle school age and up can take these devices home, transforming them into essential tools for homework and family use. 

“Sometimes that turns out to be the family computer, which is perfectly fine,” Randy says, emphasising not only how vital the equipment is but also what it enables.

NLRSD isn’t stopping at hardware. By overhauling campus WiFi, NLRSD now provides seamless coverage in every classroom and common area, eliminating dead zones that could disrupt learning. The district solely works on Google Classroom and Google’s suite of technologies, providing a unified digital learning platform that allows students – as well as their teachers – to navigate familiar interfaces as they progress through grades without the confusion of multiple systems.