Public TV Stations Partner With Schools

Public television stations across America are partnering with local school districts to provide remote learning services to students whose schools have been closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“These are examples of what public television stations do best: educate our children and serve our communities,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations. “Public funding by federal and state governments makes it possible for us to serve everybody everywhere for free, and in times like these the value of that investment is incalculable.”

In California, all public television stations have committed to support K-12 learning at home. PBS SoCal KCET is partnering with the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest (and owner of KLCS Los Angeles), to provide educational resources — both on-air and online — to 700,000 students. KPBS in San Diego, in collaboration with the San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego County Office of Education, is offering at-home learning options for students, teachers and parents.

In Massachusetts, WGBH in Boston and WGBY in Springfield are collaborating with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to provide distance learning over broadcast and digital platforms to preK-12th grade students throughout the state.

In Michigan, Detroit Public TV is working with community educators across the state to provide free educational programming and associated digital resources that adhere to Michigan’s state curriculum to facilitate at-home learning across all grade levels.

In Missouri, Nine Network in St. Louis is devising a plan with regional school superintendents to ensure free educational resources to thousands of students, particularly children in grades K-4, whom educators believe most need such resources for effective remote learning.

In Nevada, Vegas PBS is adapting its Reach online instructional resources for a potential extended home schooling experience, combining all links and information for elementary, middle and high school curricula for ease of use by parents, teachers and students. The service will be made available statewide for free.

In Oklahoma, OETA is working with the State Department of Education to provide PBS LearningMedia and other distance learning resources to educators and parents statewide, together with information on the coronavirus and steps to mitigate infection.

In Virginia, WHRO in Norfolk has established a free Digital Learning Courses website with links to all of the station’s high school online courses for the 21 school divisions that own WHRO. The links can be used with or without an available learning management system.

More such partnerships are being created daily as more schools are closed, and APTS will provide a weekly update while circumstances warrant.