D.C. had a summer to connect with students and close the digital divide. Did it?

With a week left until an all-virtual start to the academic year, D.C. school leaders are racing to connect with students they have lost contact with over the summer and struggling to determine who still needs technology to participate in distance learning.

It’s a heavy and high-stakes lift in a transient city where nearly 25 percent of the city’s public school students live below the poverty line and 50 percent are considered at risk for academic failure. A city survey found that more than half of respondents lacked adequate technology at home.