Summary

Considerable progress has been made in connecting all public schools to the Internet. By fall 1996, 65 percent of all regular public schools were already connected; an additional 30 percent reported that they planned to have Internet access by the year 2000. However, connecting schools is only part of the equation. Although Internet access in instructional rooms in public schools more than quadrupled between fall 1994 and fall 1996 (from 3 percent to 14 percent of all instructional rooms), the actual percentage of instructional rooms with Internet access remains low. Student access to the Internet is another part of the equation, but one about which little is known.

Although the surveys included in this report focused on regular public schools, the National Center for Education Statistics has collected information on Internet access in private schools through a fall 1995 FRSS survey. A report of the findings from that survey will be released shortly. National data regarding Internet access in special types of public schools (special education, vocational education, and alternative schools), however, have not been collected.

In addition to tracking the rate at which schools and instructional rooms have access to the Internet, the Survey on Advanced Telecommunications in U. S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, Fall 1996 gathered data regarding what other kinds of advanced telecommunications are available in schools, types of teacher training in advanced telecommunications provided by schools and school districts, and barriers to the use of schools' advanced telecommunications resources by students with disabilities. These issues will be examined in forthcoming NCES reports, scheduled for release later in 1997.

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