Attending school at a fast-food spot: 12m US students lack internet a year into pandemic

From a lack of broadband in Appalachia to obsolete devices distributed to poor urban families, the absence of reliable internet has meant a year of lost learning

• This series was reported by The74Million.org, a nonprofit education news site, in partnership with the Guardian

The day her teenage daughter's hair began to fall out, Eva Garcia knew the stress had become too much.

For months, Kimberly Son Garcia had been getting bumped off Zoom classes and missing deadlines because of slow internet access. Until November, the Los Angeles family had grabbed wifi from the parking lot of Carl's Jr, a local fast-food chain, or through a school-provided hotspot. After shopping for her own internet service and rejecting bundles she couldn't afford, Garcia finally signed up for a $30-a-month plan from Spectrum.