School Districts Waiting For Computers

The demand for Chromebooks for online learning has lead to a supply shortage.

Extra to fill the gap.

New tonight -- tens of thousands of students in alabama may start the school year without the computers they need.

Today -- we spent the day digging into 38-thousand missing chromebooks and the impact on students.

Waay 31's max cohan learned - several local school districts are still waiting on deliveries.

School superintendents of alabama executive director ryan hollingsworth told me about 20 school districts in alabama are impacted.

He said with schools set to start across the country, it could take 6-8 weeks for school districts to find a new supplier.

Time schools don't have.

"so our superintendents, the school district's, are looking for other suppliers here in the us to purchase those from."

In north alabama, huntsville, athens and scottsboro city schools confirmed supply chain disruptions delayed device shipments.

But both districts told me they should have enough computers for every student that needs one.

Other districts may not be as lucky.

"we also have districts that have ordered chromebooks, other devices that are not being delivered on time, as well.

So when you combine that with the 38 thousand, you're looking at a large number of devices that school districts were anticipating to have in place for when students return."

I went to etowah county.

Its superintendent was the first to report shipments never arrived.

When trying to figure out why, he was told by the vendor the laptops were stuck in customs. "so we immediately reached out to senator shelbys office, senator jones' office and actually i was able to speak personally with congressman aderholt and all of them were very helpful in understanding the situation."

Cut off the second half of the sot.

Late wednesday, hollingsworth learned they never even left the manufacturer's plant.

Max look live "i reached out to numerous districts today to see if they were among they were directly impacted, none of those i spoke to claimed to be but huntsville, athens and scottsboro all said they're still waiting on shipments.

In etowah county, max cohan, waay 31 news."

The school superintendent s of alabama could not provide the