Over the last few years, school districts across the country have initiated one-to-one laptop programs. According to a newly released nationwide survey, more than one-fourth of the 2,500 largest U.S. school districts have at least one full grade of students with their own laptops—a figure that is expected to rise to 50 percent within three years. While the largest one-to-one laptop programs are the districtwide program for grades 6–12 in Henrico County, Va., and Maine’s statewide program in middle schools and some high schools, states including Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Florida are also investing in one-to-one computing.

The practical issues involved in implementing these programs are significant, experts say, and so is the expense. In some high-profile cases, districts have canceled programs for either one or the other reason. Nonetheless, many educators believe it’s just a matter of time before laptops are as ubiquitous as lunchboxes in students’ backpacks.

“It’s all about equity, access, and opportunity,” says Claudia Mansfield Sutton, a spokeswoman for the American Association of School Administrators, which co-sponsored the nationwide survey, titled America’s Digital Schools 2008 (ADS08). “If a child can only use the computer lab once or twice a week, how can he or she compete? With a laptop, kids can access [digital] content anytime, anywhere.”