When schools roll out new generative artificial intelligence tools this term, their most vulnerable students will not be able to practise them at home. That is the practical reality behind a call from national children’s education charity The Smith Family during International Digital Inclusion Week 2026.
The Smith Family’s own data shows 44% of young people on its Learning for Life program go home each day without a connected device. The program provides financial sponsorship to students experiencing disadvantage.
The figure illustrates a digital gap that carries real weight at the school level. It is not simply a classroom equity issue. It compounds every night when homework is assigned, every week when digital assessments are practised, and every year that digital capability is expected to grow.
The scale of the problem extends well beyond students on formal support programs. The Telstra Foundation’s Australian Youth Digital Index found the proportion of young Australians without a laptop or desktop at home has risen from 19% to 23%. That is equivalent to 1.42 million young people.
Meanwhile, the latest Australian Digital Inclusion Index shows that 20.6% of all Australians are digitally excluded or highly excluded, with significant disparities across communities and regions.
What does the digital gap actually cost Australian schools?
Schools have long understood that the digital skills gap among students experiencing disadvantage is not new. What is changing is the stakes.
As artificial intelligence integrates into classroom tools, homework platforms, and assessment environments, the homework gap becomes an AI gap. Students who cannot extend their learning outside school hours face an ever-growing disadvantage.
Where bring-your-own-device expectations are in place and disadvantaged students lack home devices, unequal access becomes a learning design problem that classroom time alone cannot solve.
Doug Taylor, chief executive of The Smith Family, said the growing digital gap risked locking disadvantaged students out of an AI-driven education system.
“As artificial intelligence becomes an everyday part of learning and work, there is a real risk it will amplify the digital divide,” Taylor said. “Students without access to the right technology are not only missing out today, they risk falling further behind as digital skills become increasingly important.”
A practical pathway: corporate IT refresh as a school equity lever
The Smith Family’s call during Digital Inclusion Week is directed at corporate Australia. But for school leaders, it points to a practical lever: advocating for local businesses to donate devices is a low-cost strategy with measurable school-level returns.
Organisations are being encouraged to donate end-of-lease and surplus laptops — rather than disposing of them at IT refresh — to The Smith Family’s refurbishment program.
The charity partners with not-for-profit WorkVentures, which refurbishes and redistributes donated devices through the National Device Bank. Together, they have placed more than 14,000 laptops with families over the past four years.
Devices are supplied with links to digital literacy resources and eSafety guidance. This addresses both access and capability-building, which teachers say matters most when using AI tools to benefit students.
“A laptop that has reached the end of its corporate life can still have years of value for a student,” Taylor said. “An organisation’s next IT refresh could help give a young person the tools they need to learn, participate and build the skills they will need for the future.”
Schools already connected to WorkVentures or the National Device Bank can point local business partners to The Smith Family’s donation portal at thesmithfamily.com.au/laptop-donation.
For school leaders, the most direct lever available right now is a conversation with a local corporate partner. One IT refresh cycle, redirected, could put connected devices in the hands of dozens of students sitting on the wrong side of the digital gap.