For the third consecutive year, cybersecurity is the top tech priority among K-12 schools, according to an annual survey of state education technology officials. Other key findings include a surge in state support for artificial intelligence in education and a drop in the number of state leaders who feel they have the funding necessary to improve school cybersecurity.

Commissioned by the nonprofit State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and produced by Whiteboard Advisors, the 2024 State EdTech Trends Report is based on survey responses from state education and technology leaders in 46 states.

This year, those responses showed AI remains a top ed-tech priority, coming in second to cybersecurity and followed by digital equity, which SETDA defines as access to the Internet.

Mirroring these primary issues, the number of respondents who said their state has a plan in place for the use of AI in education rose from 2 percent in 2023 to 14 percent in 2024. The number of states using broadband programs to help connect students to the Internet also increased, growing from 71 percent in 2023 to 85 percent in 2024.

Moving in the opposite direction, the percentage of state leaders who said they believe their state provides sufficient funding for school cybersecurity dropped from 19 percent in 2023 to 8 percent in 2024.

“While this result may mean that states are not funding cybersecurity efforts in 2024 at the same levels they were in 2023, it may simply reflect shifting perceptions of how much it costs to keep up with the escalating threats school systems face,” the report states. “In other words, last year’s ‘ample funding’ might be this year’s insufficient funding.”

In terms of unmet ed-tech needs across states, home access connectivity topped the list again this year, followed closely by funding, which saw a 4 percent increase in need from 2023.

SETDA Executive Director Julia Fallon said the two needs are interrelated, as school districts face the loss of pandemic relief funds this fall on top of the June 2024 sunsetting of both the Emergency Connectivity Fund and the Affordable Connectivity Program.

At the same time, devices purchased at the beginning of the pandemic for students to use at home may be reaching a point where they need to be updated or replaced.

“With funding going away, the burden of funding that type of thing is moving, so we’re seeing, obviously, schools thinking about equitable access,” Fallon said. “Especially when students have devices now that they’re going back and forth with and using to do homework and collaborate.”

The importance of home Internet and device access also ties into communication with families, Fallon said, noting that she no longer receives any paper updates from her own child’s school.

“Everything comes to me in an email message, and if I don’t have connectivity at home, that cuts off a very important communication channel for families,” she said.

A third unmet need that’s on the rise is professional ed-tech training for educators, which shot up from 17 percent in 2023 to 24 percent in 2024.

Additional findings from the third annual State EdTech Trends Report point to opportunities for improvement. For example, only 11 percent of respondents said their state requires local districts to develop ed-tech plans, which the report cites as “vital to ensuring that these tools are used effectively and equitably and that states and districts adopt strategies to sustain their use.” Close to 60 percent of the state leaders surveyed said no statewide ed-tech plan is underway where they live.

Such planning might help schools strengthen another weak spot: the adoption of inclusive technology. Nearly half the state leaders surveyed said their state provides no guidance to schools to ensure their ed-tech tools adhere to the principles of the Universal Design for Learning — one of the main recommendations of the 2024 National Education Technology Plan.

Fallon said she hopes state leaders will use the report, which includes examples from specific states, to further modernize their own education systems in a sustainable way.