The beginning of a new school year always means lots and lots of paperwork.  Medical records, emergency contacts, teacher assignments, behavior contracts, discipline procedure, and the list goes on and on.  The NY Times is reporting on the paperless trend that is popping up in schools across the country.  The schools have significantly reduced the number of paper-communications with parents.   But the communication has not stopped, it's just gone high-tech!  Most of these school systems have replaced the traditional stack of papers with various links on the school system website.  Parents can now access important information, forms, and updates at their convience.  And the schools systems report saving lots of money, too.  Not only does this free up instructional time, but financial resources, too. So my question is this:  What are they going to do with the money they are saving?  How about using it to provide computer/internet access to students and families who can't afford it?  In our county and a neighboring one, the bus routes used to be published in the newspaper.  This year, to save money and paper, the routes were posted online.  The only problem with this is that a large population of residence don't have access to the internet.  So they were instructed to drive to the newspaper office, located in another county, to get a paper copy.  Unfortunately, these people can't afford the gas to drive clear across the county to get the bus routes.  So while I think it is a great idea to digitize our school communication, exceptions need to be made for those who can't afford this convience.