Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Technology topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District tech team says vendor will replace faulty iPad cases at no cost after rising failures
Summary
Tri‑Creek technology staff reported a surge of iPad keyboard/case failures and said the vendor and Apple committed to replace about 2,000 cases and send an installation team at no cost to the district.
Tri‑Creek School Corporation technology staff told the board the district has received escalating reports of failures in protective iPad cases with attached keyboards and trackpads and that the vendor has agreed to replace affected units at no cost.
"All those are warrantied for 4 years, so there's no additional cost on our end," the district’s technology lead said. The staff member told the board failures grew from a few per week at the start of school to "10 to 15 a day," concentrated in middle school devices that have been in use longer.
The vendor sent an engineer who removed sample units for analysis and committed to a manufacturing fix. District staff said the vendor will ship roughly 2,000 replacement cases, will send a team to install them, and will cover associated staffing costs to minimize student downtime. The district also has been receiving daily warranty replacement shipments while awaiting the manufacturing correction.
School staff described the typical failure as loss of keyboard and trackpad function; in most cases charging remained unaffected. The technology lead said the district has about 150 replacement units arriving the next day and another shipment of 800 units the following week to reduce immediate classroom impact ahead of state testing.
Board members asked about other districts seeing the same issue; technology staff said at least one other local district reported similar problems and Apple indicated Indiana districts are experiencing early‑season occurrences because school calendars return earlier here.
No additional costs to Tri‑Creek were reported; the vendor agreed to cover labor or provide temporary staffing help while replacements occur. The board requested to be notified of specific replacement dates and of any unresolved device or testing impacts.
