HONOLULU — The Hawaiʻi State Department of Education (HIDOE) today launched the nation’s first statewide, comprehensive help desk providing technology support to public school students and their parents as schools offer more opportunities for online and blended learning.

The ʻOhana Help Desk will provide self-service and chat support for families experiencing issues connecting to HIDOE systems remotely from home. The help desk will be able to assist with connectivity-related issues (e.g. network and wifi connectivity), access and security issues, device support (e.g. devices, applications, software updates) and general IT support.

While other school districts provide tech support to families, HIDOE's help desk is statewide and was designed with a higher level of support, with phone support in multiple languages, chat support and an online portal. The help desk will be able to provide phone support in languages most commonly spoken in Hawaiʻi households – English, Hawaiian, Ilokano, Tagalog, Chuukese and Marshallese.

“The ʻOhana Help Desk will be a tremendous resource for our parents and students who will be distance learning this school year to help resolve technical issues that may arise when students connect to the HIDOE network remotely using a variety of devices. We already provide a help desk service for our employees, and this is an extension of that effort,” Superintendent Dr. Christina Kishimoto said. “Assisting families in their preferred language will ensure that all students can successfully connect with classrooms and virtual lessons.”

The Department awarded a $1.7 million contract to Hawaiian Telcom to establish the help desk.