School District of Pickens County Combats School Closures with ClassLink

The School District of Pickens County (SDPC) in South Carolina serves 16,000 students across 24 schools. Since 2015, the district has used ClassLink LaunchPad as a single sign-on solution, giving students seamless access to all their digital learning resources with just one username and password.  

School closures due to inclement weather, such as ice storms and hurricanes, disrupted learning for students and teachers. Beyond the immediate loss of instructional time, teachers found that students often forgot previous lessons, requiring significant review once they returned to the classroom. The district attempted to make up for lost days by adding them to the end of the school year, but the effectiveness of this approach was questionable. SDPC needed a way to ensure learning continued even when students couldn’t physically be in school.  

SDPC was selected to pilot digital learning days, allowing students to learn from home when schools closed. ClassLink made this possible by providing a single sign-on portal where students could access all their digital resources from any device. Because students were already familiar with ClassLink, logging in from home felt natural, ensuring a smooth transition to remote learning. The success of digital learning days quickly became evident, and today, they are the district’s new norm. Parents praised the initiative, and educators found that students remained engaged even during closures. SDPC credits ClassLink as a key tool in making digital learning days a success, ensuring instruction continues regardless of the weather.