Every senior at Acalanes High School has a new iPad and other tablets to help them learn.

The school district taxpayers' passed a bond measure in Lafayette that paid for this technology at a slightly lower price than the retail price because they bought them in bulk.

"There's so many easy things you can do with just the touch of your hand, like being able to get the definition. You just double-tap the word," said senior Sarah Gidre who is reading "Wuthering Heights" on an iPad.

IPads and other tablets do not come cheap. Compared to traditional textbooks, iPads with digital textbooks are three times more expensive, with the added expense of future upgrades and downloads. But educators say that's the price of teaching students who already have computers and smartphones.

"This is the way the students live now," said Principal Aida Glimme. "This is their reality, and it's the reality of what's coming to them after high school."

The technology of choice for the district is the iPad, but only after school officials tested other tablets, including the Kindle Fire.

At Emery High School in Emeryville, students come to the library to work on laptops that are stored on a cart, but a lucky few have iPads, also paid for by a bond measure.

Junior Ariel Hughes said she does homework on her iPad. Currently, her classes don't offer curriculum using the iPad, which she said she'd like to see.

"I feel like students would be more interactive, understanding. You know, it's something that they like so they would be interested in it," said Hughes.

Emeryville and Acalanes, which have two of the only tablet programs in the area, are expanding the programs with bond money. But other districts, including Oakland, don't have those funds.

"We wish we could do it tomorrow," said Troy Flint, Oakland Unified School District spokesman. "We have some issues of scale that a district like Emery may not have." The district plans to have a tablet program in place in 2015.