I'm not sure much of our experience will apply (except that our public school was beyond impossible to deal with and we bailed to private this year!)... but back to the laptop, this is what we've done and how it's worked:
Our ds started by using an alphasmart at school and working on classroom computers. The classroom computer didn't work out at all because it was shared and it was a pc, not a laptop, hence it sat in a corner of the room and he had to move to it from his desk or wherever he was working. The alphasmart worked better for him because he could be anywhere when he used it (at school). The downside was it was limited in capability and he had a (in his mind) tragic case of a large project lost when the file was transferred from the alphasmart to classroom computer by his teacher. The real downside, from my perspective, to the classroom computer and alphasmart solutions were that a) he couldn't bring them home, and b) no access to the types of specialized software that can really help students with dysgraphia.
His school offered to let him use a school laptop in 5th grade, which he would have been allowed to take from school-home if we signed a liability agreement that said we'd replace the very old laptop with enough money to buy a brand new laptop should our ds accidentally damage the very old laptop (which, btw, didn't hold charge lol!). We felt he needed a laptop that he could take home-school, but didn't want to be liable to the school for damages, as well as we were concerned about the performance of what the school offered.
We gave a laptop to our ds and he's been taking it to school and back home daily for two years now and it's working out really well. It took a bit of time to get him to actually open it up in class and use it - he is very wary of what other kids think and doesn't want to be different in any way. However, as we've pushed for it to be used more and more bit by bit he resists, then tries, then finds that it helps tremendously, and over time he's really begun to rely on it and appreciate having it.
His software includes: basic word processing, powerpoint, spreadsheet etc; word prediction (VERY helpful with his dysgraphia and spelling challenges), text-to-voice (some students find this helpful when editing written assignments, ds doesn't really use his), voice-to-text (ds likes this), software for math (graphing, formulas etc), and other things I can't think of at the moment.
He emails some homework to turn it in, saves everything in one file for one teacher (per the teacher's request, then the teacher either looks through the file or has him print it out when he needs to check it), prints off homework for other teachers. He has a printer and scanner he can connect to at school via USB. Both belong to the school. His school was willing to hook his laptop up to their network, but they had some technical issue with it, so instead he's found hooking up via USB when he needs to works a-ok. He is able to access the school's wifi if he needs to email at school, and we set him up with an email account which I have the password to.
Our ds is fairly compliant at school so we haven't had any issues with him using his computer for anything other than what he's supposed to be using it for at school. (If I sent either one of my dds to school with a laptop they'd get absolutely NOTHING done in the way of schoolwork, and I would probably have teachers calling me asking me to disable the sound so that the rest of the class didn't have to listen to Taylor Swift during quiet work hour!)... but I digress lol!
DH and I have the administrative password for ds' computer and haven't shared it with him, so we're the only people who can install software. That's ok with ds, and so far hasn't caused any problems at school. The school's IT person has asked for access when he was working with printer installs etc, but either dh or I just went in after school and opened up access.
Battery life isn't really something I'd be too worried about. We have our ds charge his laptop overnight at home, and send him to school with a fully charged battery and a charger. If his battery runs down at school (which it almost never does) he can plug it in in the classroom and usually still reach a desk if he has to be working. If he knows it's going to run down he can leave it plugged in in his homeroom during lunch.
Theft is something that was raised by our previous school as a potential issue, but it's something we just chose to leave as a risk and hasn't really been much of a worry. Our ds for the most part has not been careless with his computer - he realizes it cost a lot of $ and has been extremely (for him) conscientious in making sure he keeps track of it. There have been two exceptions to that, both times at his previous school at the end of the day when he got caught up in playing outside after school.. and forgot his backpack on the playground. I totally freaked the first time that happened because I was convinced some other kid would see this nondescript blue backpack as screaming out loud "I've got a computer inside so STEAL me!!!" lol, but instead we drove back to school and there it was, hours later, still sitting on the playground. Having that happen scared our ds quite a bit so I think that's just made it that much more automatic for him to be careful with it.
That's all I can think of right now - if you have other questions about it, let us know!
polarbear
ps - ds has an accommodation for using a "word processor" on classroom testing and state testing. He uses his laptop in the classroom and doesn't have spelling tests, so none of his teachers have ever bothered with worries about spell-check or word prediction etc being turned on. For state testing, he's used a laptop provided by the sped folks at school with spell-check etc turned off, and the sped staff folks scribe his results back to his test booklet.
