Using Chromebooks to access RACHEL

The 200+ Lenovo Chromebooks that we are about to deploy for our RACHEL project seem to require a real www internet connection when they are first powered up. It appears that they are doing updates to the Chrome operating system. Without the internet they refuse to “boot”. Further, it seems that we can’t create a user account on the Chromebook without being connected to internet.
Any guidance, confirmation or suggestions would be appreciated.