New York City public schools on Tuesday launched their first large-scale experiment with distance learning since the coronavirus pandemic. More than 900,000 students were asked to attend virtual classes during the winter storm.
It didn't work.
Many teachers, parents, and students who tried to log in found themselves locked out of their classrooms. Instead of joining a video conference, I received an error message saying, “The service you are trying to connect to is temporarily unavailable.”
“This seems like a very broad issue,” said Jay Brown, an elected parent leader in southern Brooklyn. He was trying to help his children log in while trying to work from his home.
Furthermore, he added: “We know this is a big undertaking. But we seem to be underprepared.”
On social media, dozens of people are describing a chaotic morning that brought back some of their worst memories of pandemic-era education.
“It was an absolute disaster,” Sam Green, who decided to take his 7-year-old son to McCarren Park to play in the snow, said in an interview. “I emailed the teacher saying, 'Am I the only one having a problem?'” And no, the whole system crashed and not even the principal could recover. ”
Students wandered through first-period class with their cameras off, waiting for teachers who couldn't log in. Some people are only able to attend classes after repeatedly updating the site. Some were kicked out of online meetings. Some schools canceled meetings and classes completely until at least 10 a.m., making it impossible to even take attendance, as parents and educators took on the role of makeshift technical support.
One parent said that by 8:45 a.m., the family had already given up on remote learning for the day and joined other parents who opted to declare a snow day.
As of midday Tuesday, it was unclear how widespread the technical issues were.
Around 8:30 a.m., the Ministry of Education announced on social media, “We are experiencing an issue with a service that requires IBM authentication for login.” Officials announced an hour later that the company was “adding capacity and rolling out improvements across the system.”
IBM did not respond to requests for comment.
The disruption prompted Schools Superintendent David C. Banks to say at a news conference Monday that although he expected some “glitches,” he believed the city was ready to return to distance learning. It happened later.
“One of the good things that came out of the pandemic is that it prepared us for moments like this,” Banks said. “And I think the school system is more than ready.”
Some students and educators were able to log on without issue. Central Queens parent Alan Cohen was able to get his kindergarten and third-grade children to set up their devices and participate in the virtual room Monday night.
Classmates were not so lucky. “We started with three kids,” Cohen said, adding that parent WhatsApp groups for schools and individual classes “exploded.”
“The idea of all kids attending all classes all day has kind of gone out the window,” he says.
The city has purchased more than 550,000 iPads and 175,000 Chromebook laptops for children during the pandemic. Additionally, the era of remote learning has forced many school districts across the country to forgo traditional holidays due to winter weather.
But Tuesday's debacle was sure to spark a wave of backlash in New York. City Council member Shekhar Krishnan, who represents parts of northern Queens, wrote on social media that the administration “should have given us a snow day!”
Some schools not managed by the Ministry of Education did just that.
“Today is a classic snow day,” says Arthur Samuels, founder of a charter high school in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood.
“Too many students have to care for younger siblings. We know how substandard remote instruction is,” Samuels said on social media. “See you all tomorrow in person. Let's enjoy the snow!”
Olivia Bensimon Contributed to the report.
