New York City public schools faced a host of technical issues with remote learning Tuesday morning after the nation’s largest school system pivoted online during the most significant snowfall in recent years.
The problem appeared to impact the attendance application and other internal systems that require authentication through a third-party vendor, preventing thousands of families from accessing virtual classrooms.
“IBM was not ready for prime time,” Schools Chancellor David Banks told reporters at a midday briefing. “And that’s what happened here. Our entire team had been geared up.”
“I want to apologize to all the parents and families across the city,” he added. “This was a test. I don’t think that we passed this test.”
An internal email obtained by the Daily News showed the outage began at 8:03 a.m., only minutes after teachers and families began trickling into online classes. An hour and a half later, the school system said on social media that IBM added capacity and “improvements” were rolling out.
Hundreds of thousands of students and teachers had successfully logged on by the afternoon, according to the chancellor. But for some families, the damage was done. Hours were lost, and parents did what they needed to get through the day.
“This morning was a disaster,” said Jesus Figueroa, a Brooklyn dad of three children in elementary school and day care, and husband to an elementary school teacher. It took until 9:30 a.m. for his wife to resolve technological woes, and Figueroa to get his kindergartener and fifth-grader online before the school day devolved.
“I just gave up and let them watch TV. It is much less chaotic, and my wife and I can now do our work,” he said.
At least one elementary school in Manhattan had to cancel its first period and ask students to start with independent reading and written responses. At another in Brooklyn, teachers quickly pivoted to a music-filled morning meeting on Zoom, and a “suggested” schedule of reading, math and practice presentations with friends. Some parents did not receive links to legally mandated remote services for their kids with disabilities, prompting the city’s parent-led council on special education to open a probe.
Going into the remote day, education officials had promised they were prepared. At a press conference and closed-door meeting with elected officials Monday, Banks and his deputies touted “simulations” that schools participated in before the winter break to test-run a pivot to remote learning.
Soon enough, it become clear those tests were insufficient.
“This was not a good day for New York City public schools after they reassured me yesterday that things were going to go well,” said Councilwoman Rita Joseph (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the Education Committee and received an error message when she tried logging on with her son. When he did finally get online, his class was four students short.
“We learned all of this through COVID. So today was a reminder, reliving 2020 all over again,” said Joseph, a former teacher during the pandemic.
The chancellor conceded that IBM was not part of the simulations. Both he and Mayor Adams promised an audit of what happened with the tech behemoth.
“We’re going to identify what happened, and we’re going to put things in place to prevent them from happening again,” Adams said. “That includes conversations with IBM, who was our vendor. And IBM had a responsibility. The chancellor and the New York City public schools told them ahead of time the volume. They should have been prepared. And their lack of preparation falls on the mayor of the City of New York.”
His chief adviser Ingrid Lewis Martin said it wouldn’t be “telling the truth” if the city accepted blame for the snafu.
“[The chancellor] did the best that he could,” she added, “and IBM is at fault, and that’s just the reality of it.”
A spokesman for IBM said the company was working closely with the schools to address the situation as “quickly as possible.”
“The issues have been largely resolved, and we regret the inconvenience to students and parents across the city,” read the statement.
While the city pointed fingers at IBM, the teachers union said officials needed to test at scale to ensure its systems were ready to handle the hundreds of thousands of students and their teachers.
“They were not stress-testing,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “And that’s why we had the problems we had today. Because at no time did they ever test it with everyone trying to get on at one time.”
Councilman Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens) told the Daily News both his sons were shut out of their classes. When his third-grader eventually got on, his kindergartener was still locked out.
“Should’ve just given them the snow day!” he said.
The Adams administration suggested that giving students and teachers the day off is not as easy as it sounds. According to state law, the school system has to provide 180 days of instruction. With new holidays added to the calendar in recent years, another missed day would push the school year back and create issues with union bargaining.
Adams on Monday had scolded parents who were not up to the task of assisting their children with remote learning.
“Snow days, my mother had to walk us to school with her arthritic knees,” Adams said at a Monday press conference. “If you are a parent and you are not willing to navigate a computer for your child, that’s a sad commentary.”
