Parents rip NYC over remote learning failures during winter storm as DOE puts blame on IBM: ‘Disappointed, frustrated and angry’
Frustrated parents were saddled with glitches after New York City insisted on remote learning for public school kids during Tuesday’s snowstorm – with education officials quick to blame tech company IBM for the widespread hiccups.
Students and teachers across the Big Apple were hit with “service unavailable” and other error messages on the city Department of Education’s learning systems as they logged on the first day of remote learning since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Perhaps the DOE should just let kids have a snow day. But what do they give us? A system that fails and crashes miserably,” Adam Bergstein, an English teacher at Forest Hills High School in Queens, told The Post soon after encountering the tech issues.
“The New York City Department of Education has literally screwed up the recipe for ice. That sums up the NYC DOE.”
Others across the city reported issues accessing essential services including Google Classroom, Chromebooks and Zoom, while some teachers said they were struggling to even log into their emails and take attendance.
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Schools Chancellor David Banks pointed the finger at IBM for the remote learning meltdown, insisting the DOE’s internal team had “checked all the boxes.”
“IBM was not ready for primetime,” Banks told reporters at a City Hall briefing, adding that the tech company wasn’t prepared for more than 900,000 students logging on at the same time.
“I want to apologize to all the parents and families,” he said. “As I said, this was a test.”
“I don’t think that we passed this test.”
“We told them that almost 1 million students between 7:30 and 8:00 would be coming online to go to school,” Banks said. “To say that I am disappointed, frustrated and angry is an understatement.”
The DOE had sent out an alert on Twitter just 30 minutes into the school day acknowledging there were issues with “services that require IBM authentication to login.”
“For context: IBM provides support to validate NYCPS users logging in to NYCPS systems (Single Sign On) and verifying the user name and password,” the department tweeted.
Furious parents and teachers quickly lashed out at Mayor Eric Adams and DOE officials for not being better prepared before deciding to switch to remote learning — rather than just call a traditional snow day.
“We are real parents who have jobs. My husband is home now dealing with tech issues. The system is a joke. The kids are miserable and there’s almost no snow,” a mom of two elementary students told The Post.
“You can’t pivot to remote, if you aren’t prepared,” a Queens high school teacher added. “I think that if you’re going to pivot to remote you should make sure your server can handle it and you need to ensure every student has a device.”
IBM owned up to the mess later Tuesday, with a spokesperson saying the company worked “closely with New York City schools to address this situation as quickly as possible.”
“The issues have been largely resolved, and we regret the inconvenience to students and parents across the city,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, Banks addressed criticism from those who questioned why the DOE didn’t just declare Tuesday a snow day — while warning parents they could expect more remote learning days in the future.
The schools boss said traditional snow days were no longer possible in part, because many holidays – such as Diwali – had been added to the school calendar, noting city kids need to attend at least 180 days a year, and also blamed the teachers’ union.
“It’s not as easy as simply saying, you know, just take this day just add it later on,” Banks told reporters.
Still, some city schools ended up cutting virtual learning short in the wake of the glitches – meaning kids only ended up with a few hours of remote teaching, according to DOE sources.
DOE spokesperson, Nathaniel Styer, refused to say how many hours were required to meet New York standards for a remote school day. Instead, he referred The Post to the state Education Department, which didn’t respond.
Banks had insisted during a City Hall briefing Monday that the public school system — the largest in the nation — was “more than prepared” for the remote learning shift.
The mayor, meanwhile, took aim at parents, saying: “If you are a parent, and you are not willing to navigate a computer for your child, that’s a sad commentary.”
“You can’t tell me… you are frustrated about logging on to a computer — that’s not acceptable to me. Our children fell behind during the pandemic. We need to catch up,” Adams said.
His comments irked some parents – including one who demanded Adams “grow up.”
“I do wish the mayor would act like a grown-up and not start blaming parents, but instead have the foresight to more prepare this city for the unexpected,” said Diane Tinsley, a PTA member at Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology in Hell’s Kitchen.
City Council education committee chair Rita Joseph (D-Brooklyn), too, ripped the city’s lack of preparedness in the wake of the widespread issues.
“As an educator who taught during the pandemic in @NYCSchools we are seeing the same thing happen all over again. The lack of preparedness when it comes to technology for our NYC students, educators and staff,” Joseph fired off in a string of tweets.
“At yesterday’s City Hall briefing, I asked if @NYCSchools had their technology prepared for a remote school day. As expected parents and educators are having difficulty logging on to remote learning.”
