Snowstorm meltdown: Remote learning software crashes for 1M New York City public school students

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams faced a rare snowstorm Tuesday morning — an operational challenge that has marred the reputation of many mayors before him.

It did not go according to plan.

After the mayor insisted the city’s public school system go remote instead of heeding calls for a snow day, students and educators were confronted with an epic meltdown of the software system as they sought to log in. The vast majority of pupils and teachers began the day locked out of their virtual classrooms while parents eviscerated City Hall and recounted tales of frustration trying to assist their children. By just shy of 8 a.m., it was clear Adams was facing a major setback as the nation’s largest school system navigated the first test of its controversial no-snow-day strategy.

“Every piece of this is another reason why this is incredibly stupid,” said Micah Lasher, recently a top aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul and now a state Assembly candidate living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Lasher, who is close to Adams rival Scott Stringer, said two of his three children attend public schools and struggled to log in this morning. “Nobody likes this. Nobody involved in this gets anything out of it other than frustration,” he said. “I think that’s true for teachers, I think that’s true for principals and it is certainly true for families.”

When confronted with complaints about the rollout, Adams sought to redirect responsibility with a simple message: Blame IBM, the computing giant that provides an essential component of the remote learning system.

“They should have been prepared. And their lack of preparation falls on the mayor of the city of New York,” Adams said during a press conference Tuesday. “It’s my responsibility to deliver the service that we are expecting … and part of that responsibility is to go back and revisit what IBM did wrong. If there's something we can do better, we're gonna do better as well."

David Banks, the city’s schools chancellor, was more blunt.

"IBM was not ready for prime time and that's what happened here,” Banks charged at the same press conference, though he was not prepared to say whether the city will pull its contract with the company. “I was extremely angry to hear this morning that they were not ready.”

The tech company appeared to acknowledge its role in the blunder.

“IBM has been working closely with New York City schools to address this situation as quickly as possible,” an IBM spokesperson said in a statement. “The issues have been largely resolved, and we regret the inconvenience to students and parents across the city.”

City officials said New York City had received between 3 and 4 inches of snow, which legions of sanitation trucks had been plowing since the morning. But whatever success City Hall had on the cleanup front was quickly overshadowed by the problems in schools.

Just before 8 a.m., the Department of Education started hearing that parents and students were struggling to log in, Banks said. Parents received a “service unavailable” message when they attempted to sign into various platforms like Zoom and Google Classroom, according to a screenshot provided to POLITICO.

As Banks and Adams briefed reporters on the storm and the city’s efforts to bring students online, the login numbers climbed. And as of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1 million students and staff were logged on, according to Banks.

“It was not a wasted day but it was a frustrating day for far too many parents and that is unacceptable to me,” he said, referring to a backup plan built into messaging for students and parents so students could still work on assignments. “I wanna apologize to all the parents and families across the city … This was a test. I don't think that we passed this test.”

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, former Mayor Bill de Blasio declared that snow days became “a thing of the past” and that students would instead learn virtually during inclement weather. But Tuesday’s technical snafu is a blow to Adams and Banks, who insisted ahead of the winter snow storm that schools were prepared to pivot to online instruction despite calls from parents to give kids a snow day.

Adams and Banks announced that Tuesday would be a “synchronous” school day whereby students show up online with their teacher. And the mayor vehemently dismissed criticisms from parents who said they struggle with remote learning.

“Snow days, my mother had to walk us to school with her arthritic knees,” Adams told reporters during a briefing on the snowstorm Tuesday. “If you are a parent and you are not willing to navigate a computer for your child, that’s a sad commentary.”

On Tuesday, Adams doubled down on those remarks and said students need to catch up following pandemic-related learning loss. His team also noted that the DOE has recently added several school holidays for this school year, which has left the city with less wiggle room to meet a state requirement that schools provide a minimum of 180 days of instruction.

“I [see] lots of folks who supported expanded holidays criticizing the Mayor and DOE for making today a remote day instead of closing schools,” tweeted Jon Paul Lupo, a top aide to de Blasio, who instituted school holidays for the two Muslim Eid holidays and the Asian Lunar New Year. “We all knew decisions like this would have to [be] made. Thankfully remote is now an option and we’re able to do what’s safe without losing $$$.”