NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – New York City's public schools were experiencing issues with remote learning Tuesday as students tried to log on during the snowstorm, leading city officials to blame IBM for the login snafu.
The online learning system that serves the nation’s largest school district experienced problems with authentication services first thing in the morning, preventing many of the 915,000 students from logging in.
"We are currently experiencing issues with services that require IBM authentication to login," education officials wrote on X shortly after 8 a.m. About 90 minutes later, they said, "IBM has added capacity and improvements are rolling out across the system."
Queens Councilmember Shekar Krishnan posted a photo on social media showing a "service unavailable" screen on the city's remote learning system.
"A million kids logging on at once, what could go wrong?" Krishnan wrote. "Should’ve just given them the damn snow day!"
Chong Bretillon, a parent in Queens, said she received repeated errors as she tried to gain entry to a Zoom room for her elementary school student, while messaging with dozens of other parents who were encountering the same problems.
“I just spent almost an hour trying to log in and log out,” Bretillon said. “Everyone’s frustrated.”
At a news briefing Tuesday, Schools Chancellor David Banks put the blame on IBM, saying the tech company wasn't ready despite being informed by the city that nearly a million students and educators would be logging on.
"IBM is the one who authenticates users and usernames, and in a word IBM was not ready for prime time," Banks said.
"We told them that almost a million students between 7:30 and 8 o'clock this morning would be coming online to go to school, and around that time they said, 'We were overwhelmed with the surge,'" the chancellor fumed.
"To say I am disappointed and angry is an understatement," Bank said. "And all I want parents across the city to understand is I share the frustration that many of them had to endure this morning."
Banks noted that thousands of students had no issues logging on and that capacity had reached 850,000 students and teachers shortly before noon.
"Their capacity should have been at full expansion from the beginning," Banks said of IBM. "We would not have been where we are."
The chancellor said the day was a "test" for remote learning and that "I don't think we passed this test. We will do a full analysis of what happened here."
In a statement to 1010 WINS, a spokesperson for IBM said: “IBM has been working 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 Education Department faced some pushback after announcing Monday that students wouldn't get a snow day during the most impactful snowstorm to hit the city since January 2022, with at least several inches in the forecast.
"Long gone are the days of just a snow day, and everybody just has off," Schools Chancellor David Banks said at a storm briefing with Mayor Eric Adams.
Banks said he felt the city's public school system was "more than prepared" for quick pivots to remote learning thanks to the pandemic.
Pressed by reporters Monday as to why the city didn't cancel school altogether so kids could enjoy a snow day as in times past, the chancellor said, "By 3 o'clock, the school day is over. They'll have plenty of time to get out into the snow and still have some fun. So, we don't want the kids to not have fun. I'm not a Grinch."
Adams agreed, saying, city school kids have a lot of catching up to do after the pandemic. "We need to minimize how many days our children are just sitting at home making snowmen like I did, and they need to catch up," the mayor said.
Meanwhile, many Catholic schools are closed for a "traditional snow day," with no remote learning planned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.