BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - It's day three of virtual learning at Buffalo Public Schools, but there are still many families that are facing issues with remote learning.
At least 100 people were lined up outside of the district's IT Hub at the former School 28 in South Park Avenue. Most of the parents we spoke with said they had a connection issue, though one said their child did not even receive a laptop yet.
"My main thing I'm worried about is (my son's) attendance," one parent said. "If you don't log on, he's counted as absent. I don't want him being marked absent and those things count against him and it's a mark on his permanent record and a mark against me as a parent."
Another parent said they could log in to Schoology, the main program used by the district for remote learning, but she couldn't get into a separate program that was needed.
"They need to have a better plan than what they have now," she said.
Sarah Edwards, the district's Supervisor of Instructional Learning, told WBEN that the various software systems nationwide had problems which caused connection woes the first day of class. She said some of the common issues facing families with a device is that they have not been updated since the summer.
"It's definitely a combination of people who have maybe some repair issues and some who need an update and some who need some technical support so that they can understand the steps they're supposed to be taking with the software," Edwards said. "A lot of these folks may not have anything wrong with their device but they just need someone to walk them through the process with the various connections."
Edwards said there's been a lot of people who are coming before the IT Hub opens their doors. Some people arrived as early as 7:30 a.m. and stood outside the building for a lengthy period of time.
"We open the doors at 10," she said. "We really don't want people to feel like they need to be here at 7:30. I'm afraid some people have gotten that message and they're in line for an excessive amount of time."