NYC Schools Chancellor Blames IBM for Remote Learning Issues Amid Winter Storm

Pedestrians pass the New York Stock Exchange as snow falls, on Feb. 13, 2024. Peter Morgan/AP Photo

Officials in New York City have blamed tech company IBM for issues that plagued public schools attempting to operate remotely on Feb. 13 amid a huge snowstorm.

During a press conference, David Banks, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, said that public schools experienced a “challenging morning,” and mentioned hearing from parents who complained of technical issues when trying to log into the remote learning systems.

Mr. Banks said the Department of Education had done a lot of work to prepare for the remote learning systems to be used by children across New York City’s public schools for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Principals, teachers, unions, and parents were “all set and ready to go” before the technical problems occurred, he said.

According to Mr. Banks, the schools were expecting nearly one million students to log on to the system between 7:30 a.m. and 8.00 a.m. on Feb. 13 and attend classes.

However, shortly before classes were set to begin, officials began to get word that parents and students were having difficulty logging in as the system was “overwhelmed” with the surge in users, he said.

‘This Was a Test, I Don’t Think We Passed’

“Those systems are completely tied to the work that we do with IBM. IBM is the one who authenticates the users and the usernames. And in a word, IBM was not ready for prime time. And that’s what happened here,” Mr. Banks said.

“So, to say that I am disappointed, frustrated, and angry is an understatement and I want all parents of our students across the entire city to understand that I share the frustration that many of them had to endure from this morning,” he continued. “This was a test. I don’t think that we passed this test. And so we'll be doing a full analysis of what happened here because we don’t expect this to be the last remote day that we have.”

Although many students were unable to learn remotely during the storm due to technical issues, Mr. Banks noted that thousands of children were able to use the system with no issues.

At the time of the press conference, approximately 850,000 students and teachers were able to access the remote learning platform, he said.

“So, IBM, throughout the course of this morning, has expanded their capacity,” he said. “Their capacity should have been at full expansion from the very beginning. We wouldn’t have been where we are. But we’ve been able to still put our young people in the best position to take full advantage of this remote day.”

Mr. Banks noted that despite the initial technical problems, the system is now back, and “things are moving along very nicely at this point.”

People cross a street during a winter storm in Philadelphia, Pa., on Feb. 13, 2024. Matt Rourke/AP Photo

Record Snow Levels in NYC

Officials announced on Feb. 12 that all New York City public schools would close the following day due to anticipated severe weather conditions from the winter storm, with classes moving to remote instruction.

However, shortly after the remote classes were set to begin, officials said the remote system was experiencing “issues with services that require IBM authentication to log in,” meaning teachers and students were unable to log into the remote learning platform. Roughly one hour later, public school officials said IBM had added capacity and improvements to the system, allowing more students and teachers to log in.

“We apologize to the families and staff who were impacted by this and we thank everyone for their patience,” New York City Public Schools posted on X (formerly Twitter).

An IBM spokesperson told Axios the company “has been working closely with New York City schools to address this situation as quickly as possible” and that the issues have now been largely resolved.

“We regret the inconvenience to students and parents across the city,” the spokesperson said.

The remote learning issues came as a fast-moving winter storm hit the northeast on Feb. 13, bringing heavy rain and snowfall and prompting flight cancelations.

According to NBC News, New York City’s Central Park received around 3 inches of snow—marking the highest snow amount recorded for the park since January 2022—while areas north of the city, including the Hudson Valley, saw between 5 to 10 inches of snow.

Schools are scheduled to reopen on Feb. 14.