Some New York City students and parents faced confusion and technical headaches Monday after the city decided to forgo a traditional snow day in favor of a remote learning plan plagued by glitches.
Families trying to log into virtual classrooms reported widespread problems, particularly those using Google Chrome, which displayed error messages that prevented access to Zoom-based instruction.
Other students couldn't connect at all after being sent home with school-issued Chromebooks meant for remote learning.
"We were scrambling to make it work," one parent told the New York Post. "These issues should have been worked out by now.
"Luckily, we were fortunate to have a personal device we used to log in since the school-provided Chromebook wasn't connecting."
Approximately 400,000 students managed to log on for the remote learning day, according to Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
That figure still left nearly one-fifth of students absent, with about 500,000 children expected to attend.
Parents also raised concerns about the effectiveness of long virtual sessions for younger children.
One parent, who said it was a struggle to keep young children engaged for hours on Zoom, said the outcome was "pretty much what I expected."
"Hiccups, but overall I wouldn't call it a failure," the parent told the Post. "The fourth-grader [was] read a list of 15 rules that I myself don't hold myself to in Zoom meetings. No eating? No turning camera off? Insanity."
Despite the complaints, New York City Public Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels reportedly declared the digital shift a success and did not address the access issues.
"Students were able to log into their virtual class classroom quickly and get right into their school day," Samuels said.
"It was a smooth start to the day," he said from the Blue Room in City Hall.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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