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New York City public schools are going remote on Monday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed on Sunday as the snowfall was predicted to reach 6-10 inches.
All school programs are canceled, including after school and adult education, the mayor said. Charter schools and private schools make their own decisions about whether to close buildings and pivot to remote learning. Students in high schools and schools serving grades 6-12 were already scheduled to be off for professional development.
“As snowfall begins to blanket our city and conditions become hazardous, closing school buildings is a necessary step to keep New Yorkers safe,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Over the past week, my administration has prepared for this moment – ensuring devices are in hand, families are informed and educators are ready to welcome students online.”
The transition to remote learning for roughly 500,000 of the city’s 884,000 students represents the first major operational challenge for the Education Department under the new administration.
The mayor and schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels briefed the city on Friday, letting families know that school buildings would either remain open or classes would pivot to remote learning, but that a traditional snow day was off the table because the city needs to meet a certain number of instructional days under state law.
But Samuels also said that schools could be flexible in how they approached the day.
“No one is asking kids to be on a device for six hours and 20 minutes,” Samuels said on Friday. “Some learning will be synchronous. Some will be asynchronous. You can still have your hot chocolate; you can still go out and enjoy the snow.”
Many schools asked their families and staffers to practice logging into remote learning platforms over the weekend to avoid glitches on Monday. Education Department officials also encouraged school leaders to stagger school start times for each grade level by 15-minute increments “to ensure a smooth login experience,” according to a letter to principals obtained by Chalkbeat.
When in-person classes were canceled because of snow two years ago, a technical meltdown prevented many students and teachers from logging on despite efforts to practice in advance. The Education Department subsequently conducted another drill but it was optional, and many students seemed to have opted out.
Samuels said the city “stress tested” the system for remote learning, most recently in December.
“We’ve increased the capacity to make sure that we can house as many students as possible on that day,” Samuels said. “So we now have the capacity of having a million students logging at the same time within 60 seconds.”
City officials advised families needing technical support to visit selfservice.schools.nyc or contact their school directly.
Tell us how Monday goes for you and your child or students: ny.tips@chalkbeat.org.
Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
