New York City parents are criticizing the Department of Education’s decision to hold remote classes on Election Day Tuesday, saying technical problems and thin lesson plans left families juggling work while their kids drifted through virtual school.
The city made Tuesday a remote instructional day for all public school students instead of the usual Election Day break, because many school buildings double as polling sites. The DOE had told families ahead of time to make sure their kids had working devices, internet access and their student account logins ready.
Despite that warning, several parents reported problems logging on. One parent said their child’s entire fifth grade class could not get into Zoom or Google Classroom.
“One would think they’d have it worked out by now. They’ve had 6 years of practice starting with covid!” the parent, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Post.
A Department of Education spokesperson said the issue stemmed from TeachHub, the platform that connects students to various remote learning tools, which “experienced slower than usual response times.”
“In response, NYCPS added a re-direct page ensuring families and educators were able to log in directly via Google Classroom, Teams, Zoom, and other platforms without delay,” the spokesperson said. “Slow response times on TeachHub, which have been fully resolved, did not impact students’ ability to learn or log on to remote learning platforms.”
Other parents described chaotic classroom moments once students did get online. One mother said her ten-year-old spent the first half hour of class reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before sneaking off camera to grab Halloween candy.
“My ten year old is 30 minutes into zoom school today—which I think is absurd,” she wrote. “So far, they said the pledge of allegiance which was very charming, and then my son ran out to the living room to get candy from his Halloween bag. When I said ‘what are you doing?’ he said, ‘don’t worry, I turned off my camera.'”
Another parent said teachers struggled with basic mute functions while managing the volume of students logging in at once.
“Almost a million kids on Zoom today, including both of mine, one in each room, fighting over who gets to show the cat on screen while the teachers battle with mute settings,” the parent wrote. “Good luck out there folks.”
Some parents, including those with children in kindergarten, said the remote lessons didn’t amount to meaningful instruction.
“Don’t pretend making my kid trace letters is equivalent to a day of school,” one parent wrote. “Instead of my kid going to some random vacation camp so I can work I have to sit at home with her and supervise remote kindergarten? This farce is a burden on families.”
Many parents directed their frustration at Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has made childcare a priority of his administration, arguing the remote-learning setup undercut that stated commitment.
“@NYCMayor a remote learning day is not a great showing that you actually care or understand parents’ childcare needs,” one parent posted.
“Other districts give everyone Election Day off. Why can’t NYC? It’s hard enough to juggle work and childcare. Adding remote learning just makes a tough day harder for families @NYCMayor,” another wrote.
