May 6, 2020

Dear Families,

As we enter a new month, we continue to work to equip all of you, our families and our school communities, with the information, tools, and resources that you need for remote learning as we fight the COVID-19 pandemic together as a City. This has been an ongoing process, as we all blaze new trails in uncharted territory of fully remote learning. Throughout it all, the health, safety, and security of our communities has been our focus and priority.

As you may recall, security and privacy concerns for our students and staff, including unwanted and unsafe meeting interruptions, led us to prohibit the use of Zoom in early April. The decision was a difficult one, but after reviewing the risks, we know it was in the best interest of our school communities. As we indicated when we made this announcement in April, we would continue to engage Zoom and other online collaboration platforms to make sure that students, teachers, and everyone in the DOE community had safe, secure means to interact with each other that respected student privacy.

April 28, 2020

Dear Families,

This unprecedented time of COVID-19 has presented difficulty and struggles for all New Yorkers, and we recognize that supporting your children in their continued learning in the midst of this crisis has been no small feat. We are amazed by the resilience and resolve that all of you—the families of our 1.1 million students—have shown as we transformed our entire system to remote learning. We are grateful for all that you are doing to support the success of your child as we finish the 2019-2020 school year in remote learning.

This transition would be a challenge at any time, but in the midst of the anxiety and trauma so many of our communities are experiencing due to the pandemic, it could have been insurmountable. Still, you have done it, being there for your children in every way you can to support their learning despite not necessarily knowing where the next meal will be coming from, or dealing with illness or loss in your family or community, or any other number of insecurities this time has brought.

April 15, 2020

Dear Families:

We want to thank you for your flexibility, patience, and partnership over the past few weeks as we launched implementation of remote learning. As we move into the next phase of remote learning, preparing to deliver instruction and services through the end of the school year, we want to share some key information concerning remote instruction and services.

We understand that for many students, not attending school in their physical school building is difficult, but this may be especially so for our students with disabilities. We are committed to communicating with you about your child’s needs in order to ensure success in their remote learning environment through the rest of this school year. Keeping in mind that parents and staff may be caring for others and/or battling illness themselves, flexibility is important. We are committed to serving all students according to their individual needs, and we will maintain that commitment.