Additional DOE guidance on videoconferencing
On April 3, 2020, the DOE issued guidance on videoconferencing to principals that barred the use of Zoom as a videoconferencing tool.
On April 5, 2020, the DOE issued the following additional guidance to principals:
As educators, parents, and New Yorkers, we’ve experienced things over the past few weeks we might not have thought possible. Despite the inevitable challenges, leaders, teachers, and school-based staff across the city have risen to the occasion, transitioning the nation’s largest school system to remote learning.
We know how hard you and your staff are working to make remote learning a reality for students and families, and appreciate the ways in which you’re going above and beyond every day. We also know you share our concern for student safety. That is why we want to clarify guidance and expectations around key elements of remote learning over the coming days, so you can use various online platforms safely and with peace of mind that privacy will be protected for all users — yourselves included.
Last Friday, we shared guidance on videoconferencing. We are happy to report that, following testing and discussion with Google over the weekend, we have determined that Google for Education applications — including Google Hangouts Meet — are safe to use for this purpose. If your school is currently using Google, you should continue to do that. We will soon be sharing guidance that will help you and your staff maximize Google's security features to help protect your school community.
If you are currently using Zoom for videoconferencing, we are ready to support you in a transition as quickly as possible. We know that for many of you, that won’t mean overnight, but we’ll be supporting you with numerous trainings and guidance to help this process start quickly. Look for the “Make the Move from Zoom to Meet” classes on the Remote Learning Tech Professional Development calendar here.
Please also note we continue to support the use of Microsoft Teams across the DOE. Many of you are already using it. Our classes on "Make the Move from Zoom to Teams" will help you make the transition.
Additionally, we are in continued conversations with Zoom on potential future use of the platform with the DOE. However, until then, our guidance from Friday remains in place: while we recognize the transition won’t happen overnight for many of you, we are asking schools to transition away from Zoom and to other platforms (like Google and Microsoft). We will keep you up-to-date as we continue to review and monitor developments with Zoom.
Some of this might feel like a sudden transition, but we are here to support you. We know how hard you and your staff worked to quickly acclimate to videoconferencing tools, and we urgently worked over the weekend to preserve some widely used options while establishing clarity on those that pose a risk to privacy or security.
In the coming days, we’ll share detailed how-to documents for your teachers and families to support the transition to Google Meet and/or Microsoft Teams. In the meantime, your priority should be continuing instruction and services to your students. The links below are also helpful to review.
We’re so proud of and grateful for your efforts. We will continue to provide guidance on videoconferencing platforms in the days and weeks ahead.
Thank you again.