The DOE announced on May 6 that Zoom is available as a safe platform for remote learning, meetings and teletherapy. At the DOE’s request, Zoom made important changes to its platform to address the DOE’s security and privacy concerns.

There is no cost for schools, teachers, or service providers to use Zoom, but all staff and students must use the new DOE central account to access Zoom. DOE Zoom users will sign onto nycdoe.zoom.us with their DOE user credentials to be able to use the full complement of Zoom features. The central DOE Zoom account is secure, because the DOE has pre-set security configurations.

Here is the letter from Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza making the announcement to employees.

From: Chancellor Richard Carranza
Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 5:00 PM
Subject: Updates on Use of Zoom

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you know, we prohibited the use of Zoom for DOE staff and students in early April. The decision was a difficult one, but the security and safety of our students and staff during remote learning must always be our top priority.

We know that when we asked schools to move away from using Zoom, it took away one of the remote learning tools they relied upon. However, as we indicated when we made the announcement on Zoom in April, we have continued 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. However, following weeks of collaboration with the company and other City agency partners, we have gotten Zoom to agree to many important changes to uphold our high bar of security and privacy for those using their platform. As a result, we are now pleased to be able to announce that Zoom is available as a safe platform for remote learning, meetings and teletherapy!

Zoom has implemented a number of critical security updates so that now a centralized DOE Zoom account is approved for use. Thanks to the hard work of our technology, procurement, legal, and cybersecurity teams, we were able to work with Zoom to make changes that allow for a secure central account that will provide all staff and students with another tool for remote learning and collaboration at this unprecedented time.

This means that:

• We pay for Zoom centrally (as we do for Microsoft and Google) so there is no cost for schools, teachers, or service providers
• All staff and students must use the new DOE central account to access Zoom
• All NYCDOE Zoom users will sign onto nycdoe.zoom.us with their DOE user credentials to be able to use the full complement of Zoom features
• The central NYCDOE Zoom account is secure, because we have pre-set security configurations managed by the DOE

Please visit the Zoom for Remote Learning page to learn more about accessing Zoom, including:

• How to access DOE Zoom
• New security settings and instructions for use
• Contacts for technical support
• The summary of the new agreement between NYCDOE and Zoom
• Details of the original concerns with the Zoom platform
• The official NYCDOE press release

The health and safety of our students and staff during remote learning continues to be our highest priority. It took time to implement key upgrades to ensure this new DOE Zoom platform meets the educational and safety needs of our students, parents, families, and staff. The result of this work is that your school community may now use another DOE approved video conferencing platform, along with Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. We thank you for your patience and flexibility, as always.

Please share this update broadly in your offices. Messages will also be shared directly with field staff, principals, teachers, and families.

Thank you for supporting the learning, in any circumstance, for our 1.1 million students.