NYC Schools Health Screening Site Crashes As Kids Return To Class

NEW YORK CITY — New York City's public school students went back to classrooms en masse Monday for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic struck.

But the rush of students and teachers momentarily crashed a crucial health screening website.

The DOE Health Screening tool — which students and staff must complete before each day of school — eventually went back online.

"Our apologies for the short period it was down this morning," the DOE tweeted. "If you are having issues accessing the online tool, please use a paper form or inform school staff verbally."

The hiccup was perhaps inevitable as the nation's largest school system, at nearly 1 million students, opened its doors to all students for the first time since March 2020.

"Hm, who could have anticipated that 1 million students trying to log on to the NYC DOE health screening site at the same time might overload the system?" tweeted Jeannie Kim.

Many parents and teachers are still calling for a remote option as the coronavirus pandemic lingers and the highly contagious delta variant spreads.

But Mayor Bill de Blasio and city education officials have been adamant that safeguards — including an upcoming mandate that all teachers get vaccinated — make schools overwhelmingly safe.