Teachers and staff with D.C. Public Schools who were required to report COVID-19 test results by Tuesday afternoon faced technical difficulties with the website set up to allow them to do so, rattling nerves only a day before tens of thousands of students will be expected to report their own test results in order to attend school in person on Thursday.

Various teachers and staff reported getting an error message on the D.C. Health website where they were supposed to self-report the results of their required antigen test, leaving them unable to complete the task ahead of a 2 p.m. deadline on Tuesday. DCPS said it was aware of the issue, and extended the deadline for self-reporting test results to Wednesday at 10 a.m. for teachers and staff. By late Tuesday afternoon the website seemed to be operating normally.

The hiccup comes as the school system readies to welcome back its 50,000 students on Thursday, a day later than initially planned due to the snowstorm that pummeled the region on Monday. It also comes amid a massive spike in COVID-19 cases, which scrambled reopening plans late last year and pushed city officials to keep schools closed for the first two days of the week to allow students and staff to get tested. Students have until Wednesday at 5 p.m. to report their COVID-19 test results; tests will be available for pickup outside DCPS schools Wednesday starting at 10:30 a.m.

Speaking outside Lafayette Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon, DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee said the city was working to address any issues with the website, and that if the issues arose again Wednesday when students are supposed to upload test results there would be alternate ways identified to self-report.

“We want to ensure that everyone is tested and so we will utilize other methods to verify that should the technology solution not be available,” he said. “We knew that we were moving quickly and today was going to be a test run as we had a smaller number of people testing. So this gives us an opportunity to clean out any glitches and preparations for tomorrow. If there any changes we will notify families as soon as possible.”

This isn’t the first time during the pandemic that technical snafus have bedeviled critical city services. The aging system for applying for unemployment benefits was severely tested during the early days of COVID-19 in spring 2020, and registration sites for the COVID-19 vaccine repeatedly crashed in early 2021.

Ferebee also said he was extending the deadline for teachers and staff to self-report test results because treacherous conditions on some roads inside and out of the city had made it difficult or impossible for them to pick up rapid tests on time.

Thursday’s reopening of DCPS schools comes as many families and staff remain uncertain about how the spike in COVID cases will translate to school operations. Several schools had to transition to virtual learning before the holidays because of a high number of positive cases, and Ferebee said that same transition may happen again. (All public schools in Prince George’s County have shifted back to virtual, while 11 schools in Montgomery County will be virtual for two weeks because of high positive cases.) But much to the consternation of some D.C. lawmakers who have asked for metrics to be set to dictate when a school will go virtual, Ferebee said Tuesday that it will remain a school-by-school call.

“There could be a scenario where staff positivity could drive us to pivot to a virtual status for that school for a period of time,” he said. The decision to shift a school to virtual learning, Ferebee said, depends on what staff members are testing positive. “Sometimes we are able to get substitutes to serve in some capacities. And then in some situations, we’re not able to based on how specific their responsibilities are.”

Speaking earlier Tuesday during a D.C. Council breakfast, Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) said she was pushing for a set metric so that parents knew when exactly a school might move to virtual learning. “We know several schools closed right before break after pressure from parents. Instead of going through this pressure campaign for every school … if we had a clear public metric, it would help,” she said. (An emergency bill to require such a metric did not get a council vote on Tuesday.)

Still other lawmakers said they don’t want a single standard for when a school has to close. “I do not support and will not support any metrics that automatically require schools to close,” said Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3). “Maybe some want this Trojan horse to force a return to virtual learning. I think that it a mistake.”

Ferebee also said he would “empower” school principals to more quickly report positive COVID cases to families, and stressed that he believes that return to in-person school is the right decision.

“Students learn best in person, we know that, and we have seen already some of the impact of our virtual posture on some of our students, and we want to ensure that they get the best experience possible,” he said. “We hear from families daily that they want their children in school. We see school in-person is essential and we’re going to do everything possible to make that happen.”