Poll Finds Schools Not Ready for Y2K

Students in thousands of schools may get unexpected extended winter vacations because their districts are not prepared for Y2K problems affecting heating, food service and teacher payrolls, the government says.

An Education Department survey released last week said 36% of public elementary and secondary school districts are unprepared to fix date-sensitive computer systems. And 39% of colleges--where tuition aid records and longtime research could be threatened--told the department they were not ready.

“This is disturbing,” Marshall Smith, acting deputy secretary of education, said at a news conference. “Once you’re within a three-month span, a lot of things can go wrong. Schools and colleges ought to commit resources to have some independent verification of compliance if they haven’t done so already.”

“This should be done before we send our students back to those schools,” he said.

With New Year’s Day falling on a Saturday, Smith said, school districts that haven’t made the necessary repairs have extra days to make sure buildings are safe and otherwise ready for students.