Dear Tara,

I have been trying to work with your team to develop a system for our learners to access our $2,028.00 institutional subscription to the New York Times since May 13, 2020.

At that time, remote learning made it impossible for our students to access our school's subscription. From March through June of 2020, we paid for a service you failed to deliver. This is an ongoing problem. Our district currently has 111 people out sick or in quarantine due to COVID-19. According to our superintendent, our school could switch back to hybrid or fully remote learning if the circumstances warranted it.

Currently, whether students are on campus or at home, they are prompted to provide personal contact information:


I have involved you, EBSCO (Case #4213847), OpenAthens, and our district tech support team to no avail.

Our learners are still being prompted to share their personal data with the NYT, and the NYT refuses to sign our district privacy agreement.

[NCPS Data Privacy Contract 2019-20]

In other words, the New York Time is refusing to deliver the services promised in our contract.

[copy of signed contract]

I am requesting a refund in the amount of $2028.00 for this year's services since you are not in compliance with our contract.

Please remit the full amount to our business office.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this request. 

From: Casey, Doug <Doug.Casey@ct.gov>

Date: Tue, Nov 3, 2020 at 9:22 AM

Subject: New York Times

To: <CET_K-12_EDTECH@list.ct.gov>

Good morning,

 

I have some bad news and good news regarding the New York Times high school program. At this point, they refuse to review our terms or sign the pledge, so schools should not be directing students to use the service. However, as with any ed tech solution, if students choose to do so on their own, they can do so here:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/initiative/highschoolaccess

 

The “good news” part is that anyone can use the free content through the Times Learning Network here:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/section/learning

 

Doing so does not require registration and collection of personal student information, so it falls outside the Connecticut data privacy statute. The Learning Network offers lesson plans and activities for students as well as access to a subset of Times articles.

 

Best,

 

Doug

 

---

Doug Casey | Executive Director

Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology

Department of Administrative Services

55 Farmington Avenue

Hartford, CT 06105

doug.casey@ct.gov

Office: (860) 622-2224

www.CT.gov/CTEdTech