A widespread Microsoft outage was disrupting email services across the country Thursday, affecting businesses, public agencies and educational organizations, including the Orange County Department of Education.
Schools and districts rely on email and other digital tools to coordinate instruction, support families and manage daily operations. OCDE’s Information Technology team confirmed that the outage was affecting the department’s email system, preventing employees from sending or receiving messages through Outlook.
“We know how important reliable communication is to the daily work of our schools and the families they serve,” said County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Stefan Bean. “While this is a nationwide issue beyond our control, our IT team is closely monitoring the situation and working to keep our employees and education partners informed. We appreciate everyone’s patience as Microsoft works to restore service.”
Microsoft has acknowledged problems with Exchange Online, the cloud-based service that powers Outlook email, and is investigating reports of users being unable to access their mailboxes. Some users have also reported difficulties with Microsoft Teams and other Microsoft 365 applications.
“We’re investigating reports of users experiencing issues accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas,” the company posted on X.
According to news reports, more than 130,000 reports of Outlook problems were submitted to Downdetector, a website that tracks online service disruptions. Thousands of additional reports involved Microsoft 365 and Teams.
For OCDE employees, the outage means email communications with colleagues, school districts, families and community partners may be interrupted. Those needing to communicate urgently are encouraged to use alternative methods, such as phone calls, until service is restored.
Because the disruption is tied to Microsoft’s systems, individual troubleshooting steps, such as restarting computers or repeatedly signing in, are unlikely to resolve the issue.
Microsoft says it is working to restore service but has not announced an estimated time for full restoration.