Screenshot of today's COVID-19 briefing
The Ontario government has announced the plans for students in elementary and secondary schools and how they will learn this upcoming year. Elementary students will return in September full time, 5 days a week with one cohort, while secondary school students will be at school at least 50 per cent of the time.
The government will support this new learning time by investing $309 million dollars to support Ontario’s re-opening in schools. This includes:
- Masks and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)- $60 million
- Funding for additional staffing- $80 million
- Cleaning supplies – $25 million
- Health and Safety training -$10 million
- Transportation cleaning supplies and PPE- $40 million
- Lab testing capacity- 23.7 million
- Additional mental health supports- $10 million
- Additional Public Health nurses- $50 million
- Additional supports for students with special needs- $10 million
Elementary Students will go to school 5 days a week, with one cohort and will have recess and lunch as well, while High School students is a bit different. Secondary students will have their school boards adopt secondary timetabling that will emphasize cohorting as many students as possible, but limiting cohorts to approximately 15 students per cohort, but attending on alternate days, or alternative schedules that would represent in-person attendance for 50 per cent of instructional days. However, if the High School isn’t in a designated school board, the school will be permitted to open 5 days a week for daily attendance.
Some of the new health and safety protocols that students will have include:
- Self-screening
- Adapted school environments
- Hand hygiene
- For grade 4-12 students, masks will be required. Masks won’t be required but will be encouraged in Kindergarten to Grade 3
- Medical masks will be provided to teachers
- Cohorting
- Distancing
- Limiting visitors in schools
- Pre-registration
“It’s been hard on families to balance work and child care, while kids have been separated from friends and other kids their own age. We want to get our kids back to school, but it has to be done safely,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford. “That’s why we’ve worked with our public health experts, Ontario Health and the medical experts at SickKids to develop a plan that ensures students can return to the classroom five days a week in a way that protects the health and safety of our children, teachers, and school staff.”
“This plan reflects the best medical and scientific advice with a single aim: to keep your child safe,” said Education Minister Stephen Lecce. “While this plan will continue to evolve to respond to the changing threat of COVID-19, we will remain constant and consistent in investing in the resources, staffing, and cleaning supports, and strict health and safety protocols to keep our communities and our classrooms safe.”
However, some others in the opposition had different opinions about this reopening plan. The NDP we’re heavily criticizing about how schools would only get $16,000 per school to get additional staffing, which they say is far less than one new staff member per school
“Classrooms were already overcrowded, and the Ford government is sending kids right back into those packed classrooms. These kids should be in smaller class sizes so they can physically distance, and reduce the chances of spreading an outbreak,” said NDP Education critic Marit Stiles. “Funding a pathetic $16,000 per school for more staff means schools can’t break up kids into smaller, safer groups.”
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