Echoing what happened when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Ontario last March, students won’t be returning to in-person learning at Ontario schools after ‘April break’.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford made the announcement at a media briefing at Queen’s Park on Monday (April 12), saying he is “extremely concerned” about the spread of COVID-19 variants of concern in the community.
“The problem is not in our schools, it is in our community,” Ford said. “Bringing our kids back to a congregate setting in school after a week off in the community is a risk I won’t take. We know that the more COVID spreads in our communities, the more likely it is to get into our schools, and that would create massive problems for all of us down the road.”
Since the beginning of the third wave, the provincial government has insisted schools settings are safe, with demonstrated low rates of in-school transmission. When announcing the provincial shutdown that took effect April 3, the government did not close schools, stating that keeping them open was a priority, and was criticized by some for that decision.
Now, the province says increasing rates of community spread pose a threat to the health and safety of schools.
As a result, all publicly funded and private elementary and secondary schools in the province are to move to teacher-led remote learning when students return from the April break on Monday, April 19th.
The government did not provide a timeline for when schools might reopen for in-person learning.
“We’ll keep a constant eye on the data — on case numbers, hospital capacity, and ICU admissions — to determine when we can get kids back in the classrooms,” Ford said.
Private schools operating in-person this week are to transition to remote learning by Thursday, April 15th.
Child care for non-school aged children will remain open, but before- and after-school programs will be closed and free emergency child care for the school-aged children of eligible health care and frontline workers will be provided.
The government says school boards will make provisions for continued in-person support for students with special education needs who require additional support that cannot be accommodated through remote learning.
Ontario currently has 1,646 patients in hospitals due to COVID-19, including 619 patients in intensive care units and 408 patients on ventilators.
