Elementary and secondary school students in Ontario will not be returning to in-class learning until the fall.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford made the announcement at a media conference at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Wednesday (June 2), along with education minister Stephen Lecce and health minister Christine Elliott.
Teachers and parents have been waiting for several weeks for the provincial government to make the decision on whether or not schools will reopen before the end of the school year. The decision comes on the same day Ontario lifted its stay-at-home order.
“I know this is very difficult news,” Ford said. “It was a hard choice to make, but I will not take unnecessary risks with our children right now. The fact is we’re fighting a third wave driven by variants.”
Ford referred to recent modelling presented by Ontario’s science advisory table that the province could see an increase of six to 11 per cent in the number of new daily COVID-19 cases if schools were to reopen.
“It would be irresponsible to put two million kids in the classroom for eight hours a day,” Ford said, referring to the B.1.617.2 variant that originated in India and is now known to be in Ontario. “We know it’s going to spread. Then they’re going to bring it home, they’re going to give it to their parents, they’re going to give it to family members, they’re going to give it to their grandparents, and here we go again.”
Ford said the government will focus on getting students and teachers vaccinated over the summer for a “safe and normal return to school in September.’
The province expects to offer a first dose of Pfizer vaccine to all youth aged 12 and older before the end of June, with a second dose before the end of August. The province also expects to offer all education workers a second dose by the week of August 15, for those who have not already received their second dose by that time.
However, COVID-19 vaccinations will not be mandatory for students before they return to school in the fall.
“We can’t force anyone to go get a vaccination,” Ford said in response to a reporter’s question, even though other vaccinations are already required to attend school in Ontario — including for tetanus, whooping cough, polio, measles, mumps, and chickenpox — under the province’s Immunization of School Pupils Act.
The province says it will allow school boards to proceed with outdoor graduation ceremonies for all students in June. Graduating students will be able to return to school for such ceremonies, where physical distancing is possible, with elementary school ceremonies organized by class and secondary school ceremonies organized by homeroom or quadmestered class.
Directly addressing Ontario students, Ford said “I want schools to host in-person outdoor graduation events and other opportunities for you to meet with your friends and reconnect outside before the end of the year.”
While schools will remain closed for in-person learning, emergency child care will continue until the end of June to align with the end of the elementary school year. Before- and after-school programs will remain closed and will continue to not charge parent fees, which is prohibited during the remote learning period.
Licensed child care centres may resume serving school-aged children for full-day programming over the summer months, and before- and after-school programs that operate as a camp over the summer will be permitted to do so, with both centre and programs following health and safety guidance from the Ministry of Health.
Referring to Ontario’s reopening plan, Ford said he’s “cautiously optimistic” that Ontario will be able to proceed to step one earlier than the scheduled date of June 14.
“Right now we’re waiting for (chief medical officer of health) Dr. Williams and his team to tell us when we may be ready to do so,” Ford added.
This story has been updated with additional details from the media conference and a media release from the province.
