Ten key safety plans in place for the upcoming school year

BY PAUL JUNOR

The Ministry of Education released its plans for the 2020-21 school year on Friday, June 19^th, 2020. In a letter, Minister of Education Stephen Leece outlined five underlying principles that formed the basis for its plan of action.

These principles were formulated after there was extensive consultation with: local and regional health authorities, Ministry of Education and medical experts at the Hospital for Sick Kids, a COVID-19 Command Table, Chief Medical Officer of Ontario, parents, students and front-line workers.

In the letter, Minister Leeece informed parents that it will be their choice whether they want their children to attend schools or not. This has a lot of implications for the over two million students across Ontario who have been off school since March Break.

The Minister observes that the health and safety of each child, staff and families is paramount. As well, there will be $10 million additional funding to support student’s mental health and $50 million to hire more mental health workers. There will new online content and digital tools available, with an extra $15 million spent to assist schools boards to purchase devices. Finally, he revealed that there would be a record of $736 million that will be spent on grants for student’s needs.

The three possible scenarios that may be followed – depending on the prevailing health environment in the province this fall – include the following:

1. Normal school day routine with enhanced public health protocols
2. Modified school day routine based on smaller class sizes and alternate days of/or week delivery
3. At-home learning with on going enhanced remote delivery

This Minister notes, “For parents who chose not to send their children back to school, school boards should be prepared to offer remote education. This requirement will be in place as long as public health circumstance required adapted delivery of education.”  He observed that where it is possible for schools to be reopened, it will only occur under adapted conditions based in two important aspects of “distancing “and “cohorting.” The first refers to physically distancing of students apart from each other, and the second to students being together as a group in the same place.

 There have been different responses to the province’s reopening plans. In an editorial in the Tuesday, June 23^rd Toronto Star titled, “Ontario back-to-school plan gets an F for incomplete,” there were several issues that were raised. “Too many questions remain. How will social distancing be accommodated on buses? How are parents supposed to go back to work if there kids are at home every day?

We can’t have more labour unrest because teachers feel their safety concerns are not being heard.”

 According to Dr. Ronald Cohn, President and CEO of SickKids, “Having careful plans in place to reopen schools in September is of the utmost importance for the mental self developmental health of children and youth, as well as their academic success. The risk posed by COVID-19 cannot be completely eliminated, however, there are significant steps that can be taken to mitigate risk and protect the health and well-being of students, staff and their families.” (June 19^th from the Office of the Premier).

The key elements of the safety plan include:

1. Guidance for developing health and safety protocols, including the use of personal protective equipment
2. Expectations of an in-class environment
3. Professional development training for teachers on the new protocols and directions
4. Supports for students with special education needs
5. Proposals on how educators and students can move fluidly between in-class and remote learning
6. Guidelines to help students and boards in their communication with students and parents
7. Guidelines for student transportation systems
8. Expectations for the delivery of curriculum and assessments across subjects and grades
9. Guidance for working with first students, parents and communities
10. Regional options for reopening based on the advice of local public health authorities
11. Checklist to help boards in their reopening planning

School boards are required to prepare their own individualized safety plan for the upcoming school year and give it to the Ministry by August 4^th, 2020. In a letter from TDSB director, John Malloy to parents, staff and students he wrote, “We have been planning for our return considering almost possibilities, ensuring that staff and students well-being is the priority. While much of the direction will come from government and public health officials, we also want to hear from our staff, on how you feel about returning to our workplace, what concerns and expectations you may feel and what supports you would like to see in place.” Staff can respond to a survey.

On June 25^th, 2020, education workers circulated a petition online and have written a letter to Premier Doug Ford, calling for an independent panel to direct school opening. They want the panel to include: public health experts, parent and student representatives, education equity experts, workplace health and safety experts and representatives from all education unions, as well as Adult Day Schools.

The Ontario government has not responded to this petition as yet.