Most Ontario students return to school without COVID-19 restrictions

Children carrying brightly coloured backpacks laughed and chatted excitedly Tuesday morning as they lined up outside a Toronto-area school, waiting for the bell to ring on the first day of the first school year to start without COVID-19 restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic.

A few steps away, groups of parents also caught up with each other, some with pets and younger children in tow as they stood near the entrance of Westacres Public School in Mississauga, Ont.

"It's really nice to see the familiar faces again ... so I think that's one of the things I'm happiest about, the sense of community that we kind of get back from trying to return to normal life," said Mansi Vagt, whose four-year-old son was going into senior kindergarten.

Her son started the last school year in person, with masks, but had to switch to remote learning in January during the wave fuelled by the Omicron variant, she said. He's now "thrilled" to be coming back in person, she said.

While it's important to be cautious and mindful of any future developments in the pandemic, including potential new variants, "it's just really nice to see the kids back at school and back with their friends and back with their teachers," Vagt said.

"It's a whole different world than them being online and stuck in front of a screen."

For the first time since the global health crisis began, the school year is starting with students in the province, who resume class Tuesday or Wednesday depending on the district, able to attend class without wearing a mask, while in-person lessons will trump remote options.

Students will also have access to extracurricular activities for the first time since then, as the province's education minister Stephen Lecce stressed the need for the return to the "full student experience" earlier in the summer.

After a much needed break over the summer, the return to in-person learning provides helpful structure, said Julie Kalantzakos, who dropped off her four children at Westacres on Tuesday.

Her two youngest, five-year-old twin boys, were "a little hesitant" about coming back to school, but her two eldest, an eight-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl, "just ran off this morning, happy," she said.

"I think everyone's ready to get back into the routine of life and some order and for the kids themselves just to see their friends and school is their second home," Kalantzakos said.

Everyone has a different comfort level when it comes to COVID-19 measures, and Kalantzakos said she teaches her children to respect other people's boundaries. Personally, she said, "we're ready for a normal school year."

Ontario's top doctor announced last week that people who test positive for COVID-19 no longer have to isolate for five days, but can return to work or school once their fever is gone and their other symptoms have been improving for at least 24 hours.

Moore said people should wear a mask for 10 days after the onset of symptoms and keep up-to-date with their vaccinations, calling the combination a "pragmatic and practical" approach for work and school environments.

But the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation say they're worried allowing children and educators to return to the classroom while still potentially contagious could cause the virus to spread faster in schools.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2022.