Ontario families prepare to send their kids back to school for the second time during the pandemic

Students cross the street at Tomken Road Middle School as Ontario prepares for its third province wide lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mississauga, Ont., on Thursday, April 1, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO -

With the first day of Ontario school less than a month away, families are preparing to send their children back to the classroom for the second time amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, Premier Doug Ford’s government released a 26-page document outlining the guidelines and health practices that those families and students, along with teachers and staff, will have to abide by during the 2021-2022 school year.

While masking will still be mandated indoors for all Ontario students in grades one and up, classroom sizes have not changed.

A return to in-person learning is being encouraged by the province and classes will be taught in-person five days a week. Families still have the option to choose remote learning, however.

Josh Robins is the parent of a child currently enrolled in the York Region District School Board.

Above all, Robins is looking forward to his child returning to in-person school, telling CTV News Toronto over the phone Monday that he has witnessed firsthand the psychological effect isolation has had on children.

“They've been locked up and they've been in front of a computer. Kids have to learn to grow and learn how to deal with things,” Robins said.

That being said, Robins says that he thinks “teachers should have to get their vaccines for the safety of being in an enclosed place.”

“If there are people who don't want to get it, then they should be teaching online.”

Both Premier Ford and Minister of Education Stephen Lecce have said they won’t mandate vaccinations.

“The government has made a decision in the context of mandating vaccines, and we're not going to do that. We’ll respect the choices individuals will make,” Lecce said at a press conference on Aug. 4.

“But at the same time, we can be strong advocates for vaccines as a safe way to reduce risk and to allow for a more normal return to class.”

The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (EFTO) has issued a statement saying that Ontario’s current back-to-school plan won’t do enough to curb the spread of COVID-19 among unvaccinated students in the face of the Delta variant.

“It’s clear that Premier (Doug) Ford and Minister (Stephen) Lecce are relying on vaccinations alone to provide a safe school reopening and a return to extracurriculars. What they seem to have forgotten is that Ontarians remain at risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19, and most elementary children are ineligible for vaccines,” ETFO President Sam Hammond said.

“Because of this government’s poor decision-making, students in Ontario lost more opportunities to learn in person than any other students in Canada … The Ford government’s consistent and reckless disregard for the seriousness of this pandemic will not keep students, staff and their families safe.”

At the Aug. 4 press conference, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said that “in-person learning is crucial for [children’s] mental and physical health, overall well-being and long-term success.”

Lecce also committed to ensuring that ventilation improvements will be in place for all publicly-funded schools across Ontario.

“Today, I am announcing an additional $25 million dollar investment for the purchase of approximately 20,000 standalone high-efficiency particulate air filter units — or HEPA units,” he said.

“The additional funding announced today, combined with our past investments, will ensure that all occupied learning environments, including classrooms, gyms, libraries, childcare rooms, portables and other instructional spaces without mechanical ventilation have standalone HEPA filter units in place when students return to class this fall, as well as Junior and Senior Kindergarten classrooms in mechanically ventilated schools to recognize that the youngest learners will not be wearing masks in the classroom.”

Mandy Penny has three children under the age of 12 — one is high-risk for complications if they were to contract COVID-19.

“I don’t think that the back-to-school plan is sufficient. It is essentially the same plan as last year with a few HEPA filters for classrooms added — not enough of them,” Penny told CTV News Toronto in a statement on Sunday.

Penny works in post-secondary education and has to return to the office come September, making it difficult to have her kids home for remote schooling.

“We're not optimistic and we know there are many families out there where pulling their children out of school is just not an option,” she said.

“This is an equity issue as well as a public health and safety one.”

Valerie Frantellizzi, a parent of a student in the Peel School District, says she’s “extremely anxious” going into September.

“Every morning, we will wake up worrying that someone will wake up with a symptom and everyone will need to stay home and every evening, we will worry about getting a call from admin saying that the kids need to self-isolate due to a positive case in their cohort,” Frantellizzi told CTV News Toronto in a statement on Sunday.

Frantellizzi is a teacher in a school that teaches kindergarten to grade 8.

“I too need to worry about the same thing and now Lecce has presented us with a worse back-to-school plan. Delta is here. Cases in Ontario have almost doubled since last week,” she said.

“As for the question about making vaccinations mandatory for teachers, I am still undecided. What I would have liked to see in the back-to-school plan would have been smaller class sizes, at the very least. The lack of cohorts at recess and the easing of masks during physical activities is extremely concerning.”

According to the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, Ontario schools have endured closures for longer than any other Canadian province or territory.

However, last week, Ontario Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kieran Moore said that he doesn’t expect to have to shutter classrooms again this year.

“I really don’t see our schools closing going into the fall and winter and spring,” he said. “I really can’t envision or see any closures of any schools in Ontario, or colleges or universities.”

Despite concerns among parents, Lecce is confident that Ontario’s plan will serve both students and staff.

“With the work we have done, I am confident we will keep students and staff safe in our schools as we reopen for the 2021-22 school year.”