Ontario schools will remain closed for in person learning.
Premier Doug Ford announced this afternoon virtual learning will continue in Ontario.
Ford says they will be working to make sure all students in all grades should be able to have outdoor graduation ceremonies, not just students in Grades 8 and 12.
Classrooms in the province have been closed since mid-April due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19.
In response to the announcement, the Thames Valley District School Board advised students with complex special needs who are not able to learn remotely, will continue to learn in person at designated schools.
The school board noted there will be important information to communicate with families in the coming days about retrieving personal belongings from schools, returning school board property, and year-end recognitions. This information will be shared as it becomes available.
Ford also talked about the possibility of moving into the first step of reopening in Ontario sooner than expected.
Recent modelling presented by the Science Advisory Table revealed that if Ontario reopened schools to in-person learning the province could see an increase of six to 11 per cent in the number of new daily COVID-19 cases. It is unknown how many of these would be the new, more dangerous B.1.617.2 variant first identified in India, which has entered the province through Canada’s borders.
An increase in cases and the spread of variants would also threaten Ontarians’ hard-fought progress in beating the third wave and could delay the safe return to many summer activities for kids, including day and overnight camps, sports leagues and public pools, among other important activities that support children’s physical and mental wellbeing.
“While this decision was not made lightly, it has been done with one aim: protect the summer for families and deliver a stable and safe September for students,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education.
“We are looking forward and taking action by getting all education workers and students vaccinated with both doses ahead of September, while investing an additional $2 billion to ensure students and staff are safe.”
With schools in Ontario closed for in-person learning, emergency child care (ECC) 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-days in programming over the summer months, in accordance with the Ministry of Education’s health and safety guidance. Those before and after school programs that operate as a camp over the summer will be permitted to do so, and will follow health and safety guidance from the Ministry of Health.
