B.C. will phase in a return to school for students in kindergarten through Grade 12 in January, with all students back to in-person classes by Jan. 10.
Public and independent schools will open on Jan. 3 or 4, as planned, for staff and a “limited” number of students whose parents are essential workers, as well as students with special needs, with a full return to classes for all students on Jan. 10, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said at a pandemic update on Wednesday.
“This will give us time to add additional protocols,” Henry said of the revised provincial health order. It will also give the province more time to understand the impact of Omicron in the community, she said.
Some independent schools already have a Jan. 10 return date.
Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside said by taking a few extra days “for planning and preparation,” the province is “setting up our schools for the best possible start.”
Face-to-face learning is important for the intellectual, social and emotional development of students, said Whiteside, adding schools also provide important support for students who may need extra help, from mental-health services to hot meals.
But the rapid emergence of the Omicron variant requires a delayed start to allow public health and education officials time to assess the impact of the variant, said Whiteside. “And it will also provide teachers, staff and administrators time to prepare for students safely returning to class with enhanced safety measures.”
Parents are encouraged to contact school principals to make arrangements for students who will attend starting next week because their parents are essential workers, such as health-care staff, or they have support needs, Whiteside said.
There was some confusion Wednesday regarding the definition of “essential worker” related to which students could return to class next week after references were made only to health-care workers. Henry said her understanding is that “children of teachers, essential workers, health-care workers will be in school next week.”
Extra measures expected to be in place when classes resume include preventing crowding during class transition times, such as staggering start and stop times and recess breaks, holding school gatherings such as assemblies online, holding staff-only gatherings online, limiting visitors to essentials such as meal program volunteers and people administering vaccines, and pausing extracurricular sports tournaments.
Winona Waldron, president of the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association, called delaying the school restart date the “right move” to ensure schools are as safe as possible when students return.
Waldron said larger schools in particular will need to stagger start times to prevent students from congregating, whether between classes or at break times.
For families returning from international travel, the delay will also allow time to isolate, said Waldron. “I think this will be a really much needed time to be able to say: ‘OK, yes, it’s safe, we’re good.’ ”
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation has advocated for free N95 masks for all school staff and students and for the implementation of a rapid-testing regime at schools.
The province said its existing supply of rapid tests will continue to be used at schools where there have been exposures and outbreaks, and when a new shipment arrives from the federal government in mid-January, “their use will be scaled up with 500,000 tests deployed as needed to support the safe continuation of in-person learning.”
The BCTF said it was pleased with the phased reopening, but disappointed that there was no indication that booster shots will be fast-tracked for teachers, or that N95 masks will be made available in schools.
Neither Henry or Whiteside directly addressed providing free N95 masks, but Waldron suspects that’s coming. “We’ve heard increasingly that cloth masks are not as good as N95,” said Waldron.
