Many parents are largely welcoming a delayed return to in-person classes for elementary and high school students, but confusion reigns over who can return early.
The B.C. government announced Wednesday that most students won’t return to in-person classes until Jan. 10, although a “limited” number of students whose parents are essential workers, as well as students with special needs, will return to school Jan. 3 or 4.
The goal is to give public health and education officials time to understand the impact of the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus and to add safety measures to mitigate transmission, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has said.
B.C. reported 4,383 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday — another single-day record — including 460 in Island Health. The province now has a total of 17,357 active cases, of which 856 are on the Island. The Omicron variant is driving the surge, said Henry, with 2,825 cases of the variant detected in B.C.
When Henry announced the start-of-school delay, she said children of essential workers, health-care workers and teachers can return to school next week if needed.
On Thursday, the Education Ministry said districts have been asked to prioritize space for children of health-care workers and other essential workers, including teachers and school staff, and students with diverse needs and disabilities, as their capacity allows.
Parents can expect to hear directly from school districts about the processes in their area, it said.
“It is important to remember the delayed return to school is also to allow districts time to do an assessment of their workforce at this time as well,” said Sean Leslie, communications director for the Education Ministry. “Districts are working to support as many families in the first week as they can, while also ensuring that the critical preparation work can happen to support a safe return to school on Jan. 10.”
Dave Eberwein, superintendent of the Saanich School District, said the idea is not to try to fit as many professions into the essential-worker definition as possible. Rather, “we’re looking for those families that are truly stuck; we’re in this together.”
If there are unique situations, the district and individual schools will work with families to assess what they can do to help, he said.
“But we do need time next week to figure things out,” said Eberwein. “We can’t be inundated by thousands of students, because we just won’t have things in place to make sure that our schools continue to be safe and engaging places.”
School districts are trying to put in place new COVID safety measures in a short amount of time “and I know the community will respond positively to that,” said Eberwein. “A lot of uncertainty still exists as to what some of the safety protocols and processes will be.”
Angela Cooper-Carmichael, president of the Victoria Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, said many parents agree with the delayed school start, given the spike in Omicron cases.
“Nobody really wants to do a complete shutdown like we had before, because we know that all children are not doing well with online learning, especially if they’re differently abled, or if they need education support,” said Cooper-Carmichael.
As well, many children get food at school, “so nobody wants to take that away from children in need.”
Cooper-Carmichael said she was fielding many questions from parents Thursday, mostly about who would be deemed a “special needs” student. For now, she is awaiting further direction from the school district.
Stephanie Hazlitt, treasurer of the Macaulay Elementary parent advisory council in Esquimalt, said Macaulay parents have mixed feelings about the delay. Some would opt for a full shutdown, while that would be very difficult for other families. “There’s no one solution,” said Hazlitt.
“I know for my own family, we are sitting in a place of privilege where our children are old enough and we have jobs where we can work from home and where [the delay] doesn’t have any impact on our paycheques or our ability to pay our mortgage,” said Hazlitt. “Not everybody has that same luxury.”
Parents are being 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.
