Five ideas to help keep students safe and Ontario schools open

Pandemic-proofing suggestions from experts, parents and educators

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce says he's discussing with the chief medical officer of health how to increase the “layers of protection” at schools to keep students and staff safe as the province battles the second wave of the pandemic.

There is no shortage of advice on that subject.

From epidemiologists and infectious-disease specialists to engineers, parent groups, education unions and Opposition politicians, there have been calls for improvements since elementary and secondary schools opened in September.

As the number of people with COVID-19 rises across the province, experts warn we can expect to see more cases in schools.

Students temporarily shifted this week to virtual schooling at home. Classes at schools are supposed to resume as early as Jan. 11.

On Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford, asked whether learning at home will be extended, said he will consult with the COVID-19 health table and medical officer of health.

“We'll be announcing that in the next day or so.”

Lecce has said that closing schools would be a last resort because in-person classes are vital for children's emotional and academic health. They also allow their parents to work.

So how can schools be made safer? Here are five suggestions from experts, parents and educators.

IMPROVE VENTILATION

When the province's school-reopening plan was announced last summer, there wasn't as much clarity about how the virus spreads. It's now clear that disinfecting desks and doorknobs twice a day is not a primary defence against a virus that spreads mainly when people inhale it.

Improving school ventilation and air quality is critical to prevent the spread of the virus, say numerous critics. The province provided $50 million in funding to school boards in late August for that purpose, along with a guide to best practices.

The memo “does not provide detailed, specific, actionable and accurate information that would allow a decision-maker at a school to meaningfully reduce the risk transmission associated with infectious disease,” according to Jeffrey Siegel, an engineering professor at the University of Toronto who has adjunct appointments in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences. Siegel wrote an expert report as part of a labour board case filed by education unions.

Others have suggested that every classroom be assessed and a notice posted on the door with the maximum occupancy allowed and operational requirements for proper ventilation.

Schools have made improvements, including purchasing nearly 18,000 portable air filters, and more are coming, the Ministry of Education says.

BEEFING UP TESTING, TRACING AND I SOLATING

Others, including Marit Stiles, the Ontario NDP's education critic, are calling for widespread testing of asymptomatic students and staff at schools.

The province's chief medical officer of health has said the layers of protection have worked and there has not been a lot of transmission of the virus in schools.

However, as some experts have pointed out, the prevalence of the virus at schools is unclear because students or staff may have no symptoms or only mild ones.

Widespread testing would help identify those people and contain outbreaks.

Pop-up test sites for asymptomatic students, staff and family members were held at a number of schools late last year, including some in Ottawa.

Ontario plans to “scale up provincewide asymptomatic testing” at schools, said Lecce spokesperson Caitlin Clark.

Nisha Thampi, an infectious-diseases specialist at CHEO, also points out the critical role of close-contact tracing, saying schools should be given priority.

Thampi and others say parents also need support to stay home from work when their children are at home self-isolating.

CONSIDER MANDATORY MASKS F OR ALL STUDENTS

The province requires students in Grades 4 to 12 to wear cloth masks while indoors at school and in school buses. In some cities, including Toronto, school boards have extended the mask requirement to all students.

There is no consensus, though, on whether the risks would outweigh the benefits of requiring all children to wear masks.

Children can spread disease if masks are not worn and disposed of properly, and there are concerns masks could interfere with language and social development of younger children because they obscure the teacher's facial expressions.

Ottawa Public Health recommends that children in kindergarten to Grade 3 who “are able to appropriately and consistently wear a mask” do so, but it “can be challenging for some younger children to correctly wear a mask, especially for long periods of time.”

“This is the main reason why OPH is not requiring mask wearing while at school in those age groups,” a statement said.

REDUCING CLASS SI ZES

Probably the most common demand from the government's critics is to increase physical distancing at elementary schools by reducing class sizes.

The government had made some funds available and boards have used reserves. More than 3,000 extra teachers have been hired this year, allowing schools to cut class sizes, but it's nowhere near enough to ensure elementary classes of 15 across the province, as critics have requested.

But there is already a shortage of occasional teachers at many school boards.

The only quick way to drastically cut class sizes is to make school part-time, as some of the province's high schools have already done. Students in designated boards, mainly in urban areas, attend in-school classes, with a 15-student limit, half the time and study online at home for the remainder.

But a hybrid model for elementary students has drastically different consequences for parents because younger children require supervision at home.

TAKE CLASSES OUTSIDE

The province has encouraged school boards to consider holding classes outside, where the risk of coronavirus transmission is lower, and some teachers and schools have done that.

However, Thampi and others say there should be a co-ordinated effort to encourage the practice.

Thampi says more outdoor education would have lasting benefits.

“This is a unique opportunity to look at outdoor learning both for COVID safety and for a developmentally stimulating measure. We would do well to explore it now, because we would probably never make the time after.”