‘Virtual learning is a full-time job’
Hamilton parents struggle to line up child care, rearrange schedules amid extended school closures
Terrie Wilson’s five children — the youngest in JK and the oldest in Grade 11 — are a few of the thousands of students across Hamilton who will continue remote learning until February amid a provincewide stay-athome order, causing parents to scramble to find child care and rearrange their schedules.
“You think you have everything set in place and this is when they’re going to go back, and then they don’t go back,” said Wilson, who works full time in a dental office. “It’s very difficult.”
The province announced on Tuesday that Hamilton schools will remain closed to in-person learning until Feb. 10 — about a month after they were initially set to reopen — as the province further tightens restrictions in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.
“I’m glad at least now they’ve given us until February 10th for sure,” she said. “I’m just hoping that they don’t wait two days beforehand to extend it again.”
Wilson said she’s lucky they don’t have to worry about child care — the older children look after their younger siblings — but that doesn’t necessarily mean school work is getting done.
“I wake them up before I go into work, but you just hope that they stay up, you hope that they log in,” she said. “I can’t be there to make sure that they are actually in their class and participating.”
In a statement Tuesday evening,
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board chair Dawn Danko said they “appreciate the clear direction” from the Ontario government.
“Families can now plan, staff can continue to support remote learning, and educators can adapt and finalize lesson plans,” she said.
Carrie St-Martin’s child-care solution involves shuttling her five-year-old son, who started junior kindergarten in September at Rosedale Elementary School, between his father and her parents.
St-Martin, a single mother who works full-time in a family doctor’s office, will be forced to drop her son off in Ottawa with her father for a week because she can find no other care. “It’s tough,” she said.
From 8:30 a.m., her son is expected to be online for class following the teacher’s instruction — or working through an off-line activity package for parents to do with kids.
“I think the expectations are really unrealistic for JK,” she said.
“Like, he hardly knows how to even use the computer.”
Daycare isn’t an option for StMartin
because she no longer qualifies for a single-parent subsidy now that her child is school-aged.
“My job is in jeopardy because I need to find care for him,” she said, adding that, as a single-income household, she couldn’t afford to live on CERB or the caregiver benefit.
“Clearly, it causes many hardships,” said Pat Daly, chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board on Wednesday. “And as well for our staff, especially those that have school-age children of their own.”
Amanda Eaton and her husband have rearranged their schedules twice this year — first when it was announced schools would remain closed until Jan. 25 and again after in-person learning was pushed back again on Tuesday.
“My workplace is going above and beyond to try to accommodate me to stay on shifts, however, if they are unable to, I will have to take an unpaid leave,” she said in an email to The
Spectator, adding that she can apply for government assistance to offset the financial hit. “But this would then take a health-care worker out of the workforce during a pandemic when we’re already desperately short of staff.”
Eaton said her husband, who started a new job in December after months of searching, is unable to take a leave to be home with their three kids — a 13-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 10 and 7.
“I’m sitting close by both my youngest the entire school day, helping them navigate various websites ... trying to keep them focused on their teacher in a tiny box in the corner of the screen,” she said.
“Virtual learning is a full-time job.” Kate McCullough is a Hamiltonbased reporter covering education at The Spectator. Her work is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com