B.C. parents leery of return to school this fall

4 in 10 say they’d send kids back in September

With an announcement scheduled for Wednesday on what schools will be doing in September, the results of a national survey indicate that just 40 per cent of B.C. parents would send their children back to the classroom for at least a few days a week — well below the national average of 59 per cent.

B.C. Education Minister Rob Fleming and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry are scheduled to speak Wednesday about the fall school session.

The survey by Leger and the Association of Canadian Studies, which involved 1,517 Canadians over 18, found that 12 per cent of B.C. parents plan to keep their children at home while 48 per cent are undecided.

Nationally, 18 per cent said they would keep their children at home and 23 per cent were undecided.

Parents in Quebec were most likely to say they planned to send their children back to school, at 77 per cent.

The province reopened schools outside Montreal in the spring, with voluntary attendance.

“We’re five weeks away from what’s a normal back-to-school time and still a quarter of parents don’t know what they’ll do,” Leger vice-president Christian Bourque said. “A lot of it is still up in the air because provinces have really not made all their decisions.”

Fleming said Wednesday’s announcement will include plans for a rollback should a second wave of COVID-19 hit. Last week, he urged parents to have a backup plan in case schools can’t resume in-person classes.

He said Henry will outline the province’s “science-based approach” to developing health and safety protocols to keep students safe, as outlined by the B.C. Centre of Disease Control.

“We certainly want to give certainty to parents, teachers, support staff about what the plan is going forward,” Fleming said Tuesday. “We’ll have school districts work within the revised guidelines to provide additional details throughout the summer, but tomorrow I’ll have a lot of information to report out on September school restart.”

Parents will have time to get more site-specific plans from school districts, Fleming said.

He said in mid-July that the government is working to have as many students as possible at school when the fall session begins, with a goal of a 100 per cent classroom return for elementaryand middle-school students.

In-person classes across B.C. were cancelled on March 17, replaced by remote learning until schools resumed on a limited basis in June.

Fleming said the government has sought input for its school plan from a steering committee that includes teachers, support staff, unions, principals, vice-principals and parent organizations, and has considered the needs and well-being of vulnerable students who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Wednesday’s announcement is set for 12:30 p.m. and includes an opportunity for the public to watch via livestream, with a sign-language interpreter available. Joining Fleming and Henry will be representatives of the B.C. School Trustees Association president and the B.C. Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils.