An announcement on whether schools will reopen to in-person learning before the summer is expected in the coming days.
In a tweet on Monday, Premier Doug Ford, sporting a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, said officials are poring over information from the Ontario Science Advisory Table published over the weekend and plan to provide an answer on the school reopening question this week.
You can view Ford’s statement below.
Premier Ford say there will be an announcement on schools reopening - or not - "in the next day or two." #onpoli pic.twitter.com/uQXIK0kWUg
— Cynthia Mulligan (@CityCynthia) May 31, 2021
On Saturday, the science table recommended schools be reopened on a regional basis as the benefits of keeping children home are now being outstripped by the physical and psychological impacts of keeping them home.
“While the pandemic was surging, school closures were a necessary step to control that surge. However, school closures create harm. Surveys show a substantial deterioration of mental health status among children and youth during the pandemic,” the Science Table letter said.
“This deterioration is now evident in the form of increased ambulatory care use and hospital admissions, most poignantly for children and youth with eating disorders. We believe these mental health indicators represent the tip of the iceberg and that children and youth mental health will present significant long-term challenges during our recovery from the pandemic.”
The closures also “create ripple effects for both children and their families as the social and economic benefits of education go unrealized. These include losses of skills development, losses in lifetime earnings for Ontarians, losses of social connections and, for some Ontarians, even missing meals and other critical health services. Like so much of the pandemic, these harms and missed benefits are inequitable: those whom the pandemic is hitting hardest are also hardest hit by school closures.”
As he said he would, Ford sent a letter to doctors, scientists and educators last week looking for input on reopening school. He posed several questions to them, including whether the B.1.617 COVID-19 variant increases the risk for staff and students should schools reopen.
