Back to school protective strategies

Various protective strategies that have been proposed by public health boards will be employed to ensure healthy and safe school environments for students and staff. All staff and students will be required to self-screen every day before going to school.

Signs will be posted to reinforce self-screening and hand hygiene. All will be required to encourage physical distance and one-way traffic in the hallways. Students and staff will be expected to respect entry and exit practices and the use of playgrounds and school grounds, ensure adequate signage in washrooms, and indicate the availability of hand sanitizer.
Students will be trained in hand hygiene. Breaks will be scheduled to allow students to wash their hands more often than otherwise.

Students in grades 4 to 12 will be required to wear a non-medical or cloth mask inside the school. For students in Kindergarten to Grade 3, the wearing of masks in indoor spaces will be encouraged, but will not be mandatory.

Medical masks and eye protection (i.e., visors) will be provided to all teachers and other school board staff. Masks will also be mandatory for all school personnel, unless there are reasonable exceptions for health problems. And schools will significantly limit the number of visitors, including parents. Some schools will go so far as to prohibit their presence.

The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and public health units will work closely with school boards to monitor and respond to reports of COVID-19 symptoms.