Toronto Catholic students hoping to switch to online classes need to wait until at least Oct. 31

Toronto Catholic District School Board from in-person to online classes are out of luck for at least the rest of the month as administrators scramble to hire enough teachers to meet the demand for virtual learning.

Toronto’s second biggest school board has paused any transfers out of the classroom until it can make sure there are enough teachers to accommodate students in both streams. There is a chance that students in the TCDSB’s 163 elementary schools may be able to make the switch from in-class to at-home on Oct. 31, but the situation is evolving.

“This does not mean that students will never be able to change,” according to an emailed statement from Shazia Vlahos, the board’s head of communications. “But we do need to ensure classrooms are stable before allowing any additional transfers.”

Until Monday, some students in the virtual stream were still without a teacher. While teachers have now been assigned to all 25,000 students learning remotely, according to the TCDSB, it may take a day or so for them to make contact with families.

There are 90,000 students currently taking in-person classes.

With the increased demand on schools to provide both in-person and virtual streams of learning, staffing has been very tight. School boards across the province are struggling with the manpower challenge and are competing to hire from the pool of qualified teachers.

The Catholic board did not provide the number of students who have indicated they would like to switch to remote learning, saying it does not yet have the full picture.

Students wishing to switch in the other direction, from online to in-person classes, however, can do so more easily, by getting in touch with the principal at their school. There’s no guarantee they’ll able to switch right away, but there is more leeway, the spokesperson said.

“Re-entry into in-class learning is dependent on appropriate timing in relation to the achievement cycle and class enrollment numbers. For elementary, re-entry could be November, February or April,” the statement said.

Students at the board’s 20 secondary schools will not be able to switch at all until the end of November, according to the statement emailed to the Star. Because the quadmesters are so short, it does not make sense to switch until they are finished. According to the statement, “all secondary student transfers to and from virtual learning will be placed on a local waitlist until then.”

The Toronto District School Board is set to make its ​first swap, in both directions, Oct. 13 and there is no word on whether it may delay for staffing or other reasons, including a potentially increased risk of virus transmission in the community. The board is expecting 3,000 students to move from online to in-person classes. About 7,500 students are moving from in-person to online.

“Staff have been working closely with Toronto Public Health on all health and safety strategies including through the establishment of new cohorts,” according to the TDSB. “Enhanced cleaning of classrooms will be conducted between any change in cohorts.”

While more than 94 per cent of TDSB students — 56,000 — had been assigned a teacher since virtual school began Sept. 22, as of Friday, 6 per cent were still waiting.

“We know how disappointing this has been,” a virtual school update on the TDSB website said. “We are sorry that it has taken so long to get students set up in a classroom with a teacher and are doing everything possible to continue to place teachers so that learning can begin.”

According to a presentation to school board trustees sent to the Star by the TDSB, students new to virtual school or with a teacher who is new to it will work independently for the first day or two of the transition.

Michele Henry is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: