Thousands of Toronto students switch to virtual school as COVID-19 case count rises

Thousands of students in the Toronto District School Board opted to move from in-person to virtual school this week as the number of cases in schools continues to rise.

The TDSB’s first deadline to switch from online to in-person classes and vice versa on Wednesday saw about 7,500 students move from in-person to , while 3,000 students opted to switch from virtual to in-person classes, according to spokesman Ryan Bird.

The changes take effect Oct. 13.

As of Friday afternoon, the board is also reporting COVID-19 cases in 82 school, with 68 cases among students, and 29 in teachers.

The switch, the first one of the year, comes at a time when thousands of students who signed up for virtual in the summer have yet to be assigned a teacher.

Toronto parent Angela Matich, who opted for virtual school in August questions why the board would have allowed students to switch when so many kids — like her two children — are still waiting for a teacher.

“My attitude is you couldn’t handle what you have right now. Clear the backlog, and then move forward,” she said. “I understand there was a demand to move to virtual, but the problem is the TDSB has not been clearly telling those parents that we can switch you, but we have no teachers, we have no class, and your kids could be home one month or more doing nothing.

“The problem is that once they keep allowing people to switch, they have to constantly reorganize not just virtual but also in-person classes.”

Matich said one of her sons was connected to a teacher on Monday, but has yet to actually start the class.

“Just because you have been assigned a teacher that doesn’t mean you have started learning, and if you have been assigned a teacher, that doesn’t mean you actually have that teacher because teachers are getting pulled at the last minute … and then you are in this never-ending revolving door where we don’t actually know what we have,” she said.

Earlier this week, the TDSB said it was still short 80 French teachers and students in the French immersion/extended French program online could not be guaranteed they would be able to continue in French.

Currently, the board says 58,500 of its 174,000 elementary students are learning from home and 18,000 of 73,000 high schoolers are enrolled in online learning.

High schoolers have until Oct. 15 to decide whether they’ll make the switch. That decision would take effect on Nov. 23. The next opportunity to switch will be Nov. 6.

The development comes as Toronto deals with a surge in COVID-19 cases. On Friday, the city recorded an additional 311 cases and two more deaths. It was also reporting four schools with active outbreaks. (The province defines an outbreak as two or more lab-confirmed cases within a 14-day period with at least one case connected to the school, including busing and after-school programs.)

Toronto’s top public health official, Dr. Eileen de Villa, said she respects parents’ decisions to pull their kids out of the classroom.

“I think they should make the choices that make the most sense for their own unique circumstances, what makes sense for their children and what makes sense for their broader family,” she said, noting some kids or their families may be at greater risk of serious COVID-19 symptoms.

“That doesn’t take away from the fact that, from a public health perspective, we completely appreciate the value of schools to our children and to their overall health, so we’re doing everything we can in concert with our school board partners … to create environments that are as safe as possible for our children.”

York Region District School Board’s deadline to switch was on Sept. 22, at which time 5,854 decided to move from in-person to virtual. At the same time, 766 moved from virtual to face to face.

Peel Region District School Board saw a huge influx of 10,000 students move from in-person to virtual in September, delaying the start of school. The next switch date for PDSB students is Oct. 14.

With files from The Canadian Press

Noor Javed is a Toronto-based reporter covering current affairs in the York region for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: