Public elementary students in the Stratford area will get report cards this month, even if some of their peers across Ontario will not.

While teachers are grading students and passing those marks on to their principals, some school boards have said that information will not make its way into the hands of parents.

The issue, school boards say, is that teachers are only providing the information around marks – not inputting them into the system used for report cards.

That inputting is too much work to be done by existing board staff, some administrators say.

The Toronto District School Board has already said that its 170,000 elementary students will not get report cards this year.

In a letter sent home with parents Thursday, the Avon Maitland District School Board said that it would find a way to get some sort of final report cards home to parents.

“The school administration … will be entering (the) information, thereby ensuring that a final report card will be distributed to all students before the end of the school year,” the letter reads.

“If you have any questions, we encourage you to contact your child’s teacher to discuss their marks and overall assessment of their school year.”

At the Waterloo Region District School Board, officials have yet to say exactly what information will be given to parents about students’ progress.

In an email to CTV News, a board spokesperson said teachers’ help would be needed to enter grades for 40,000 students.

One idea floated was an “alternate report card” – potentially something as simple as a letter indicating which grade a student will enter in the fall.

More details are expected by Monday.

Greg Weiler, the president of the Waterloo chapter of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, says the school board knew of the ramifications of ETFO job action in April.

“It was public knowledge at the time, and we certainly informed the school board (that) teachers would only be providing grades and not comments,” he said.

“It appears that our school board and others have done nothing to prepare for what they knew was coming.”

In the meantime, Weiler echoes the Avon Maitland board’s suggestion that parents talk to teachers directly.

“Teachers can certainly communicate what they have provided,” he said.

Still, the uncertainty was enough for one student in Waterloo to stage his own protest – by walking out of his Grade 8 class for one day.

“I just felt that there’s a need to stand up and tell the teachers how we’re feeling,” Will Maxwell said in an interview.

“We’ve worked so hard for so long to get these marks … and we’re not getting them.”

Maxwell also wrote a letter outlining his feelings, which he showed to teachers and others at Centennial Public School.

As for the idea of getting his grades directly from his teacher, Maxwell said he worried something could get lost in translation.

“I think that I could talk to my teacher … but I wouldn’t be able to give all the feedback to my parents,” he said.

With files from The Canadian Press