Local school boards taking different approaches on COVID-19 notifications to families

Kitchener -

As in-person classes resume this week, Waterloo Region’s largest publicly funded school boards appear to be taking different approaches when it comes to COVID-19 exposures at their schools.

WRDSB TO NOTIFY IMPACTED CLASSES

In a notice sent to parents Monday night, the Waterloo Region District School Board said it will continue to inform impacted classes “when schools become aware of a positive PCR or Rapid Antigen Test result for COVID-19.”

“We want to assure you that we will do our best to continue to provide as much information and transparency as possible when it comes to COVID-19 at WRDSB schools,” the notice read. “Our highest priority is to ensure the safety of our students and staff members.”

The WRDSB notice further said “while individual classes will continue to be notified of a possible exposure to COVID-19, the 'Confirmed Cases of COVID-19' page on the WRDSB website will no longer be updated.”

WCDSB NOT NOTIFYING FAMILIES

The head of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board said in an email to CTV News “we will not be notifying families of potential exposures.”

“WCDSB is following the direction of the Chief Medical Officer of Health and Waterloo Region Public Health, and the practice of the majority of boards across the province,” said Loretta Notten, Director of Education for the WCDSB.

Notten noted the guidance is for staff and students to closely monitor for symptoms, and that local public health is no longer following up on individual cases

Notten also pointed out that principals will be busy dealing with staffing challenges and at many schools have a single administrator so “it is too much to place on an administrator to have to carry out their own significant duties at this busy time, and also expect them to act as Public Health.”

PROVINCIAL GUIDANCE

This comes after the Ministry of Education announced earlier this month that the province will no longer report COVID-19 cases in schools.

New guidance from the province states that schools will not be routinely notifying students in classes with a positive case due to “to widespread transmission and inability to test all symptomatic individuals.

The province also said parents will only be notified of a potential COVID-19 outbreak when approximately 30 per cent of staff and student are absent from their school.