Are Hamilton schools safe amid a fourth wave?

Experts across the province have been clear in their message: kids need to be in the classroom.

But the arrival of a fourth wave and increasingly sluggish vaccination rates across the province have prompted families to again ask: Are schools safe?

Yes," said Dr. Martha Fulford, infectious disease specialist at McMaster Children's Hospital. We have to remember that children and youth are at exceptionally low risk of an adverse outcome from COVID. This remains true with the Delta variant."

Dr. Peter Juni, scientific director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, said, we need to take really seriously all the precautionary measures in schools," in particular for those born prior to 2009, who are not yet eligible for a vaccine.

As of Wednesday, anyone turning 12 in 2021 will be eligible for their vaccine.

During the next few months, it will be really important to focus on our aim of keeping elementary schools safe, not only through the measures in school ... but also making sure that the case numbers in the community are not too high," he said. But it doesn't mean we should deviate from in-person learning."

In Hamilton, most kids and teens - approximately 97 per cent - plan to return to in-person learning on Sept. 7. A handful - about 2,500 - plan to continue with remote learning for the school year.

Dr. Jeff Pernica, head of the division of infectious disease in the department of pediatrics at McMaster University, said going back to school is the safest option."

The bad news is that Delta is definitely more transmissible than any of the previous variants," he said. The good news is that the people most at risk within the school environment ... have all had a chance to be vaccinated."

COVID rates in the community really matter" when it comes to schools, and decisions around specific activities, like choir and sports, should happen at the local level, Pernica said.

It's going to be hard to make a one-size-fits-all decision for the province," he said. I think we owe it to our children to give them back a lot of the things that they haven't had over the past year and a half, if the epidemiology of disease permits."

Are health and safety protocols enough?

The back-to-school plan announced earlier this month remains in place, and there have been no indication of changes at the provincial level.

What I really like about the back-to-school document was the emphasis on ventilation and filtration, the emphasis on masking," June said.

But he said smaller class sizes, which are not part of the provincial plan, would also help keep schools safe.

In Hamilton, the public and Catholic school boards say they are working to keep class sizes small by using reserve funding and a portion of COVID-related funding from the Ministry of Education.

Juni said he is also concerned about singing and wind instruments."

Now, considering that we're in the fourth wave, this would need to be dropped," he said. No singing, no wind instruments."

In an email to The Spectator, Jeff Sorensen, president of the Hamilton-Wentworth Elementary Teachers' Local union said much more needs to be done to ensure that schools open first and close last," echoing sentiments early August.

But Fulford said countries like the U.K. and Netherlands braved fourth waves with schools open and far fewer restrictions."

Ontario's back-to-school plan remains one of the strictest in the country," she said.

Will vaccinations be mandatory for staff?

The province announced on Tuesday plans to introduce a vaccine disclosure policy for employees in Ontario schools.

Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, said on Tuesday that the Ministry of Education is finalizing a vaccination policy for all publicly funded school board employees, as well as staff in licensed child-care settings, with rapid test requirements for staff who are not immunized against COVID-19."

More details are expected in the coming days and weeks," he said.

At a minimum, it takes six weeks to become fully vaccinated, meaning the deadline to go from unvaccinated to fully protected before the start of school - July 27 - has already come and gone.

We had a sudden drop-off over the last several weeks, and, quite honestly, we have to re-bolster our efforts to immunize Ontarians," Moore said.

In an email to The Spectator, Daryl Jerome, president of the local bargaining unit for the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, said he believes the overwhelming majority" of his members have opted for the vaccine.

Will I know whether or not my child's teacher is vaccinated?

Hamilton's public and Catholic boards both say, without any change in provincial legislation, privacy laws prevents them from sharing an individual teacher's immunization status.

We will be collecting that information as part of the protocol of the policy, so we may be able to report overall vaccination rates for our board, but certainly not individual level," said Dawn Danko, chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.

Danko said she hopes that, for the board's families, the announcement of the immunization disclosure policy - and rapid testing protocol for the unvaccinated - will help assuage some of their fears."

Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board chair Pat Daly said following today's announcement parents and others will know that all of the staff in our schools have either been vaccinated or will be tested regularly."

Boards say they're waiting for direction from the province on how information will be collected and reported.

Both the public and Catholic school boards say they will not be redeploying staff to different positions based on their immunization status."

Will vaccines be mandatory for eligible students?

Moore said the province is in active discussion" with the Ministry of Education around an immunization policy for students.

If we follow the Immunization of Student School Pupils Act, which is in place in Ontario, it would just mandate that students parents report the immunization status of their children and or take an educational module," he said.

Currently, the COVID-19 vaccine is optional, and is not required to be reported to public health like other immunizations - such as tetanus and measles - for schoolchildren.

As of Aug. 17, about 56 per cent of youth ages 12 to 17 were fully vaccinated and nearly 72 per cent had a first dose.

Kate McCullough is a Hamilton-based reporter covering education at The Spectator. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com