TORONTO, April 12, 2021 – Given the continued school closures, we are calling on the government to recognize the hardship kids and families are facing and do everything in their power to safely re-open schools as soon as possible and save the school year.

We understand this difficult decision was necessary because of the high levels of community transmission of coronavirus and immense pressure on our healthcare system and hospital ICUs.

As leaders in children’s healthcare, we wholeheartedly believe that schools should be the last doors to close and the first to open. We strongly urge government partners to do everything possible to ensure schools are the first doors to re-open, and that students can get back to in-person learning before the school year is finished.

For that to happen, we continue to call on government to implement measures that include, but are not limited to:

• The strictest measures to be put in place to reduce community spread and reverse the trend, including paid sick days for essential workers.
• Immediately deliver on a vaccine strategy that prioritizes essential workers in hot spot neighbourhoods, including teachers and early childhood educators, other education staff and caregivers of kids with serious illness or chronic conditions.
• Ramp up efforts to ensure strong infection prevention and control strategies in schools, including enhanced testing and tracing, with a focus on the highest risk communities.  Enhanced testing for coronavirus in school communities is essential to ensure a safe return to school. The use of novel methods of testing including take-home saliva for symptomatic students as well as enhanced supports for school-based testing including on-site testing for dismissed cohorts and full school testing for outbreaks is urgently needed to support the health and safety of all students and staff.
• Put in place supports to minimize the negative impact of school closures on the education, health and well-being of all children across the socio-economic spectrum with a health equity lens.
• A provincial campaign to improve vaccine confidence and increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, especially for those who have been disproportionately impacted.

-    30    -

About the Children's Health Coalition: The Children's Health Coalition is a growing collective of children's health organizations, including CHEO, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, SickKids, McMaster Children’s Hospital, Children’s Mental Health Ontario and Empowered Kids Ontario.