We are now amidst a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by the Delta variant and primarily affecting the unvaccinated. It is time for your government to finally make children a priority and take action to protect in-person learning. 

Ontario’s children, families, and economy cannot afford another year of disrupted education after experiencing the longest closures in Canada. Over the course of the pandemic, we have learned that schools are essential to children’s health and well-being, to families’ financial stability, and to our economy. 

We now know that keeping spread low in the community is critically important to keeping COVID from entering schools. As is often said, school cases are a reflection of the community: when cases are high in the community, the chances of students or staff entering a school with an active COVID infection. 

Premier Ford has often said that he will not take chances with our children. It is time to prioritize children by taking steps to limit the size and breadth of this fourth wave and protecting their access in-person learning by:

• Proceeding with the reported plan to delay any further re-opening. Further restrictions should not be lifted until you are certain that doing so will not endanger children’s health or access to uninterrupted in-person learning. It would be unconscionable for your government to put at risk schools and children too young to vaccinate, after your decision to keep schools closed because you feared in-person learning would threaten your plans to re-open the economy. 
• Extending the reported plan for a mandatory vaccination policy in hospitals, long-term care, and home care to adults working, volunteering, or visiting Ontario’s schools and childcare settings. High vaccination rates among the adults surrounding children is the best way to limit transmission to children and to prevent further education disruption.

In closing, we ask you that you finally prioritize children and our schools by delaying further re-opening and mandating vaccines for adults in schools and childcare settings. 

Sincerely,