Dear Stakeholders in Education,

We must work together to ensure that every Toronto District School Board (TDSB) virtual school student who has been systemically deprioritized is fully supported as they navigate the return to bricks and mortar schools this coming year.

ISSUE

Following a disastrous rollout of Virtual School in the spring of 2020, families trusted the TDSB to come up with a comprehensive plan for virtual schools. By their own admission, they spent just three weeks doing that. (Hear webcast of that admission by Manon Gardner, Former Associate Director of School Operations and Service Excellence at 02:12:09 here.) Three weeks was not enough. 

It is now our fiduciary duty to advocate for our children and ensure that the plan to build every child’s bridge back to brick and mortar is given due attention - the kind of attention that should have been given to Virtual School in the first place. In addition to the 76,500 virtual students, the reintegration will most certainly impact many of the 170,500 students currently enrolled in brick and mortar schools. This is everyone’s problem.

CALLS TO ACTION

In early November, after a sweeping Virtual School reorganization the TDSB stated:

“When the students come back together in face-to-face learning, the students from Virtual School will be supported to reintegrate with classmates who may have had a different experience face to face.” (Virtual School Reorganization Fact Sheet, November 2020.)

1. The TDSB must be held accountable NOW to commit resources up front and articulate a clear, logical and fully outlined plan to address inequities and bridge the educational gap they have created for some students. This process must begin NOW and it must be carried out through consultation with virtual school families, teachers and brick and mortar school communities.

2. To carry out this work, it is clear that the TDSB must be also supported by municipal, provincial and federal stakeholders in education. Minister Lecce and the Ford Government must deliver the necessary funding NOW in order to give the TDSB the tools they need to support respective brick and mortar school communities in achieving these critical goals.

3, In order to get everyone’s attention, we need our community at large to stand behind us and send a clear message to everyone involved that equity in education is a priority for all students in our system. Please consider signing this petition and sharing it widely.

BACKGROUND

On October 31st, 2020 the TDSB attempted to address a French language teachers shortage in the virtual school system that affected 48 classrooms who, until that time, did not have a French teacher. The TDSB achieved this through a number of actions that have had severe, adverse effects upon many classrooms, teachers, parents, and most importantly, students. These actions included:

• The addition of new English teachers to some virtual school classrooms but not others and the reduction of French immersion instruction by 50% for those grade 3 classrooms and 30% for those grade 4 classrooms affected. 
• Those families who only had English teachers to start the school year were given a French teacher but also at the reduced French language instruction stated above.
• In some classrooms, students lost their original teachers altogether and were given two new teachers, causing those classes to lose 6 weeks of prior work, but also to lose hours upon hours of education as they have been forced to redo housekeeping, learn new rules, platforms and apps for TWO new teachers.

The TDSB continues to claim, via a fact sheet, in Committee of the Whole meeting updates, emails, and phone exchanges, that these actions were undertaken with appropriate notice to both teachers and families to allow for handoff between teachers who were shuffled throughout the system. 

Despite the many parent advocates who have shown that while proper notice may have been given to some parents and teachers, it was not given to all parents and teachers. 

*NB A subsequent Freedom of Information request through the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has revealed conclusively that families with a French Teacher assigned were not forewarned of these changes and received communication on November 2nd AFTER discovering that original teachers had been locked out of their Brightspace platforms and replaced with new teachers on October 31st. The FOI and response can be downloaded here.

Despite the many parent advocates and councils who have been releasing statements, writing letters, filing complaints, making phone calls and delegating at TDSB board meetings, (See November 4th, Committee of the Whole, November 10th, Committee of the Whole, November 24th - Planning and Priorities Special Meeting, November 25th, Finance, Budget and Enrollment Committee), we have been largely met with a wall of silence by the TDSB on these matters.

Experiences have varied widely. Some students are still at the requisite number of hours, others are not. Bricks and mortar schools have not been affected by these changes. But TDSB continues to generalize our classrooms, failing to recognize and take ownership for the wide-sweeping inequity they have created in our school system. 

The fact is that SOME virtual classrooms have been disproportionately affected and will surely pay the price for years to come. And by the TDSB’s own numbers, we know that virtual schools are largely made up of children who already come from under-served communities - so the children that are most in need, and already upended by being in virtual school, have been most adversely affected once again.

PARENT CONCERNS

Parents have raised a number of concerns with the Board through various channels, social media groups and online applications. Some examples include:

• Very poor communication from the TDSB and lack of acknowledgement, ownership or remorse for the crisis they have created for some classrooms by shuffling classes without notice to parents, students and teachers.
• Only 3 weeks given to the planning of Virtual School when the TDSB had over 3 months to organize and implement a working system- yet officials at the TDSB regularly cite “lack of time” as an excuse for the situation virtual school families are currently facing.
• Extreme loss of educational hours for some virtual school students compared to virtual school counterparts and bricks and mortar students.
• No record of what children are doing in some virtual classes as teachers “forego” work submissions.
• Some families have stopped attending school to manage stress and anxiety.
• Difficulties navigating the many platforms associated with virtual schools as teachers change without notice.
• Bricks and mortar classrooms remain with cohorts and teachers when shifted to virtual school with no resources redistributed to help families who are in some cases down to one part-time virtual school teacher in the Learning Centres.
• Bricks and mortar teachers are immediately replaced but this is not the case in Virtual Schools.
• Lack of timely access to technology for virtual learners.
• Learners can’t really engage with their teachers due to a lack of 1 to 1 instruction. Classes are more like a university lecture with very little opportunity for a feedback loop between teachers and students.
• Learners in French Immersion who have been shuffled into the English stream on a part-time basis, (where no English for French Immersion curriculum exists), have been thrown into the grade level equivalent in English without preparation as though they had completed the previous grades in English.
• Lack of accountability, transparency, and oversight in virtual schools.
• Lack of proper access to and canned responses from senior administration in virtual schools.
• Families forced to switch to in-person school despite misgivings due to the sub-par experience in Virtual School.
• Teachers in virtual school with two classes part time have double the number (70+) students to assess.
• This will be a “throw away” report card year for students in virtual school.
• Virtual families allow for lower numbers of students in bricks and mortar but are treated like an afterthought, an annoyance and an enemy rather than “partners” in education.
• Why is there such clarity with how the upcoming secondary switch will work (ie virtual is full) but Elementary is ‘fill in a survey’?
• The educational gulf caused by reduced French Immersion hours for some virtual school classes.
• The educational gulf caused by the fact that some students only received a French teachers six weeks into the school year.
• The educational gulf caused by time lost to relearning processes, rules and applications for some virtual school classes, particularly those who received two new teachers 6 weeks into the school year.
• The educational gulf caused by the fact that new and less qualified teachers have largely been placed in virtual schools.
• Special Ed students in virtual schools that have received no support since March- those in French Immersion have been disproportionately affected.
• The feeling that there seems to be a deliberate and concerted effort on behalf of the TDSB to ignore these concerns in the hopes that parents will wear out and just go away.
• That theTDSB has stated that there is a “plan” for making up the various gulfs but that no concrete details have been brought forward. Parents trusted the TDSB to come up with a proper plan for Virtual School and that plan has failed. Virtual school families need a concrete plan going forward and the TDSB needs to be held accountable to their promises.

NB In response to parent inquiries in an email dated January 12, 2021, Ian Allison, System Superintendent for Virtual Schools has stated: “In terms of your questions around students come back together for face-to-face learning, the Principal of the school (bricks-and-mortar) will work with the staff team at the school to manage all supports and transitions.”

In short, there is no plan. This work will be left to the discretion of bricks and mortar principals and will affect ALL students as resources are diverted to address the gaps. The time is NOW to figure how virtual school students will be assessed prior to reintegration, the time is NOW to identify who at the TDSB will manage this project, the time is NOW for Minister Lecce and Premier Ford to commit financial support to that end and the time is NOW for concerned citizens to hold all parties accountable to their elected offices and ensure that no child is left behind.

There is no question that this year has been difficult for all involved and that many among us have been forced to make difficult decisions and sacrifices. But now, we have an opportunity in partnership to proactively address some of the fallout of those difficult decisions, which will impact both virtual school families and bricks and mortar families at the end of the day. Let’s make a plan, commit to funding, roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Sincerely,

Concerned Families and Caregivers and TDSB Virtual School Students

Additional Reading:

TDSB scrambles to accommodate virtual learners as expanding online school becomes ‘untenable’

Students’ grades are dropping with shift to remote education as coronavirus pandemic takes toll

Virtual schools have faced a steep learning curve, but parents still want in as COVID-19 cases rise

School photo created by freepik.