All students in Guelph public schools will be required to wear a mask following a decision by the Upper Grand District School Board.
The board of trustees approved a motion during a meeting on Tuesday night that made masks mandatory for all students, including those in kindergarten to Grade 3.
The school board said it would announce more details on Wednesday but there are expected to be medical exemptions to the policy.
The province had previously mandated that students in Grade 4 and above were required to wear masks amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A similar policy has been implemented by the public school boards in Waterloo and Toronto.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce previously told Global News that the province supports local school boards making changes to support their needs.
“Our plan is a living document — it is meant to be augmented and adapted, and we recognize that school boards have developed plans that best suit their local needs,” spokesperson Caitlin Clark said in an email.
Upper Grand also confirmed that there have been 34,000 responses to its pre-registration survey out of over 35,000 students.
About 2,700 students in elementary schools and 1,000 in high school have opted for remote learning. A board spokesperson added that some of the responses were duplicates or contained errors, so the data may be slightly off.
Schools will be following up directly with anyone who didn’t respond to the survey.
—With files from Kevin Nielsen
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