Enhanced safety measures will be in place when in-person learning resumes at Toronto-area schools on Tuesday.
Six school boards in Toronto, York Region, and Peel Region will be restarting in-person classes after a stretch of online learning that began in January as part of a provincial lockdown.
The three COVID-19 hotspots are the last to have students return to physical classrooms — the government allowed other regions to reopen shuttered schools in phases over the last few weeks.
A more detailed COVID-19 screening form must now be filled out by students or their guardians every day before coming to school.
Students in Grade 1 and above will also be required to follow provincial health guidelines and wear a mask whenever they’re indoors and during outdoor recess when physical distancing is not possible.
The province is also expanding asymptomatic COVID-19 testing at schools.
Safety measures designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 were created for the start of the school year in September but the new rules have been put in place as Ontario deals with the pandemic’s second wave