As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, more than 3,000 students switched streams between in-person and online learning at public schools in Waterloo Region when the opportunity presented itself this spring.
At the high school level, a majority of those changes were students that chose to leave the classroom setting, according to numbers provided by the Waterloo Region District School Board.
In early January, high school students had to make the decision whether to make a shift which would begin on Feb. 4, when the new quadmester got underway.
A board spokesperson told Global News that 250 kids returned to the classroom while 650 switched to learning online.
This means that around 4,000 of the approximately 20,000 public high school students are now learning online, according to the board.
Parents of elementary students had until Jan. 29 to make a decision on a switch that was set to take place after Family Day weekend.
The WRDSB says that 868 grade school students shifted out of the classroom while 930 made the move in.
This means that around 12,000 of the approximately 44,000 public elementary students in the region are learning online.
Over at the smaller Catholic Board, the timelines to make the changes were somewhat similar as were the results.
A spokesperson for the board told Global news that 262 students switched out of the classroom while 290 returned to in-person learning.
The board has close to 24,000 students while 3,890 are currently in the online stream.