The Alberta Teachers’ Association is calling on the province to implement nine recommendations for back-to-school in the context of COVID-19.
Among its requested measures, the ATA is asking the government to continue with centralized testing and contact tracing, and if not, that ongoing rapid testing be done in schools.
The ATA also says COVID-19 vaccines should be provided in schools to eligible students whose parents provide consent and staff.
The group says measures like masking and distancing will still be needed.
The ATA was not consulted on Alberta Education’s 2021-2022 school year plan, the group said. The plan “is focused on a normal return to school, with in-class learning for the majority of students, in fall 2021. The plan outlines key elements for the resumption of learning.
“Recognizing the dynamic nature of COVID-19, the Appendix contains two contingency plans in the unlikely event that they may be needed.”
The government’s school plan is expected to be updated “mid-August.” Currently, it says the “public health measures in place during the 2020-2021 school year will be eased or removed altogether,” like the masking and cohorting requirements.
“Because there is not yet a vaccine for children under 12 years of age, there may be recommendations to cohort younger children in order to avoid large numbers of young children in quarantine.”
The province said measures to limit transmission of all respiratory illnesses will continue to be in place, including hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, staying home when sick, maintaining ventilation, and ensuring regular cleaning and disinfection of high traffic/touch areas.
“Additional measures may be considered or recommended if a school experiences a COVID-19 outbreak,” like screening, masking, localized rapid testing or limiting extra-curricular activities.
The ATA’s nine recommendations are:
1. Re-establish regular stakeholder group meetings with an additional focus on learning and wellness
2. Provide clear and transparent information concerning the status of the pandemic in local communities and the province
3. Provide provincewide vaccinations, boosters and rapid testing in schools
4. Protect students and staff who are at higher risk and/or cannot be vaccinated
5. Provide supports to substitute teachers
6. Carefully return to more routine school activities
7. Provide funding for necessary supports
8. Provide funding and a focus on increased support for mental health and well-being
9. Maintain capacity to support remote learning
“The government of Alberta should immediately reconsider its timelines for discontinuing centralized testing (including surveillance testing) and contact tracing in order to ensure that appropriate and timely information is available to inform decision makers,” the ATA said in a document posted Aug. 12.
“Should contact tracing be resumed, it should be clearly within the purview and responsibility of Alberta Health Services and not school administrators. The demands previously imposed on school and school authority staff to perform this function were a significant drain on energy and resources during the first three waves of the pandemic.”
“Efforts should be made immediately to ensure that students older than 12 years of age, along with staff, are caught up so that they are fully vaccinated at the earliest possible opportunity.
“An ongoing analysis of the potential impact of variants of concern is critically important, and if contact tracing will not take place, then ongoing testing in schools will become a necessary strategy to keep students, staff and communities safe by identifying localized outbreaks and identifying where and when additional measures may be necessary to reduce further contagion.
“Under the current guidelines, teachers and principals will not be able to inquire about or be informed of the vaccination status of those in the school building, and so there will continue to be a need for protective measures such as masking and distancing,” the ATA said.
On Wednesday, the Edmonton Public School Board asked Education Minister Adriana LaGrange to bring back the same health protocols that were in place last year.
“We’re waiting for direction, and the wait is frustrating,” EPSB chair Trisha Estabrooks said. “We need time to organize… (and to) sit down with the numbers and figure out how to staff.
“We need clarity… We needed it two weeks ago.”
Health measures in place last year included mandatory masking for staff and students, enhanced cleaning protocols, self-screening for COVID-19 symptoms by students and staff and requiring visitors to make an appointment before entering a school.
Several Edmonton Catholic year-round schools started back up on Wednesday. In the absence of updated school guidance from the province, they are adhering to the most recent provincial health advice, including mandatory masking by staff and students, enhanced cleaning, self-screening by students and staff, enhanced hygiene and requiring any visitors to make an appointment before entering a school.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for LaGrange’s office, Nicole Sparrow, noted that in June, “school divisions received a detailed plan that includes contingency scenarios for continuing student learning if there is a significant change in the COVID-19 situation.”
“At that time, we communicated to boards that a confirmation of this plan would be given prior to the beginning of the regular school year,” the email reads.
“An additional health guidance document to support return to schools is being finalized and will be released in mid-August.”
As of next week, Alberta will scale back COVID-19 testing and contact tracing and no longer require people who test positive for the disease to self-isolate, though the province still recommends people do so.