As it stands, students living outside the five hot spots in the southern part of the province are due to return to class on Jan. 25.

The unions alleged that Premier Doug Ford's plan does not follow the province's own workplace safety laws and asked the board to intervene.

Negotiating teams for the board and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA) worked late Wednesday to reach the deal.

Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association president Liz Stuart says it was a particularly difficult round of negotiations as the Ontario government sought to implement what she called "significant cuts" to publicly funded education.

The Ontario government is attempting to close an ugly round of bargaining as it restarts talks with the only remaining teachers' union without a contract, and an expert says the COVID-19 pandemic may create a path to labour peace.

Ontario has reached tentative contract agreements with the unions representing the province's 12,000 French-language teachers and 83,000 elementary teachers.

Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association has announced they will stop all strike action now that a tentative deal has been reached with the province.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario is negotiating with the government for the second day in a row, after talks went late into the evening Wednesday.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario is set to resume contract talks with Premier Doug Ford's government today.

In previous talks earlier this year, ETFO said it was close to an agreement on several key issues, but that the government negotiators changed positions at the last minute.