As Ontario students prepare to return to in-person learning next week, the government is facing calls to provide better masks for students, and more access to testing and reporting of COVID-19 cases in schools.

Government sources told several media outlets on Monday evening that students would be back in their classrooms on Jan. 17 after two weeks of virtual learning due to the highly transmissible and rapidly spreading Omicron variant. Parents and students have been voicing their struggles over another round of virtual learning in recent days.

The province also released updated guidance for the education sector on Monday, which stated that testing would be reserved for staff and students with symptoms.

"The use of take-home PCR self-collection kits will only be used in limited circumstances. These kits are to be provided only to symptomatic elementary/secondary students and education staff who become symptomatic while at school that would require PCR testing," the Ministry of Health guidance stated, adding that the take-home kits won't be used for people who have single symptoms that just require the person to isolate for 24 to 48 hours until the symptom has improved.

The guidance also stated that families won't always hear about positive cases in their child's class.

"Given the widespread transmission and inability to test all symptomatic individuals, schools will not be routinely notifying students/pupils in classes with a positive case, or if a child/student or staff is absent due to symptoms associated with COVID-19," the guidance stated.

On Tuesday, opposition parties repeated some of their previous calls for things like mandatory vaccines, but also said they would like to see public reporting, broken down by school, on the number of N95 masks and HEPA filters going to education workers, vaccine rates among staff and students and the availability of PCR and rapid tests.

Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education, agreed with this, saying the challenge right now is "trying to understand whether or not enough has been accomplished in order to open schools safely."

She said providing an update on progress would be helpful for the sector, including how many schools have received N95 masks, whether every classroom that needs a HEPA filter has one and how many staff members have been able to access booster doses.

Alexander Brown, chair of the Toronto District School Board, issued a letter to government officials on Jan. 7 supporting recommendations from the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association to add COVID-19 to the list of diseases that students need to be immunized against and continue access to PCR testing for the sector.

The school board also said it wanted to see families continue to be told about COVID-19 cases in their children's classrooms, have a "test to return" strategy after a COVID-19 illness or exposure and that students also be provided with upgraded masks like N95s and KN95s just as the government has promised to do for education workers.

Kidder also said better masking is an "important part of the prevention model."

Education Minister Stephen Lecce noted in a statement that the government has shipped 9.1 million N95 masks for education workers and more than 4 million three-ply masks for students in the past week. The education ministry said the masks being provided to students are based on recommendations by Ontario Health and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

For Dr. Anna Banerji, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto's faculty of medicine and at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, a return to school will likely mean COVID-19 exposures for many students.

"I would really like to see more kids vaccinated ... so that if kids are exposed, they're not going to have a serious infection," she said. "If parents really want to do something to protect their kids, they really should get their kids vaccinated."

Karen Littlewood, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, said among the top measures she'd like to see in place for the return to classrooms would be some sort of testing and recording protocol.

"So whether that's rapid tests or PCR tests, and then tracking and recording of information so that it's open and transparent," said Littlewood.

She said she would also like to see public restrictions remain in place and a plan to address a possible worker shortage due to COVID-19 when schools reopen.

"We don't have the supply workers in place in order to meet those needs, so I feel like this is really optimistic on the part of the government," she said.

The government announced on Monday that it had reached a deal with the Ontario Teachers’ Federation to nearly double the number of days a retired teacher can work per year, though the group said it doubts many would want to return in the current environment.

Asked on Tuesday what had changed for the government to consider opening schools again after Premier Doug Ford said last week the province was facing a "tsunami of new cases in the days and weeks ahead," Health Minister Christine Elliott said it's important for students to be in school for their mental and physical health and that the government has "done everything that we can to make our schools safe for students."

She added that the province needed "extra time" for education workers to get their vaccines and for more rapid tests to come in from the federal government.

Lecce echoed Elliott's comments, saying the government has prepared for the return of in-class learning on Jan. 17 by "doing as much as we can to improve ventilation, provide high quality PPE and expand access to vaccinations."

"We have accelerated access to booster shots for education and child care staff by standing up over 10 more clinics in the past several days alone, in addition to providing access through mass-vaccination sites, pharmacies and other dedicated clinics," he said, adding that an additional 3,000 standalone HEPA filter units are being sent to school boards.

"We are continuing take home PCR testing eligibility for symptomatic elementary and secondary students, and education staff, and are working to make more rapid antigen tests available to schools and child-care centres," he said.

Education stakeholders, advocates outline safety asks as in-person learning set to resume

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