Establish routines

Re-focus your child on routines and practise them before school starts – go to bed, get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, get screened for symptoms, grab your backpack, lunch, and mask, and leave for school.

Keep it positive

Focus on the positive and fun parts of school like picking out clothes for the first day, seeing old friends and making new ones, seeing their teachers, and getting to do fun activities.

Practise, practise, practise

Practise proper hand-washing and hand sanitizer use.

Watch some hand-washing videos together. Children are going to be asked and reminded to do this many times a day, so developing a habit, and proper technique will be helpful.

For younger children:

For older children:

Practise covering coughs and sneezes.

For younger children:

For older children:

Work on getting your child comfortable wearing a mask or face covering.

Make sure your child knows how to put it on, wear it properly, remove it, store it and when to discard or replace it.

For younger school-aged children, use play to normalize wearing masks.

Put masks on their toys together, put a mask on yourself, get siblings and relatives to wear them and do fun activities with masks on. Reward your child or play a game while wearing a mask. Show pictures or videos of other kids wearing masks. Look in the mirror together when putting masks on.

• Start with wearing a mask for a few minutes and increase the time each day.
• Practise removing your mask, placing it in a resealable container or paper bag, then have a snack or drink and putting it back on for the next activity.
• Make sure your child can open and close their own food containers, packages, and drinks. Start practising with lunches and snacks before school starts.
• Practise putting on and taking off sweaters, shoes, and outerwear. Try to send your kids in coats, shoes, pants, and other clothing that they can fasten and remove independently.

Have a conversation about school and COVID-19

Talk to your child about some of the new health measures and why they are important to follow in school.

• This may include wearing masks, sanitizing hands, physical distancing, not sharing their personal items with other students, and telling a teacher or staff when they are not feeling well at school.

Talk to your child about cohorts, what that means for them and why it is important.

• A cohort is a group of students and staff who remain together each day.
• This may mean your child won’t see all of their friends as much as they used to.
• Lunch/nutrition breaks and recess may be different than before with distancing measures.
• Staying in a cohort makes it easier and quicker for public health to track and trace contacts when there is a suspected case of COVID-19.

Conduct a daily screening of your child(ren)

• Familiarize yourself, your family, and your child with the common symptoms of COVID-19 so everyone knows what symptoms to look for in themselves and each other.
• Screen your child for symptoms each morning before leaving for school or sending your child on a bus.
• Be familiar with local COVID-19 testing sites in the event you or your child develops symptoms.
• Use the COVID-19 school screening from the Ontario government.

Keep your child home when needed

• Any student who is feeling unwell or showing symptoms of COVID-19 must stay home from school.
• Students and their families must not enter school if they are feeling sick or have had close contact with a confirmed case or close contact with someone who is showing symptoms of COVID-19.
• Unvaccinated children under the age of 12 are now exempt from federal quarantine if they travelled in the company of someone who qualified for an exemption from quarantine based on vaccination status. However, they may not attend school or child care for 14 days after their arrival. The exception to this is that children may continue to attend school or child care if their international travel was solely due to a cross-border custody arrangement.

 Keep as much distance as possible between you and others.

• 2 metres is best, if possible.
• Keep this distance during drop-off and pick-up
• Keep this distance during interactions with a teacher, school staff, or other parents and students

Be prepared to pick up students promptly if they show symptoms at school.

• You will be asked to pick up your child from school if they show or report symptoms. Make sure your contact information is current at school, including emergency contacts and individuals authorized to pick up your child(ren). If that list includes anyone who is at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19, consider identifying an alternate person. Be familiar with your school’s plan for how they will communicate with families when a positive case or exposure to someone with COVID-19 is identified and ensure student privacy is upheld.

Plan for possible school closures or periods of quarantine.

• If transmission is increasing in our community or if multiple children or staff test positive for COVID-19, the school building might close.
• Similarly, if your child or a close contact of your child (within or outside of school) tests positive for COVID-19, your child may need to stay home and quarantine for 10 days. You may need to consider the possibility of working from home, taking leave from work, or identifying someone who can supervise your child in the event there is a school closure or your child has to quarantine.

Plan for transportation:

If possible, choose an active form of transportation to get to and from school (e.g. walking, cycling). This outdoor time is a great way to sneak in some more physical activity, especially since recess, Phys. Ed and DPA (daily physical activity) may be more limited than in years past.

• Walking and biking is a great way for families to contribute to the health of their community by leaving space on the school bus for those who need it and reducing traffic in the drop-off and pick-up areas at school.
• The trip to school can be a chance for a child to “be a kid” in a time with a lot of change and new structure.

If your child rides a bus, plan for your child to wear a face-covering (mandatory for students Grades K-12) on the bus and talk to your child about the importance of following bus rules, including assigned seating and physical distancing, if possible.

• If your child normally takes the school bus, consider walking/driving them to school if you are able and your situation allows for it. This may help with distancing on buses for those who do not have any other option.
• If carpooling, plan on every child in the carpool and the driver wearing face coverings for the entire trip. Consider finding families within your child’s group or cohort at school to be part of the carpool.

Personal items:

• Limit personal belongings your child brings to school.
• Label everything, including masks and their storage containers, reusable water bottles, lunch boxes, hats, etc.
• Discourage sharing of food and personal items like school supplies and masks.
• Pack extra masks in your child’s backpack if possible.
• Consider packing a small bottle of hand sanitizer in your child’s lunch to use before and after eating (if they know how to use it properly and safely).
• You may want to pack a tea towel or cloth for your child to eat their lunch on, changing it each day.

Pack healthy and safe lunches:

Children who eat well can focus longer and are ready to learn at school and eating well and staying hydrated is important to help fight off illness.

Here are some things to keep in mind if your child is returning to classroom learning:

At home:

• Wash hands before and after preparing and handling food.
• Wash and disinfect surfaces before and after preparing and packing food.
• Use an insulated bag with a freezer pack or thermos to keep food cool. Chill milk or freeze drinking water to help keep food cool.
• Pack food choices that are ready to eat and don’t need to be reheated.
• Wash all vegetables and fruits well under cool, running water before use.
• Pack food that your child can eat without help from others.
• If using a reusable lunch bag or containers, make sure to wash them daily with hot, soapy water.
• Label containers, bottles, lunch bags, and reusable utensils with your child’s name.
• Do not reuse plastic bags – they can hold bacteria.

At school:

• There will be no access to appliances like microwaves, toasters, or kettles at school.
• New practices will be put in place regarding access to water fountains. Students should bring a full reusable water bottle labelled with their name that can be refilled throughout the day.
• Some schools may not have cafeteria food services or lunch programs (e.g. pizza day, sub day, etc.) at this time.
• There may be new policies or protocols in place about leaving school during lunch or recess to purchase food.
• Students may have to pack and bring home all garbage and waste.

Help your child understand they will need to:

• Wash their hands before and after eating.
• Sit down and stay seated while eating.
• Remove their mask and store it in a paper bag or on a clean surface while not in use.
• Eat from a clean surface (e.g. cleaned and sanitized tabletops, an open lunch bag, on a clean tea towel, paper towel, or placemat, etc.).
• Avoid sharing food, drinks, straws, containers, or utensils with others.

If someone tests positive in a school, public health will implement some or all of the following measures:

• Communicating regularly with the school
• Reviewing and confirming important practices to reduce the spread of COVID-19 including:
  • Screening children and staff for exposure to or symptoms of COVID-19
  • Staying home when sick

• Cohorting (grouping and separation) students and staff
• Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces
• Using personal protective equipment when appropriate (e.g., masking)
• Ensuring proper hand hygiene
• Posting signage of appropriate public health measures (e.g., hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene)
• Maintaining physical distancing
• Doing a site visit to the school and provide further advice, when indicated
• Providing recommendations on testing, as per provincial guidelines
• Assessing whether school operations can continue and if any additional measures are needed
• Identifying people who may have been in contact with the person(s) who tested positive for COVID-19
• Contacting those affected directly to provide guidance
• If school operations were interrupted as part of outbreak management, determining when operations can safely resume
• Helping the school ensure important practices remain in place long term

Early detection and responding to outbreaks in schools is important to controlling the transmission of the virus in the community. Even before the pandemic, the health unit gave expert advice to schools for planning their management of outbreaks. The Health Unit has considerable experience helping schools when infectious diseases, such as measles, are detected and will use this experience when monitoring for potential cases and reacting if there is a COVID-19 outbreak in a school.

Fully immunized students who are high-risk contacts are not required to isolate. However, immunization status would need to be verified by HNHU, and so may need to dismiss an entire cohort initially until this is done. Students who have been deemed exempt will be notified by HNHU to return to school.

Fully Immunized students:

It may be necessary for the HNHU to dismiss an entire cohort until verification of vaccination status has been completed. Students who are fully immunized and asymptomatic would be allowed back in the school.  Students who have been exempt from isolation will receive notification from the HNHU that they may return to school.

Please Note: Students with a mask exemption will be required to isolate if identified as a high-risk close contact, regardless of vaccination status.

Definition of a fully vaccinated individual

• An individual ≥ 14 days after receiving their second dose of a Two-dose COVID-19 vaccine series or their first dose of a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine series.

Definition of previously positive individual

• An individual who had a confirmed COVID-19 infection as was cleared by Public Health within the past 90 days
• If it has been more than 90 days since your COVID-19 infection, and you do not meet the definition of fully vaccinated, you are required to follow the guidelines for unvaccinated individuals.

These include:

• consulting on infection prevention and control measures and policies
• providing public health nurses to work with schools
• providing health-related COVID-19 information and resources
• advising and supporting administration on probable and confirmed cases of COVID-19
• working with and directing administration, should an outbreak occur, around:
  • enhanced cleaning and disinfecting procedures
  • additional testing or self-isolation for close contacts (i.e. staff/students), if required
  • determining if additional protocols should be in place