Ontario extends public school closures until end of May

The Ford government is keeping all publicly-funded schools in the province closed until the end of May.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the extension was based on expert advice from provincial health officials in order to permit “updated modelling and data to inform next steps.”

“The commitment I can make to parents today is to ensure safety guides our decisions,” Lecce said from the provincial legislature.

“We will never compromise the safety of your child, knowing how important it is to make sure that our youngsters, the most vulnerable in our country, remain safe.”

Lecce added the final decision on the school year will be made before the end of May.

“At this moment we don’t see a need to extend the school year,” he said while noting that three-quarters of the school year has already been completed in-class.

“If there is a way to safely save part of the school year, then we will do that.”

Lecce said his government is looking at how to make sure students are protected when school eventually does return.

“We are building on a variety of scenarios to make sure safety remains paramount,” he said, adding he hopes that schools could be opened by the fall term.

“To be quite frank we have to be open to all models, all ideas in the context of how schools are designed and the type of safety measure we put in place.”

Lecce says the extended closure will not impact the completion of the school year or graduation for students.

“For students in their final year, we are removing all impediments to ensure students graduate and pursue post-secondary education.”

Private schools, First Nation schools are not affected by this decision. They, along with licensed child care centres, fall under the emergency orders of the province and are currently set to be closed until May 6.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report