Back to the drawing board for families frustrated by challenges of online learning

The first week back to school after the holiday break has been a turbulent one for many families across the province.

Students across Ontario are back learning online, after Premier Doug Ford announced on Monday that schools would be closed to in-class learning until at least Jan. 17 as the Omicron variant surges across the province.

For parents like Krista Smith, the back and forth of in-person and online learning has only become more challenging, especially for her seven-year-old son with autism.

"He doesn't understand it and it's really difficult. He doesn't know how to make sense of it. So you see a lot of behavioural issues come up and it's just really hard to see when you know that your kid is really struggling," she said.

Smith's son, Connor, is in Grade 1 in a Thunder Bay school. He receives one-on-one support during his school days. Through the pandemic, his learning has been interrupted several times since he began junior kindergarten two years ago.

'At what cost are they getting through this?'

Smith said the disruptions take a serious toll on their family, as her son not only relies on school for routine, but as a place to develop communication and social skills.

"I'm really tired of the narrative that kids are so resilient they'll get through this. But at what cost are they getting through this? You're going to see it later on," she said.

Losing the structure of their in-person learning routine has already begun to negatively affect his sleep and anxiety levels, she added.

Smith said she also worries about the long term impacts of the uncertainty when it comes to in-person learning.

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Dr. Michael Cheng, a child and family psychiatrist at CHEO, says setting a schedule and doing activities as a family can go a long way in keeping kids and their parents mentally healthy during another lockdown.

Those concerns are shared by other parents, like Elizabeth Tucker in Fort Frances.

Her nine-year-old son has been participating in online learning since Wednesday. She said her son has a hard time staying focused.

"Pretty much all last year he did it online and he fell behind quite a bit. So, this year in the last two months, he's caught up to where he's supposed to be. And now I'm concerned that he's going to fall right back behind," Tucker said.

"It's just kind of devastating to see your kids struggle so much and there's nothing you can do as a parent and there's nothing the teachers can do either because you know, everybody's doing what they can."

• Listen: Thunder Bay educator discusses return to online learning

Tucker said for her family, online learning is only made more complicated as her son moves between two households.

She added that the lack of information from the province and last minute planning takes a toll on all parents.

"The most annoying thing for me as a parent and an educator at a daycare is we're given no time to prepare for this," she said. "It's really really frustrating, the lack of empathy that the government has for parents."

School closures have consequences, DeMille says

Dr. Janet DeMille, the medical officer of health for the Thunder Bay district, said it's important to recognize how school closures are affecting students' well-being.

"The consequences of schools being closed to in-person learning are, in my opinion and the opinion of many others, vastly more than the consequences of Omicron in those settings," she said.

"There are harms that are happening to students when schools are closed to in-person learning."

DeMille said children have been more likely to be infected with COVID-19 as a result of other activities, rather than within schools.

Local public health officials are still waiting for direction about what a return to school will look like, she added.

"The best place for many students to be is in school and learning in-person," she said. "I think what we're going to see over the next couple of weeks is sort of an evolution of our approach to schools.