To support their overall well-being, Early Childhood Services to Grade 12 students will return to classrooms on Jan. 10 with measures in place to continue learning safely. A new tool to address learning disruption for grades 4-9 students is also being introduced.

Students will return to in-person learning with the added safety of access to rapid tests and medical-grade masks that will be distributed through schools as an added layer of protection against the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Shipments of rapid tests and masks will start this week and all schools will have their initial shipments by the end of next week. Distribution to students and staff will occur as individual schools receive their supplies. Both rapid tests and masks will be shipped in phases.

Important health measures already in place will continue to protect students in classrooms. These include requirements for masking, physical distancing, cohorting, enhanced sanitization and hygiene practices, the availability of vaccinations for everyone five years of age and older, and encouraging school authorities to have proof of vaccination policies for adults.

New tool to address learning disruption

In addition to having supports for safe in-person learning, next week students in grades 4 to 9 and their parents will be able to view free online tutoring resources, through the e-Tutoring Hub, to catch up on important skills and learning students may have fallen behind on due to the pandemic. This new resource builds on government’s investment of up to $45 million to address COVID-19-related learning disruptions for students in grades 1 to 3.

The e-Tutoring Hub will be launched with pre-recorded video tutoring sessions students and their parents can access any time to build literacy and numeracy skills. Later this year, Alberta Education will expand the online tutoring services to cover more grades and subjects, including live tutoring. Feedback from school authorities, parents and students will inform topics and needs for new tutoring sessions.

Shifting to at-home learning

The government will continue to work with school authorities on shifts to at-home learning, if needed. School authorities will continue to have the flexibility to shift a class or an individual grade to short-term at-home learning if needed to address operational challenges at a school. Decisions on shifting entire schools or school authorities to at-home learning will continue to be made by the Alberta government, with input from school authorities. For both situations, consideration will be given to student absentee rates, the ability of a school or school authority to have staff available to operate in-school classes and other relevant information, including local health data, if available.

Information provided by the Government of Alberta