Ontario Has Confirmed When Kids In The Province Can Go Back To School

Education Minister Stephen Lecce confirmed Ontario's back-to-school dates in an open letter to the province's parents on Sunday morning.

Despite high COVID-19 case counts across the province, Ontario is sticking with its original plan of having students return to in-person learning starting on January 11, 2021.

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Learning must continue, even during a pandemic. Stephen Lecce

In his open letter, Lecce confirmed that elementary school students will return to in-person learning on January 11.

Secondary school students in Northern Ontario's public health units will also go back to school on January 11.

And secondary school students across the rest of the province will return to in-person learning on January 25.

These are the dates the province first suggested back on December 21 when Lecce announced that students would start 2021 with remote learning, even though case counts have gone up since he first made that announcement.

"While leading medical experts have been clear that schools are not a source of rising community transmission," Lecce wrote in Sunday's statement, "we can and will be an important part of the solution to save lives from COVID-19."

In his statement, Lecce also mentioned that Ontario is expanding the eligibility of its Support For Learner's program to account for the added expenses of remote learning.