Here’s my first take on what’s wrong and right with the Saskatchewan back-to-school plan. I’m using recommendations from Sick Kids Hospital (SKH), Canada’s premier health facility for children, as my guide. http://www.sickkids.ca/PDFs/About-SickKids/81497-COVID19-Recommendations-for-School-Reopening-SickKids-JUNE.pdf Here we go...

1. The Sask plan is all based on self-monitoring. SKH also recommends training teachers and parents about spotting symptoms for teachers, and at-home lesson plans for students who will (inevitably) be required to isolate at home after exposure. Not bad so far.

2. Hand hygiene should be scheduled in for students 5 times/day, not just recommended. This can be hand sanitizer. Sask is providing some to teachers but asking children to provide their own which probably won’t work.

3. Surprisingly, SKH agrees masks don’t work on kids because they’ll probably wear them wrong, touch their itchy face, and dispose of them improperly. They also say (as of mid June) the science on masks and kids wasn’t showing benefit and it’s working safely in Europe.

I must admit I’m torn here. I think teens at least can handle it but will go with the science...and buy my daughter masks and hope she wears them.

4. SKH says physical distancing for kids doesn’t work and could be psychologically harmful. Instead they recommend several things not in the Sask plan: smaller classes ($$$) and use of outdoors when possible.

5. The Sask plan lumps extracurricular together because hey, there’s four whole weeks to figure it out. There’s huge swaths of detail that are missing and the @StoonPubSchools says it’s coming. SKH considers activities from choir (needs ventilation) to wrestling (not now).

6. Ventilation. The Sask plan is silent on this. It should include opening windows as much and often as possible, and maximizing use of outdoors for class when possible.

7. For kids with medical conditions, Saskatoon will try to offer them extra support. There is no extra budget allowed by the province for medically compromised kids so I don’t know how or who will do it.

8. SKH recognizes that some kids stopped learning in March, some in June. Learning plans will be needed to help students catch up. Sask plan is silent here. There’s also mental health considerations to this and supports needed for both sides of the problem (needs $$$).

9. Communications for kids. SKH recommends age-appropriate messaging to tell children when they ask questions about the disease and what can happen. This is a much better idea than letting teachers sing it.

10. One final thing: Saskatchewan needs a policy on substitute teachers. As was learned from the LTC debacle in Ontario and Quebec, they can’t be allowed to work at multiple schools or even classes. I’m guessing this won’t be easy.

The other issue that’s implicit here: schools need extra money to pay for all this. I think I speak for parents when I say we know they can’t do all this extra with existing resources. Not for a year. Or two years. This is the most important thing to spend money on. Period.