B.C.’s top doctor says the province will be bringing back COVID-19 exposure notifications in schools.
It will be a little bit different than last year’s “broad school notifications” which Dr. Bonnie Henry says led to anxiety for some parents, students, and staff.
“We hear from parents across the province. I hear from educators and our teams have recognized that parents do need an authoritative source to go to have an understanding of what is happening at their children’s schools,” she said Tuesday.
The initial plan was to only send out exposure notices to people in schools who are affected, including in cases where there is an outbreak. It prompted the B.C. Teachers’ Federation to say that not having an understanding of what’s going on at schools would create more anxiety.
An online “COVID tracker” page created last year by Richmond mother Kathy Marliss included data based on exposure and case information submitted by teachers, parents and administrators. She has said parents, teachers, and students would be better served if the data came directly from the province.
Kamloops-Thompson School District Board Chair Rhonda Kershaw told NL News last week that part of the reason for the initial change was that exposure events often led to an “almost immediate” drop in attendance.
“Even though there might have been a few children in a school that were actually affected,” she said.
There were numerous schools in SD73 that reported exposures last school year, the most were reported at Sa-Hali Secondary in Kamloops, with overall exposure events increasing after the winter break.
While the government is walking back its old plan, exactly what these new notifications will look like remain to be seen.
“We have asked our team to get together right now to make sure that we can notify schools in a timely, less intrusive and more sustainable way and that parents will have access to that information rapidly,” Henry added.
“If your child has COVID, if your child has been exposed to somebody with COVID in the school system, you will be notified. It does take time to follow up on each individual case and that sometimes can take longer than you expect but you will be notified.”
Henry says she hopes to have this new notification system in place by the end of this week.
– With files from The Canadian Press
