All for Nothing School

A survey released today by Maru/Blue Public Opinion Research North America finds that a full majority (72%) of Ontario parents of school-aged children--especially among elementary student parents (77%)--are concerned that despite all of the work upfront to get schools ready for reopening, we will have a big outbreak soon in the schools and everything will close down. In the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), almost three quarters (73%) of parents of students feel that way.

Such a sentiment suggests that while politicians and others have been focused on getting children back into the school setting, plans on how to exit those schools because of an outbreak is also top of mind among parents

As noted in a release of findings on a similar topic recently, parents remain cautious in their approach to reopening: a full majority (66%) believe we should ease into this reopening of the schools—try some children going back in September and based on success start adding more in October until we get it right. Those findings also suggested that upwards of four in 10 parents (38%) don’t intend to send their children back to school when their doors open-- elementary student parents (39%) and secondary school parents (37%) are almost in lockstep with each other and in the GTA (36%)

Perhaps underlying all of this, the survey also found a majority (70%) of parents of school-age children want the absolute maximum class size to be 20 pupils or less so that their children can attend school. To them, this is a “make or break” consideration.