Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update United for a Barrier-Free Society for All People with Disabilities
Web: http://www.aodaalliance.org Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com Twitter: @aodaalliance Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/aodaalliance/
May 21, 2020
SUMMARY
In our continuing campaign to get the Ford Government to address the urgent needs of a third of a million vulnerable students with disabilities during the COVID-19 crisis, the AODA Alliance today wrote two important letters, set out below. These are especially timely, because today is the internationally recognized Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD).
First, we wrote Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce today to again press him to direct the establishment within his Ministry of a command table of experts on teaching students with disabilities. We need this command table created to lead and oversee the creation and implementation of an emergency plan to address the urgent needs of students with disabilities during the COVID-19 crisis. We were following up on our April 29, 2020 letter to the minister. In our new letter we point out three striking examples that show why there is a pressing need for the minister to direct his Ministry to immediately take the overdue actions we recommend.
Second, we today wrote the vice president for digital content at TVO, Ontarios public education TV network. We summarized a recent discussion that the vice president had with AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky. In that discussion, we gave TVO constructive recommendations for urgent action that TVO needs to take to fix the accessibility problems in its online education content.
Taken together, these letters show a recurring failure of leadership by the Ford Government when it comes to meeting the urgent needs of students with disabilities during the COVID-19 crisis. A striking illustration of this is the Education Ministers May 8, 2020 email to all school boards about distance learning during COVID-19. We also set out that memo below. The ministers detailed email to all school boards was missing the key directions to school boards on how to meet the urgent needs of students with disabilities during COVID-19.
Stay tuned for more AODA Alliance Updates. Keep us posted by sending us your feedback, at aodafeedback@gmail.com
MORE DETAILS
May 21, 2020 Letter from the AODA Alliance to Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce
ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE
aodafeedback@gmail.com www.aodalliance.org Twitter: @aodaalliance
May 21, 2020
Via Email
To: The Hon Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education
minister.edu@ontario.ca
Dear Minister,
Re: Ensuring that Students with Disabilities Fully Benefit from Education at Home During the COVID-19 Crisis
We write On Global Accessibility Awareness Day to follow up on our April 29, 2020 letter to you about the pressing need for the Ontario Government to create and swiftly implement a comprehensive plan to meet the urgent learning needs of a third of a million Ontario students with disabilities during the COVID-19 crisis.
Since we wrote you almost a month ago, we appreciate having had the chance to have conversations with your deputy minister, two of your assistant deputy ministers, and some other officials within the ministry. I also welcomed the chance to make a five-minute presentation to you during the May 6, 2020 virtual meeting of the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee of which I am a member.
It is good that during Premier Fords May 19, 2020 daily COVID-19 briefing, you recognized that more than ever, families of students with disabilities in Ontario need more support for their children to be able to learn at home. It is helpful that you said that the Government has great concern about these children and that the Government wants to ensure that these children get the support they need.
However, almost ten weeks into the school shutdown, and even after announcing that schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year, the Government has still announced no comprehensive plan to remove the troubling and recurring additional barriers facing students with disabilities that you have acknowledged. Your Government still leaves it to each school board to separately figure out what these barriers are and how to systematically overcome them. Your Government has still not set up and put in charge a much-needed command table with expertise in educating students with disabilities to steer and lead the provinces efforts in this area. This is especially wasteful and ineffective when school boards, like your Government, are trying to cope with an unexpected and unprecedented crisis. Front line educators and parents are struggling to do their best. They need more help from the Ontario Government.
Here are three illustrative and deeply disturbing examples of missing provincial leadership. We ask you to intervene with your Ministry officials to get them to act not only on these examples, but on a comprehensive plan of action.
First, with the rapid move to online classes, it is a bedrock necessity that the platform that schools use for online class meetings is accessible to students, teachers, and parents with disabilities. From our exchanges with Ministry staff, it is clear that the Ministry has not shown the required leadership on this issue. It does not appear to have directed school boards to ensure that they use accessible platforms, nor has it compared the options to direct which platform should be preferred.
Your detailed May 8, 2020 email to all school boards and other key players in the education system focuses primarily on the Ministrys directions to school boards to use synchronous learning (i.e. online classes in real time via web-based meeting platforms). That memo is stunningly silent on the need to ensure that the platform school boards use is accessible to students, teachers, and parents with disabilities. That memo gives school boards no directions on which platforms to use. That memo was sent two days after I briefed you and four of your caucus colleagues on this serious issue during the May 6, 2020 meeting of the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee in which you commendably participated.
The Ministry has told us that it has left it to each school board to decide for itself which meeting platform to use. That is a failed approach. It abdicates provincial leadership and oversight. Your Ministry is leaving it to each school board to itself decide whether or not it should investigate the relative accessibility of different online meeting platforms. A school board may not even know that this is an issue it needs to investigate.
Under your Ministrys approach a school board is free to simply overlook this issue altogether. Your Government is burdening each school board to duplicate the same investigation of the comparative accessibility of different online meeting platforms. It is not clear which school boards have any expertise to do this. There is no assurance that any school boards who do this will in fact get it right. Your Ministry is not tracking which online platforms are being used in Ontario schools, or to what extent accessible platforms are being used.
The Ministry told us it has not itself undertaken a comparison of the various virtual meeting platforms available to school boards in order to assess their comparative accessibility. We have called on your Ministry to do so and to direct school boards on the accessible platforms that may be used. Parents, students, and teachers with disabilities should not have to fight against such recurring barriers one class, one school, or one school board at a time.
Your Ministry told us that it leaves it to each school board to decide which synchronous meeting platform to use, based on the school boards assessment of its local needs. With respect, blindness, dyslexia, or other reading-related disabilities do not change when they occur in Cornwall or Kenora. The reason why the Government is now developing an Education Accessibility Standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act is so that people with disabilities will not have to fight the same battles time and again and so that school boards wont have to each reinvent the same accessibility wheel.
We have received troubling word that at least one school board has forbidden its teachers from using Zoom, which is at least as accessible as or more accessible than the other available online platforms. That flies in the face of the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act .
Your Ministry arranged a helpful May 13, 2020 demonstration of the specific online meeting platform that it has chosen to purchase for school boards, called Bongo. It is part of the Bright Space learning management system that your Ministry chose to procure from the D2L firm for use by school boards if they wish. During this demonstration, it became apparent that neither your Ministry nor D2L claimed that Bongo is the most accessible meeting platform available. Its accessibility features were helpfully demonstrated and described.
During this demonstration, we learned that your Government has no idea how many school boards, schools or teachers around Ontario are using the Bongo platform. Your Ministry has left them free to use whatever platform they wish. As far as your Ministry would know, there could be few if any teachers using Bongo or who even know about it.
This presentation included a comparison of Bongos accessibility features as compared to those of the Zoom platform. It was D2L that was comparing its product to Zoom. Your Ministry did not invite Zoom for a chance to showcase its own products accessibility features, leaving it to its competitor D2L to do this.
The D2L presentation made an unfair comparison. It compared the Bongo platform, for which the Ministry was directly or indirectly paying a fee, to the free version of Zoom. I pointed this out and asked how the Bongo platform compared to Zooms more robust pay version, as opposed to its free version, which has fewer features. D2L acknowledged that the pay version of Zoom is closer in comparison to Bongo.
During that May 13, 2020 presentation, my questions revealed that Bongo is missing an important accessibility feature that Zoom contains. With Zoom, a student can easily and instantly raise his or her virtual hand for the teachers attention, by simply typing a keyboard shortcut. Bongo has no such keyboard shortcut. For a student to reach Bongos accessible control for raising his or her hand, it takes more hunting around the program. Its location is not obvious. It is important for a student to be able to quickly raise ones hand without having to hunt around the program for the relevant control. D2L conceded that their accessibility tester had earlier asked Bongos provider to add this to their program. D2L did not include this important fact in its comparison of its product to Zoom.
In the Ministrys PowerPoint prepared to demonstrate Bongos accessibility, a slide was included to suggest that the ARCH Disability Law Centre used Bongo. This was obviously done to convey or imply that it had ARCHs approval as accessible. The slides stated:
We have several clients who support people with disabilities: CNIB, CHS, Vision Australia, Thomas Pocklington Trust, ARCH Disability Law Centre.
ARCHs use of Virtual Classroom
Educating Canadians on Accessibility Rights using Brightspace and Virtual Classroom
ARCH is offering online courses to Community Champions and Disability Rights Lawyers on the Optional Protocol (OP) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) with Simultaneous French interpretation, English and French live captions, ASL, and LSQ.
Press Release ARCH launches OP Lab: Learning, Sharing, Actioning!
This was quite misleading. At this May 13, 2020 presentation, I responded that ARCHs executive director had advised me that while they had procured Bongo for certain upcoming events, they have not yet used it because it has several accessibility problems. ARCH has been trying to get these problems fixed. Neither D2L nor the Government disputed this.
Second, as a key part of its approach during the COVID-19 crisis, your Government has repeatedly pointed to key online learning resources for teachers and parents. We have alerted the Government that these have accessibility problems. This includes both the Governments own Learn at Home web page and the Government-owned TVOs online learning resources. It became evident from my May 14, 2020 phone call with TVOs Vice President for Digital Content that TVO is lacking a plan to retrofit its online educational resources to ensure that they become accessible to students, teachers, and parents with disabilities. TVO seemed to be unaware of the severity of this problem until we brought it to their and the publics attention. I encourage you to read our May 21, 2020 letter to TVOs Vice President of Digital Content, copied to you. It sets out our constructive advice to TVO advice which TVO found quite helpful.
We have seen no indication that your Ministry was aware of the problems with its own online resources or those of TVO until we raised these concerns. We have seen no plan from your Ministry to fix these problems.
This TVO situation reflects a double failure. TVO failed to properly ensure its online contents accessibility. After that, your Ministry failed to ensure the accessibility of TVOs online content before so heavily relying on it as part of its COVID-19 emergency planning.
Third, struggling with this COVID-19 crisis, it is great that teachers, parents, and others with expertise in the field in Ontario and elsewhere have been coming up with creative ways to help students with different disabilities learn while schools are closed. We have been urging your Government for weeks without success to devote staff to effectively gather from the front lines specific examples of effective strategies. We still need your Government to do so and to effectively share these with educators and parents as quickly as possible in a user-friendly way, not through a blizzard of links.
Let us illustrate how disturbing this situation is. On May 4, 2020, in the absence of effective Government action on this front, the AODA Alliance and the Ontario Autism Coalition joined together to hold a successful virtual town hall. It offered practical tips to parents and teachers for teaching students with disabilities at home during COVID-19. Your Ministrys Assistant Deputy Minister of Education responsible for special education Jeff Butler commendably took part in our virtual town hall and described its contents as valuable. In just over two weeks, it has been viewed over 1,400 times. We have no budget to publicize it.
We have repeatedly asked your Ministry to publicize this virtual town hall to school boards and frontline educators. So far, it has not agreed to do so. What could be a simpler and lower-cost way to help students with disabilities? We have also urged your Ministry for weeks without success to take over this idea and itself hold such events. We have offered to help with ideas. The Ministry, with its staff and resources, could do this more effectively than did our handful of volunteers who pulled together our successful May 4, 2020 virtual town hall in under a week.
Instead of taking us up on this, the Government has largely re-announced the same initiatives that have been underway for weeks. While helpful to a point, those measures have not effectively addressed the pressing concerns of vulnerable students with disabilities.
On May 19, 2020 you said at the Premiers daily COVID-19 briefing that you have directed school boards to unlock all their special education and mental health resources during the school shutdown to help students with disabilities. That of course has been their job from the outset. However, for them to succeed, they need far more provincial direction and support than this.
On May 19, 2020, in response to a question from the media at the Premiers COVID-19 briefing, you announced some sort of two-week summer program aimed at helping orient some students with disabilities, such as those with autism, to a return to school. That announcement gave no specifics, such as where this will be offered or which students or how many students will be eligible for this program. Depending on how this is carried out, it could be helpful.
However, here again, there is a similar pressing need for the Ontario Government to show leadership by setting specific detailed and effective standards and requirements for school re-openings to ensure that the added needs of students with disabilities are effectively met in this process. Your Ministrys approach to date to students with disabilities during this crisis will not ensure that this is properly handled.
Your May 8, 2020 memo to all school boards is quite illustrative of this entire problem. It commendably makes a few general references to accommodating students with special education needs and to mental health issues. However, it gives no specific directions for meeting the recurring needs of students with disabilities in circumstances where specificity and provincial leadership are required.
We remain eager to help with solutions. We need your active intervention to set things right. Please stay safe.
Sincerely,
David Lepofsky CM, O. Ont
Chair Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
CC: Premier Doug Ford
Via Email: doug.ford@ontariopc.com
Raymond Cho, Minister of Seniors and Accessibility
Raymond.cho@ontario.ca
Nancy Naylor, Deputy Minister of Education
nancy.naylor@ontario.ca
Jeff Butler, Acting Assistant Deputy Minister of the Student Support and Field Services Division Jeff.Butler@ontario.ca
Yael Ginsler, Assistant Deputy Minister of Education (Acting) for the Student Achievement Division yael.ginsler@ontario.ca
Denise Cole, Deputy Minister for Seniors and Accessibility
Denise.Cole@ontario.ca
Susan Picarello, Assistant Deputy Minister, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario Susan.Picarello@ontario.ca
Claudine Munroe, Director of the Special Education/Success for All Branch Claudine.Munroe@ontario.ca
Demetra Saldaris, Director of the Professionalism, Teaching Policy and Standards Branch Demetra.Saldaris@ontario.ca
Rashmi, Swarup TVO Vice President Digital Learning
rswarup@tvo.org
May 21, 2020 Letter from the AODA Alliance to TVOs Vice President for Digital Content
ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE
Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com
Visit: www.aodalliance.org
Twitter: @aodaalliance
May 21, 2020
To: Rashmi Swarup
Vice President Digital Learning
Via email: rswarup@tvo.org
Dear Ms. Swarup,
Re: Accessibility Problems with TVOs Online Educational Content
Thank you for speaking to me by phone on May 14, 2020 about the accessibility problems on TVOs website. It is especially timely that I am writing you on Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
Here are several key points that I shared with you during our discussion.
I explained that TVOs online learning content requires a major review as soon as possible for accessibility problems. Our preliminary look at them revealed significant and obvious problems. This strongly suggests that accessibility problems are likely more pervasive. The fact that they turned up so quickly suggests to us that TVO has not done effective accessibility user testing.
I explained that to rectify this, TVO needs to immediately put in place several new measures. It needs to now publicly commit to fix its online contents accessibility problems and to ensure that any new online content created in the future is accessible from the start.
You explained that you have been in your position for about one year as TVOs Vice President of Digital Content. Previously, you were a superintendent of schools at the York Region District School Board. You didnt claim to be a subject matter expert on digital content accessibility, though you have taken required basic AODA training training which we know to be quite introductory.
TVO needs to have a senior official with subject matter expertise in digital accessibility with lead responsibility and authority for ensuring the accessibility of TVOs digital content and online offerings. It seems clear from the presence of accessibility problems in TVOs online educational content that it is lacking that expertise in a leadership role.
I outlined for you that a number of major organizations have helpfully established a position of Chief Accessibility Officer to address their accessibility needs and duties. TVO could benefit from doing so. From what you explained, it appears that no one senior official at TVO has full responsibility for and authority over ensuring digital accessibility. Responsibility is spread over several members of the TVO senior management team. That is a far less effective way of addressing this important issue.
TVO needs to bring on board the subject matter expertise to fix this problem. I explained that there are digital accessibility experts TVO can retain to assist in this area.
TVO needs to establish and make public a detailed plan to fix the accessibility problems with its current digital learning content and to ensure that new digital content that TVO creates in the future is barrier-free. I explained that end-user testing is an important aspect of this. Automated checking tools cannot replace proper user testing by human beings. From our preliminary inspection of some of TVOs online educational content, it seemed that no proper user testing would have earlier occurred.
You said you appreciated our raising these concerns and the recommendations that I shared. Our raising these concerns had escalated TVOs attention. We appreciate your agreeing to write us to let us know what new action TVO will take to address these concerns.
We hope the Ontario Government will support TVOs taking swift action to correct these problems. We had raised our concerns about TVO at senior levels within the Ministry of Education. The Minister of Education Stephen Lecce has repeatedly said that the Government has partnered with TVO to help deliver online education to students during the COVID-19 crisis.
Finally, I emphasized that as a public broadcast, TVO should be a leader in this area. In contrast to TVOs accessibility deficiencies, WGBH, a US PBS station, is a key hub and, I believe, the birthplace for the important accessibility innovation of audio description for video content.
We look forward to hearing from you about the reforms TVO will adopt. It is important for corrective action to be taken quickly, given that schools remain closed for the rest of this school year due to the COVID-19 crisis and may have to close again should there be a second surge of COVID-19.
Please stay safe.
Sincerely,
David Lepofsky CM, O. Ont
Chair Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
CC
Premier Doug Ford
doug.ford@ontariopc.com
Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education,
minister.edu@ontario.ca
Raymond Cho, Minister of Seniors and Accessibility
Raymond.cho@ontario.ca
Nancy Naylor, Deputy Minister of Education
nancy.naylor@ontario.ca
Claudine Munroe, Director of the Special Education/Success for All Branch Claudine.Munroe@ontario.ca
Denise Cole, Deputy Minister for Seniors and Accessibility
Denise.Cole@ontario.ca
Susan Picarello, Assistant Deputy Minister, Accessibility Directorate of Ontario Susan.Picarello@ontario.ca
Renu Mandhane, Chief Commissioner, Ontario Human Rights Commission Renu.Mandhane@OHRC.on.ca
May 8, 2020 Email from Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce to Ontario School Boards
May 8 2020 Email from Minister of Education Stephen Lecce to Ontario School Boards From: Ministry of Education (EDU) <
MinistryofEducation@ontario.ca>
Sent: May 8, 2020 5:36 PM
To: Ministry of Education (EDU) <
MinistryofEducation@ontario.ca>
Subject: Updates on Continuity of Learning for the Extended School Closure Period | Mises à jour sur la continuité de lapprentissage pendant la période de fermeture prolongée des écoles
table with 2 columns and 2 rows
Memorandum To:
Chairs of District School Boards
Directors of Education
School Authorities
From:
Stephen Lecce
Minister of Education
Nancy Naylor
Deputy Minister
table end
Thank you for your continued commitment to supporting students during the school closure period. We have heard so many inspiring stories from across the province of students, parents, and educators doing extraordinary work to continue learning and build and maintain relationships at this time.
During this time, the mental health and well-being of students and the people working in the education system remains a priority. The government and school boards have moved rapidly to mobilize critical mental health resources and supports for students during these uncertain times.
As you know, the school closure period has been extended to at least May 31, 2020. To that end, we are writing to provide guidance on provincial standards for continuity of learning for the remainder of the closure period, as well as to provide updates on progress to date. GUIDANCE FOR CONTINUITY OF LEARNING
As we entered the school closure period, our transition to Learn at Home was aided by existing tools that were in place to support virtual learning. The ministry provides Ontarios Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) at no cost to educators in school boards and First Nation/federally operated schools to use for delivering online programming. As a learning management system, the VLE provides tools for both synchronous and asynchronous learning delivery. Boards may already have access to other synchronous learning management systems and tools, such as Google Classroom or Edsby.
While the expectation of the ministry was that educators would embrace the use of synchronous learning during the school closure period, there has been an inconsistent uptake of this mode of learning. As such, this memo is providing clarity on the ministry position.
Recognizing there are a wide range of modalities that are used in the continuum of learning between educators and their students, the ministrys expectation is that synchronous learning be used as part of whole class instruction, in smaller groups of students, and/or in a one-on-one context.
We know that parents and students are looking for ways to interact with their teachers – which can be addressed through multiple modalities – and that online synchronous learning experience with teachers and education workers is an effective and supportive method that will position students to succeed during the school closure period. Similarly, parents expect their childs educators to strive toward as normal a learning environment as possible during this period, of which synchronous learning is a key component.
Boards should take steps to ensure that privacy considerations are addressed and that students are aware of best practices, including not giving out passwords, ensuring that teachers are the last person to leave a synchronous meeting, and respecting other board policies on student conduct.
We recognize that there may be exceptional situations where synchronous online delivery may not be possible for all students. Exceptions could include, for example, where a parent has excused their child from instruction or this form of instruction, in which case a parents wishes should be respected.
If a student cannot participate due to a lack of devices or internet connectivity, or where students require accommodations for special education needs, alternate arrangements must be made, including personal outreach through phone calls. With that in mind, it is insufficient for educators to communicate with their students in one interaction per week, for example. We recognize that school boards have made extraordinary efforts to ensure that students have devices and connectivity wherever possible, and we once again reiterate our expectation that boards provide necessary technology to students as soon as possible, and appropriate accommodations for students with special education needs, where necessary. The ministry will continue to support school boards in these efforts.
If a teacher or education worker does not feel they can currently deliver education to their students in this manner, schools and boards are encouraged to provide support and professional development. However, in situations where teachers or education workers are not delivering synchronous learning, schools and boards are expected to immediately move to a team assignment approach to ensure that students are offered synchronous delivery of teacher led learning.
School boards should continue to follow the guidance provided on March 31, 2020 regarding the hours per student, per week, and the suggested areas of curriculum focus by grade groupings.
UPDATES ON PROGRESS TO DATE
Working Together
Between April 15 and 29, the ministry conducted a series of meetings beginning with Parent Involvement Committee Chairs and extending to include meetings with the following key roles responsible for supporting vulnerable students: Student Success and Student Effectiveness Leads, Indigenous Graduation Coaches, and Black Student Graduation Coaches. These meetings provided a venue for board leads to share successful practices and ongoing challenges to supporting vulnerable students and identify additional ways to offer support.
During these meetings, partners in school boards shared information on the many ways they are addressing the needs of vulnerable students, their wellbeing, and academic success. The ministry will continue to work with partners to determine ways to support student well-being, engagement in learning, and inclusive approaches to learning within a remote learning environment, as well as when students return to school.
Access to Technology
Access to internet connectivity and learning devices has been identified by school boards and other stakeholders as an urgent need during the school closure period. In response to this need, the ministry launched an education-related call for proposals on the Ontario Together web portal, focused on supporting equity of access to remote learning.
Through this initiative, the ministry will identify proposals that school boards may wish to consider to support student and educator access to internet connectivity and devices such as computers, tablets, and portable wi-fi hotspots. As well, school boards may also wish to consider consulting other partners and sources, such as OECM, to consider comparable services and goods.
As we prepare for the eventual return to the classroom, broadband modernization activities in schools continue. All Ontario students and educators in publicly funded schools will have access to reliable, fast, secure and affordable internet services at school, in all regions of the province including rural and northern communities. This work will be complete in secondary schools by September 2020 and in elementary schools by September 2021.
As of March 31, 2020, broadband modernization was complete at 1,983 schools (including 403 in northern communities and 686 in rural communities) and in progress at 2,953 schools (including 99 in northern communities and 408 in rural communities).
Ensuring protection of privacy and security of digital learning resources is of the utmost importance for the ministry to support a safe, inclusive and accepting learning environment for synchronous learning. While school boards remain independently accountable for establishing clear policies and approving appropriate use of collaboration tools to support students learning online, we will continue to work with boards and our government partners to provide guidance on cyber security and privacy best practices for sharing with educators in your schools.
School Construction
Schools are an essential part of supporting student achievement, as well as providing safe and healthy learning and work environments for students and staff. As we head into the spring and summer months, when school boards undertake critical capital construction and renewal projects, the province has revised the list of essential workplaces to support school infrastructure. Construction projects and services (e.g. new construction, maintenance and repair) that support the essential operation of, and provide new capacity in, schools and child care centres can proceed, provided that there is strict adherence to health and safety requirements.
As school boards are best situated to understand their own particular circumstances, the ministry is asking that school boards consider whether their construction projects are able to reopen in light of these changes. This may mean that boards will need to consult with their own legal counsel, as appropriate.
Learn at Home/
Apprendre à la maison
Learn at Home/
Apprendre à la maison
was launched on March 20, 2020. This website provides supplemental resources for parents and students to support independent learning at home while schools are closed.
Learn at Home/
Apprendre à la maison includes learning resources on a variety of subjects including math, science, technology, Indigenous history and ways of knowing, art, physical education, social sciences, and mental health. Supports for students with learning disabilities and special education needs, including autism, have also been included. Resources continue to be added to address a range of learning needs.
Over the past month, there have been over four million visits to Learn at Home/ Apprendre à la maison.
We encourage you to continue to share this website and promote the new resources available with parents and students in your board.
If there are additional high-quality online learning resources that you think would be particularly beneficial to students and parents at this time, we encourage you to share them with us by emailing learnathome@ontario.ca.
School Mental Health Ontario
School Mental Health Ontario a provincial implementation support team that works alongside the ministry, school boards, and provincial education and health organizations to develop a systematic and comprehensive approach to school mental health has several resources available to support families during the school closure period (
https://smho-smso.ca/blog/how-to-support-student-mental-health-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/).
Professional development
Through webinars, the ministry is providing professional development to support educators in the use of the VLE and pedagogy for remote, synchronous and asynchronous learning. In addition, the ministry is providing professional learning webinars for educators on specialised topics such as supporting students with special education needs, kindergarten/primary education and meaningful assessments and evaluations.
To date, more than 23,000 teachers have participated in, or registered for future webinars, on 34 different topics. Completed webinars have been recorded and posted for teachers who were unable to attend the live session.
In addition to the webinar series, the ministry has created the Supports for Virtual Learning eCommunity. Over 9,000 educational staff have accessed this professional learning community, including resources for self-serve learning that are updated regularly.
First Nation and Indigenous partners
The ministry continues to support First Nation education partners during the school closure period. This has included providing access to online education resources, connecting First Nation partners to the supply chain to purchase Chromebooks and iPads, as well as encouraging local school boards to work closely with local First Nations and Indigenous partners, where possible.
In addition to supporting educators through teleconferences in areas/communities where bandwidth is limited or unavailable, the ministry has responded
to outreach from First Nation partners and has established a series of ongoing virtual meetings with First Nations Education Task Teams. The Task Teams were established to work collaboratively with First Nation education leadership, to identify gaps in services and develop options to address emerging priorities for First Nation students.
We are also ensuring that First Nation educators have access to Ontarios VLE and training for teachers provided by the ministry. There is no cost to the First Nation schools to access and use the VLE.
Summer learning
The ministry is working with boards and organizations to support an expanded offering of summer learning opportunities. This plan will focus on programs that support student learning through the summer such as summer school, course upgrading, and gap-closing programs for vulnerable students, students with special education needs, and Indigenous students. This plan will be flexible to accommodate both remote and face-to-face learning, pending emergency measures through the summer. While summer learning opportunities are voluntary for students, we hope that many students will take advantage of the opportunity to continue their learning throughout the summer.
The goal with these measures is to mitigate the impacts of the school closure period and the learning loss that may typically occur during the summer.
Further details will be provided in the coming weeks.
Communication with parents and families
We recognize that many boards are creating opportunities for parents to provide feedback on the current learning experience through surveys and other platforms, as well as continuing to seek the advice of their Parent Involvement Committee (PIC). Through a virtual meeting with PIC chairs at the end of April, the ministry heard that parents appreciate the efforts their boards are making to address a variety of diverse family challenges due to the pandemic. We encourage boards to continue to be open to feedback and to recognize where delivery of education under current circumstances can be challenging, and can be adjusted to better serve students and families.
Thank you once again for your flexibility and willingness to work together to support Ontarios students.
Sincerely,
Stephen Lecce Nancy Naylor
Minister of Education Deputy Minister
c: President, Association des conseils scolaires des écoles publiques de l’ontario (ACÉPO)
Executive Director, Association des conseils scolaires des écoles publiques de l’ontario (ACÉPO)
President, Association franco-ontarienne des conseils scolaires catholiques (AFOCSC)
Executive Director, Association franco-ontarienne des conseils scolaires catholiques (AFOCSC) President, Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association (OCSTA) Executive Director, Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association (OCSTA) President, Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) Executive Director, Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) Executive Director, Council of Ontario Directors of Education (CODE)
President, Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO)
Executive Director and Secretary-Treasurer, Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO) President, Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) General Secretary, Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) President, Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) General Secretary, Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) President, Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) General Secretary, Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) Chair, Ontario Council of Educational Workers (OCEW)
Chair, Education Workers Alliance of Ontario (EWAO)
President of OSBCU, Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario (CUPE-ON) Co-ordinator, Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario (CUPE-ON)