It seems students will return to class Monday.

The premier’s office confirmed a report in The Toronto Star late Monday the decision had been made to return to school. Education Minister Stephen Leece has an announcement scheduled Wednesday about the return to class.

He also issued a statement saying the province has been preparing for the return of in-class learning by shipping 9.1 million N95 masks for staff and over four million three ply cloth masks for students, increasing availability of appointments for booster shots for teachers and vaccines for students and sending out an addition 3,000 HEPA filters to help with ventilation in schools.

Leece’s statement also points out the province has a deal with the Ontario Teachers’ Federation which will allow retired teachers to lead classes when teachers are out sick or isolating. Some experts say 30 per cent of educational staff could fall ill to COVID-19 because of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The province also released guidelines today on COVID-19 in the schools. Students and staff will only be able to get a PCR test to confirm they have COVID if they start feeling ill at school. They will then do a take home PCR test which will be sent to a provincial lab.

But parents won’t be told about cases in schools since there is no requirement to report a positive rapid antigen or PCR test. Aside from the limited PCR testing, the province won’t be keeping track of the number of students and staff members ill.

Ontario’s opposition leader, Andrea Horwath says parents may have to send their kids to school “hoping for the best” and “parents should not be in that situation.

“These are impossible choices for parents to be making.”

Horwath says “this is not the way that a responsible government should be addressing a global pandemic. It didn’t have to be this way.”