Virtual Limestone school board students have 1 week to opt in to in-person learning – Kingston | Globalnews.ca

Kingston-area parents of public school students who have already signed up for virtual learning this fall now only have a week to opt out if they’ve changed their minds.

But, according to the Limestone District School Board, there are very few students taking the virtual option this year. The board has one of the lowest virtual school uptakes in the province, with only about  400 students choosing online learning this year.

Thorben De Pauw, a 6-year-old, is not one of them. He will be returning to in-person learning come September.

“I’m happy that I’m going to see my friends again,” he said.

Thorben isn’t alone, as a large majority of families are choosing to send their children back to school.

“As we began the year, we sat at around just less than 10 per cent of our students that were enrolled in virtual school. We’re entering this school year between one and a half and two per cent,” said associate superintendent of Limestone elementary schools, Stephanie Sartor.

And it’s not just students excited to get back to the classroom. Many parents in the Kingston area are looking forward to the start of an in-person school year in a few weeks.

“I’m feeling really good about the school year starting again because kids really need to be kids really need to with each-other, with their peers it’s so good for them,” said Samantha Hassan, a local mother.

Some have said they feel more confident about sending students back this year due Kingston’s consistently low case counts. The KFL&A region has only 11 active cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday.

“Our schools have been very low risk, particularly in KFL&A. We’ve been really lucky in this region to have low rates, now we have very high vaccination rates,” said Lia De Pauw, Thorben’s mother.

1:59Ontario students back to online learning as classes resume

Just like in Limestone’s elementary schools, the area’s public high schools are seeing a larger than expected in-person uptake this year.

With only 140 high school students opting for online learning, the board says the choice has been less about COVID-19 and more about learning preferences.

“We anticipated that a large number of students would have a medical reason related to the student or their family, but in fact typically what we have represented for those 140 students is that this is their preferred method of learning at this time, which is not what necessarily what we anticipated,” said associate superintendent of secondary schools Steve Hedderson.

For those who are still undecided, the deadline to change learning options is fast approaching.

Those who have previously asked for a virtual school spot will have until Aug. 26 to opt-out for the upcoming school year, then those who change their mind about in-person, also have the option to switch to virtual learning once space becomes available.

View link »