Ford's school reporting system vague and useless: NDP

TORONTO — NDP Education critic Marit Stiles released the following statement in response to the Ford's government’s new reporting system for COVID in schools, which shows that 337 schools in Ontario reported absence rates higher than 30 per cent and 111 schools had absence rates higher than 50 per cent:

“The school COVID data being released by the Ford government today is laughably vague and offers little usefulness. Parents across Ontario looking at this information will be left with more questions than answers.

We cannot risk students’ health, or more school closures. The goal must be to keep every school open until June. To do that, the Ford government needs to reinstate testing, tracing, and actual COVID-19 case reporting, so that parents are alerted whenever there’s an infection in their child’s classroom."