The office of the Child, Youth and Seniors' Advocate filed a report with New Brunswick's legislative assembly Friday, outlining eight recommendations aimed at improving the safety and quality of school environments for children.
The report is a result of an inquiry conducted by the advocate looking into the decision to lift certain COVID-19 restrictions in New Brunswick schools.
“We received a number of public concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19 in schools following the lifting of most pandemic measures,” said Kelly Lamrock with the Child, Youth and Seniors’ Advocate, in a news release Friday.
“We initially reached out to the chief medical officer of health and the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in hopes that we could get clarity on the process of, and reasons for, the decision so as to inform the public. Following our inquiry, we had a number of concerns regarding the decision and advised the departments.”
In regards to masking, the inquiry found there was an overreliance on "following other provinces without providing evidence, projections and measurements that would justify the public health recommendation."
Lamrock stated there was also a "mismatch" between the public advice that vaccines were more effective than masks and the factual evidence that fewer than half of children attending schools are vaccinated against the virus.
He also expressed concern about a lack of "benchmarks and measurements" to monitor the impacts of removing restrictions in schools.
“There are legitimate reasons to consider lifting mask mandates, and we support public health leading that decision,” said Lamrock.
“However, children deserve a decision which considers their rights and needs, with clear and relevant factual findings, which need to be communicated with clarity and accountability. We should be as vigilant in monitoring the lifting of mandates as we were at the start.”
The report recommends public health revisit the decision with clear evidence to support its findings, as well as create a plan to monitor students safety and staff absenteeism.
Other recommendations in the report include:
- The departments of Health and Education and Early Childhood Development should co-ordinate and issue clear protocols for school leaders regarding when a student must test, report and/or absent themselves from school due to exposure, symptoms or a positive test.
- The departments of Health and Education and Early Childhood Development should co-ordinate and issue a plan to make appropriate rapid tests available to schools.
- Public health, in consultation with Education and Early Childhood Development, should clarify the health and pedagogical indicators it will be tracking to judge the impact of the removal of the mask mandate and elaborate clearly on what benchmarks would lead to a review of the decision.
- Public health should factor into its recommendations the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on youth.
- Public health and Education and Early Childhood Development should develop a strategy, backed up with regulation, if necessary, to increase the low vaccination rate of children aged five to 11.
Lamrock also provided a legal guidance letter to the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, clarifying its responsibility to accommodate students adversely affected by the relaxing of COVID-19 rules.
In the report by the advocate, it states the provision of the Education Act requiring accommodation of students with exceptional needs includes the obligation to provide for students whose immediate family members may be at risk of serious complications from the virus.
Lamrock is recommending the department require that school districts meet their obligations by law to accommodate students with a need to protect vulnerable family members.
“The law is clear that a student with a need that cannot be accommodated in the common learning environment has to be provided with a safe place to learn,” said Lamrock. “We strongly urge the department to ensure that the Education Act is followed.”
The advocate has authority to study issues affecting children and to make recommendations to the legislative assembly.
Lamrock says decisions on implementing the recommendations are made by elected MLAs.
