Stephen Lecce

The trustees of the Toronto District School Board, Ontario’s and Canada’s largest school board, Wednesday night took a much stronger stance in its policy on COVID-19 vaccinations than the Ford government has, unanimously voting to insist on proof or multiple other steps to keep young people safe.

Ontario's education minister says his government is open to striking a deal on affordable child care with the federal Liberals if it accounts for what he described as the province's "unique" circumstances.

The federal government will transfer about $6 billion to Quebec over five years in connection with Ottawa's national child-care program, but the money comes without conditions and Quebec's government can spend it how it pleases.

Ontario’s long-awaited back-to-school plan requires students and staff to wear masks indoors but does not mandate being vaccinated against COVID-19.

The medical experts advising the Ontario government say the province’s schools and classrooms should stay open unless “catastrophic circumstances" force them closed again after more than a year of disrupted learning and socialization.

Ontario will keep its schools closed in June, Premier Doug Ford says, as he extends virtual-only learning until the summer break amid a waning third wave of COVID-19 infections and a vaccine rollout still in progress.

Ontario’s Education Ministry outlined its financial and operational plans for the 2021-22 school year on Tuesday, telling school boards that pandemic-related funding for the second half of the year is not yet confirmed while requiring them to offer virtual classes for the whole year.

The RCMP are investigating whether Vaughan Working Families violated election financing law. The corporation behind the group is led by Michael DeGasperis, a prominent developer whose ties to Premier Doug Ford were highlighted in a recent National Observer/Torstar investigation.

Schools in and around Toronto closed their doors suddenly last week as more contagious COVID-19 variants spread throughout the region. But amid a third wave threatening to overrun its hospitals, Ontario still can’t tell how much the virus is spreading in classrooms.

Concern over the spread of COVID-19 has delayed some voting in the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial election, postponed school holidays in Ontario and prompted Manitoba to seek vaccine from a Canadian supplier.

March break will have to wait until April for Ontario students, the province’s education minister says, as the government aims to limit travel amid a drop in COVID-19 cases but as risks from new virus variants loom.

The province’s education minister says schools in COVID-19 hot spots in and around Toronto should be planning for a return to classrooms at a yet-to-be-determined date.

Ontario will offer a one-off payment of $200 to the parents of high school students, whom the province has ordered to stay home for an extended winter break, the provincial government said on Tuesday.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce has boasted in recent weeks that the Progressive Conservatives’ back-to-school strategy is working, but epidemiological studies and experts suggest it’s difficult to make that claim without more testing.

Ontario’s education minister won’t say whether kids will get an extended winter break this year, but the Ford government is considering it to protect the classrooms Stephen Lecce says are the safest in the country.