COVID-19 enters a new arena: How do we help families prepare for return to school?

It has been several months since COVID-19 arrived in Canada and turned our lives upside down. As a society, we have been forced to adopt new behaviours – avoiding crowds, physical distancing, and wearing masks in public. As family physicians, we continue to adjust ways of practicing to incorporate virtual care, while being vigilant to keep patients, staff, and each other safe in the office. As parents of school-age children, I, and many of my patients, have faced numerous adjustments since the lockdown as well. September is just around the corner, and we now face yet another challenge; providing our kids with a safe return to school.

Parents worldwide have been struggling to help their children adapt to a new way of life – one without going to school, extracurricular activities, or playdates. I see how my children have adjusted to this “new normal.” They were only five and three when this started, yet they learned quickly to avoid touching objects that aren’t their own and to give their grandparents “air hugs” from a 2-meter distance. I will never forget my son’s first encounter with a friend from school once restrictions started to ease up. My husband and I watched them run from a far distance yelling each other’s names, and much to our surprise, they both literally came to a full stop once they were around two meters apart. While I was amazed at their ability to adapt, it broke my heart to see the sacrifices this pandemic had forced them to make.

When Ontario announced their plan to reopen schools on July 30th, I was among the many parents glued to their screens anxiously waiting to hear the details. Will masks be mandatory for students and teachers? Will class sizes change to maintain physical distancing? Will students be going back full time, part time, or not at all? Many of us found ourselves wondering if we will be able to return to work and if sending kids to school would be safe for our families. Parents seem to be in an impossible predicament; trying to balance our children’s mental and physical health all at the same time. We want them to benefit from the social aspects of learning at school but worry about their risk of COVID-19 infection once they return. Given the fact that my husband is a teacher and I have a busy family practice, we knew that online learning would not be an option for our two children, as we could not stay home to supervise them. Not surprisingly, we were not alone. Over the next few days, I received several phone calls from concerned parents, both patients and friends, asking “Should I send my kids to school?” “How am I going to get my child to wear a mask all day?” and “What are YOU going to do with your kids?”

All these questions made me think of what a first day back to learning would look like. Kids, for the most part, have been kept out of public places and their contact with others has been significantly limited for months. Surely, we can’t just expect them to go back to school without any preparation. Instead, this would require a great deal of both parent and community effort.

Many children will likely be anxious. Some will be uncomfortable being in close proximity to so many after being told repeatedly that it is not safe. Most could find it overwhelming to walk into a building full of students and teachers wearing masks. I still remember going grocery shopping back in March and seeing everyone in masks for the first time. As a physician, I have been around people in masks at work for almost a decade, yet I still had a difficult time seeing this widespread in public. If this was the case for me, I wondered, how were school-age children going to feel on their first day back?

Given the importance of masks to prevent the spread of infection, my husband and I started thinking of ways to make masks “cool” for our kids to get them used to wearing them in preparation for school. We started brainstorming and sharing our ideas, and I quickly realized how much my patients and other families needed this type of information. Subsequently, we created a document to provide parents with ideas on how to help make this transition as smooth as possible. Here are some highlights of what we covered:

1. Messaging –Make sure to always frame your discussions around the return to school in a positive way.

2. Hand Washing –Teach your children HOW to properly wash their hands and WHEN to do so.

3. Masks and Comfort– Help your children adapt to mask wearing NOW! Many tips on how to do so are included in the slide deck (see attached). 

4. Physical Distancing – Help your children understand what this means and how to ask others for space if necessary. 

5. Family Conversations – Some important conversations to raise with your children are included. 

6. Sick Days – Please adhere to public health guidelines when your children are ill to ensure a safe environment for everyone. 

I shared this resource via email to patients in my practice with school-age children. We also created a slide deck to share on social media and were quickly encouraged to make this widely available to other parents, primary care colleagues, and school boards. It is inevitable that parents will turn to their primary care provider for advice on this topic, and it has been a tremendous pleasure to know that we are helping children ease into one of the many challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. We all know that “it takes a village to raise a child,”and now is the time for us to rise together and work as a community to keep our kids safe. 

Note: I have also attached a link to the slide deck and the document that was emailed out. 

Acknowledgments: I would like to acknowledge Dr. Allan Grill, lead physician at Markham Family Health Team and Chief of Family Medicine at Markham Stouffville Hospital. He helped edit this blog as well as the document. I would like to acknowledge Farah Alli-Shaw. Farah is a teacher in York Region District School Board, and she designed the slide deck that was shared. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my husband Mr. Darren Abenstein. He is a teacher at York Region District School Board and is the co-creator of the slide deck and document that were distributed. 

Dr. Dana Abenstein is a family physician at Markham Family Health Team. She practices low risk obstetrics at Markham Stouffville Hospital.