This year's school graduations across Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton will not be affected by the lack of co-op placements due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The directors of education at the Lambton-Kent District School Board (LKDSB) and the St. Clair Catholic District School Board (SCCDSB) said the boards continue to work with students to make sure they complete everything they need to graduate. Education Director of the SCCDSB Deb Crawford said in some cases, students are completing their co-ops virtually.
"We do not feel this will threaten anyone's graduation. We're working with these students to make sure we're able to provide programming for them but at this time with the lockdown we can't be sending students to placements," said Crawford. "So, there are virtual online programs for this and that's how we're managing it right now."
At the LKDSB, Director of Education John Howitt said the curriculum has been adjusted and in-person co-ops are no longer a requirement to graduate, although he is hopeful they will continue in February if and when the lockdown is lifted.
"Staff and student safety is first and foremost and this is an example of where safety has to be put ahead of the programming," Howitt said.
Both school boards are also very pleased with how well online learning has gone despite rural internet problems. Howitt said several necessary [tech] devices started going to students last week.
"We're seeing a significantly better engagement of students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 than we saw in the spring and we know there's real appreciation that for 75 per cent of the instructional day staff are available for synchronous learning," added Howitt.
He said there are now about 5,000 devices and 400 internet iPads in the hands of public school students and he's very happy about how quickly and smoothly the board pivoted to remote learning.
Crawford said 2,200 devices are out to the Catholic school students as well and she is very thankful to her staff and tech departments for being ready to go last week.
"We're finding there are challenges with rural internet and that's making it a little bit uneven but we've been able to provide hubs or iPhones or different connections for people who didn't have internet," Crawford said.
Crawford understands this is challenging for many families but appreciates everybody doing the best they can under the circumstances. She said the Catholic school board will be ready for whatever comes its way, either a return to class or continue with remote learning.