Safe Schools
The Saskatchewan Party government released the Safe Schools Plan which includes eight components for safe learning as students and teachers return to school in the fall including:
- Safe attendance
- Safe classroom
- Safe transportation
- Safe supports
- Safe access
- Safe activities
- Safe facilities
- Safe alternatives
Saskatchewan's 27 school divisions developed plans tailored to the needs of their schools and students to facilitate a safe school year.
These plans include procedures for the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), quarantine protocols, transportation, cleaning of facilities, staggered arrival and recess times and contingency plans for virtual learning for students unable to attend in-person class.
The Saskatchewan Party government also allocated $40 million from the $200 million provincial COVID-19 contingency fund for additional costs related to ensuring the safety of students and staff through the pandemic including:
- $20 million will be available to school divisions on an application basis for pandemic-related costs including staffing and sanitation supplies;
- $10 million will be available to enhance non-classroom options like distance learning to help ensure immunocompromised and medically fragile students have continuous access to learning across school divisions, available on an application basis; and
- $10 million will be allocated to the Ministry of Education to centrally procure masks, PPE and other supplies for school divisions.
This $40 million in additional funding will match and complement the $40 million school divisions realized in savings, making a total of $80 million available to school divisions for a safe return to school.