Pediatric doctors and infectious disease experts from SickKids and other health institutions provide recommendations for the return to school. The report recommends resuming daily school, but says that for schools to “effectively carry out [their] mission will depend in part on the resources made available to the schools.” According to the report this includes staff like health-care providers, additional custodians and cleaning staff, and an expanded number to teachers, guidance counsellors, social workers, psychologists.

Annie Kidder argues that it is time to address the “human crisis” with the same kinds of resources that were put in place to address the economic crisis caused by COVID. It will require funding and cooperation from multiple levels of government.

Microsoft Education collaborated with New Pedagogies for Deep Learning to report on the lessons learned in education during the first few months of the pandemic and what that means for reopening schools and the future of learning. The report looks at how the approaches used in education during the pandemic enable well-being, equity and quality.

OISE professor of Leadership and Educational Change, Carol Campbell, provides ten areas of advice for policy-makers. Among these, she recommends watching other regions, relying on research, and consulting with experts and practitioners when planning for school re-opening.

UNESCO’s International Commission on the Futures of Education has released: Education in a post-COVID world: Nine ideas for public action. It includes concrete recommendations focused on preparing to educate students in a post-COVID world.

The actions for now include:

1. Strengthening education as a common good; 2. Broadening the definition of the right to education; 3. Promoting student, youth, and children’s participation rights; 4. Valuing teacher professionalism and collaboration; 5. Protecting social spaces provided by schools; 6. Making free and open source technologies available; 7. Embedding scientific literacy in the curriculum; 8. Securing domestic and international financing of public education; and 9. Working to end current levels of inequality.