ETFO teachers won't fill out fall kindergarten report cards
Province says parents have other ways to talk to teachers about how their kids are doing
CBC News has confirmed that school teachers represented by the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) will not be filling out report cards for kindergarten students this fall.
When ETFO, which represents 78,000 teachers across the province, signed a tentative labour deal with the province earlier this month, Education Minister Liz Sandals said teachers would end work-to-rule campaign that had banned them from submitting report card comments.
It now appears that kindergarten teachers won't fill out the comments.
An ETFO spokesperson told CBC News they would not be commenting further.
Fall assessments for kindergarten students are not mandated by the province, but many boards use them as a way to give parents a key indicator about how their kids are doing.
Report cards not required by the province
A statement from the education ministry says kindergarten assessments are not mandated by the province, because their policy for how elementary students are assessed came out before full-day kindergarten was fully implemented.
The statement says ministry staff are working with "education partners" to develop a full-day kindergarten report card.
"We remain committed to continuing to engage with both experts and our education partners regarding the best method to communicate with parents," the statement says.
Until that happens, the province says parents have many ways they can communicate with teachers about how their kids' are progressing.
"Our expectation is that during this period of transition, teachers will ensure parents have the information they need about the progress of their child," it reads.