If all goes according to plan and the spread of COVID-19 declines in time, Saskatchewan students could be back at school this fall. When classes open on September 1, however, there may be students who have more than the usual amount of back to school anxiety. 

Whether because they are immunocompromised or have relatives who are especially vulnerable, some families may not want their children to return to school if there is any risk of contracting COVID-19. The province is still working on a plan for those students, though we've seen some aspects of what that plan may look like already.

"These are all things from an instructional perspective that our response planning team will be thinking about," said Deputy Premier and Minister of Education Gordon Wyant. "Certainly there will be children who are immunocompromised, there will be parents who may not be quite comfortable returning their child to school."

Of course, it's not just children getting COVID-19 while at school the province has to worry about. If a child's parents get sick, that child will have to self-isolate for 14 days, which would mean two weeks away from the classroom. 

"We're going to have to work on alternative learning plans for a lot of those children," said Wyant. "We certainly have learned a lot with respect to distance learning over the last number of months. That will be an option certainly for those children." 

As Wyant pointed out, the province has done a lot of distance learning in the past three months as schools carried on out-of-classroom. Wyant could not say exactly what sort of shape a provincial plan for this would take yet, but he did say he wanted to see students back in the classroom in the fall in as close to normal a setting as possible. 

"We want to see as many children return to school in the fall as possible," he said. "We want this to be as close to a normal school year as possible. But we'll need to make some accommodations. Again, there will be some immunocompromised kids where parents feel uncomfortable. We're going to need to work with school divisions and schools to make sure those learning opportunities continue to be provided to those children."

Wyant added they will make every effort to reduce contact between people while in school, and that includes staff. He felt the guidelines the province has put in place will go a long way towards helping that.