Thousands of families in online learning opt to return their kids to the classroom

Robin Ferguson has decided to send her elementary school-aged son back to class in November as she says he isn't learning with the online model.

"He needs the connection, he's not learning, he's having a very hard time and he's struggling very much mentally with anxiety and all kinds of other things that he feels like he needs to be in class," Ferguson said.

She is one of more than 2,600 Windsor-Essex parents from the region's English elementary schools who has decided to make the switch.

Meanwhile, for the public board's secondary studentswho have declared a switch, the opposite is true.

Lisa Renaudis having her son, who is in Grade 10, start online learning in the coming weeks.

She told CBC News that she didn't realize how "erratic" in-person learning would be, with cohorts rotating between in-person and at-home learning.

"I know that the school board worked very hard to make it as balanced as possible in keeping with what the Ministry of Education's guidelines continue to evolve to be but it didn't work for my son," Renaud said. "Itwas too unbalanced. He needed things to be more even and consistent so unfortunately it just has not worked out for this quadmester for him."

On Tuesday, both the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) and the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board (WECDSB) reported the number of students switching their learning models following the Oct. 19 deadline.

The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board'sdirector of education Terry Lyons said in a statement that after seeing the results, itbelieves that "parents have seen how we have managed the re-opening of our schools and are now confident enough to send their children back."

The Catholic board's secondary school numbers are the only ones that are missing as their deadline to switch is Nov. 2.

The WECDSBreceived 900 submissions for elementary school students. Of these, 803 are moving from at-home learning to back to the classroomand 97 are moving from in-school to at-home learning.

The Catholic board will now begin reorganizing students, who are expected to officially enter their new learning model on Nov. 2.

Anyone who missed the deadline is asked to contact their school office.

Public elementary and secondary schools show opposite results

In total, the GECDSBsaid that it received 3,855 submissions.

There are 1,879 elementary students moving from at-home to at-schoollearning and 474are moving from at-schoolto at-home learning. At the secondary level, 656 students are moving to at-home learning and 317 are moving back to in-class learning.

Here's a further breakdown of the public board's elementary school switches:

• 996 elementary students are movingfrom onlineto at-schoollearning.
• 883 elementary students are moving from paper packages to at-schoollearning.
• 1,879 total elementary students are moving to at-schoollearning.

• 294 elementary students are moving from at-schoolto online learning.
• 204 elementary students are moving from paper packages to onlinelearning.
• 498 elementary students are moving to the online learning model.

• 180 elementary students are moving from at-schoolto paper packages.
• 325 elementary students moving from online learning to paper packages.
• 505 elementary students are moving to paper packages.

Attention students, parents and teachers: We want to hear from you!

We're looking for parents, teachers and students who can help us cover back-to-school issues across Windsor-Essex. We hope you'll use this form to tell us about school conditions, how classes are going or any other pressing issues on your mind.