Parents of school-aged children should know well before the end of the year if classes will shift to online learning, with school set to resume on January 4th.
Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams will make a recommendation to the ministry of education on what to do.
"My understanding from the ministry of education is they would need more than a week ahead," he said Thursday.
The ministry has sent a memo to school boards, reiterating the need to pivot to online learning in the new year should it be necessary.
"As a reminder, we are recommending that boards encourage students and staff to take home any materials that they may require for remote learning before they leave school for the holiday period so that we can continue to be ready for all scenarios," the memo says.
The Toronto District School Board has also been warning parents to be prepared, doing surveys about the possible move, as well as some schools sending kids home with work bags just in case the switch is made.
Keeping schools open has been a key priority of the Ontario Government, which has been mostly the case through the first three months of the year.
But things started to change in December, partly because of an asymptomatic testing pilot.
Now 22 schools have been closed, as well as all schools in the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.
"It's a big entity," Williams said about the decision to shift. "We have to have a certain lead time, because they can't just start things and change things on a whim."