How B.C.'s schools are planning possible switch to online learning as threat of staff shortages looms

As most K-12 students across the province spend an extra week home after the holidays, administrators and teachers are busy formulating backup plans should large numbers of staff call in sick due to COVID-19 exposures and infections.

Last week the province announced a staggered return to school in January due to the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant in B.C., and administrators say they've been told to use this time to prepare contingency plans.

"We're in a very different kind of pandemic now and it came on very suddenly," said Minister of Education Jennifer Whiteside.

"We can anticipate, given what other industries are experiencing in terms of the impact on the workforce, that we may well experience an impact ... in education that may be disruptive."

Each school district will develop its own contingency plans, but to give parents an idea of what they could expect, CBC News spoke with B.C.'s largest: Surrey.

According to district superintendent Jordan Tinney, Surrey schools will go into a "functional closure" once there aren't enough staff to provide proper care and education for students.

Functional closures aren't new, he says, adding they often happen due to unexpected events like snow days, power outages or water line breaks.

"I think what's different is those are all events we can predict," he said.

"Knowing what we know about Omicron, the province believes you can anticipate wide-scale absenteeism," he added.

"So they are saying use this time to actually plan ... if you did have to close this school for a period of five or seven days, what would that look like?"

In Surrey, functional closures would be implemented in three "phases" over three days.

Day 1, Tinney says, is "inception day" — when administrators determine there are not enough teaching staff, and not enough administrators, caretakers, support staff and bus drivers. In this case, the school would inform parents and guardians of the closure.

There isn't a minimum number of staff to indicate when a functional closure would kick in, with schools deciding whether staffing levels are sufficient to provide proper instruction and care.

"Bottom line is, do we have enough to supervise and provide instruction and to keep the school clean and working?" said Tinney.