The province is currently recording its highest COVID numbers since the beginning of the pandemic, but as far as active cases in schools go, that's anyone's guess.

Despite a rapid rise in Omicron cases, kindergarten to grade 12 students across the province returned to in-person learning this week with changes in place for school COVID notifications.

Officials say that Alberta Health Services (AHS) no longer has the capacity to inform families of COVID-19 infections in classes or schools. Therefore, school cases won't be investigated moving forward.

A statement from Rocky View Schools (RVS) to the parents of students said:

The Government of Alberta recently updated the Alberta Health Daily Checklist. New isolation requirements are included for fully vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals as well as other updates. Please continue to have your child complete the checklist every day before coming to school as an important step in keeping our schools healthy and limiting the transmission of COVID-19.

COVID-19 Notifications

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is no longer supporting COVID-19 and respiratory illness outbreak management in schools. AHS will not be notifying schools of positive cases, has asked schools not to report positive cases to AHS, and will not be declaring alerts or outbreaks or publishing this information on the government website as they have done previously.

With the high volume of cases more recently and without AHS support, Rocky View Schools (RVS) will focus school staff efforts on supporting student learning including those required to isolate. RVS has directed schools to stop case tracking and notifying the school community of positive cases. RVS will reassess if AHS resumes its support of these time-intensive efforts in schools.

RVS will be monitoring student and staff attendance as a means of identifying challenging situations where a temporary shift to at-home learning may be warranted. Students are not required to share if they are positive with COVID-19, but families are asked to inform the school office if their child will not be attending school.

Upon receiving this statement via email, a concerned Airdrie mother had multiple questions.

'We have no information as to how many cases there are at this time. It's hard to make a decision on your children's welfare when you don't even have all the information at hand.'

With many questions and concerns, she sent an email to the Rocky View School Board Trustees saying she does not feel that this has the kid's best interest at heart. 

In response to her email, the School Board Trustees stated it was decided at the provincial level that AHS would no longer support COVID-19 positive case management in the schools, and changes were made to the Rocky View Operational Plan were changed to reflect those changes at the provincial level.

The mother went on to say that she's considering keeping her kids home since she has no way of telling how many kids are missing class due to being sick with COVID.

"The provincial government promised us masks and rapid tests, we have yet to receive those."

In a conference on Thursday (January 13), Alberta Premier stated 58 per cent of tests and masks have been shipped to Alberta schools in the midst of a shipment delay from the Federal Government.

A statement from RVS says, "Once the government-provided rapid test kits/medical grade masks arrive, they will be distributed to students and staff as quickly as possible. A reminder these items are optional and to contact our school office if you do not want them sent home with your child."

When it comes to handing out the rapid tests to students, it has been seen in some Airdrie Facebook groups that parents might be selling the rapid tests that RVS has given out for students. In an email to Discover Airdrie from RVS, "we do not monitor the use of the rapid test kits provided by the government. They are optional. We do not ask if a student/staff member will use a test, has used a test or what that result is/was."