After the Girl Guides of Canada made the decision to halt any travel to the U.S.A. earlier in March, it looks like others are following suit.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) announced on Thursday that they would no longer be booking any trips south of the border, due to the recently announced travel restrictions.
Read the Director of Education's statement re: school trips to the U.S. https://t.co/zZixXhkJgw
— Toronto DSB (@tdsb) March 23, 2017
However, there are currently 24 trips involving approximately 800 students that will go ahead as planned.
That could change at any point, though, depending on rulings that come out of the U.S.
“It’s important to note that should the Executive Order be fully implemented, resulting in any of our students being excluded from trips across the U.S. border, then the board has asked me to cancel already-approved trips to the U.S. for the remainder of the school year,” said the school board’s Director of Education.
The TDSB admitted that it was not an easy decision, or one they came to lightly, but due to the uncertainty of the situation they believe it is the right call.
They also said they will continue to monitor the situation in the U.S.A. closely and are open to revisiting this decision if anything changes.
“It is my hope that our students, staff and parents will understand and support this difficult decision,” said the Director of Education. “We feel it strikes a balance between our equity and inclusion commitments as a school board, while not cancelling already-approved trips for which a financial loss would be incurred.”
Any students who were supposed to be on one of the 24 pre-approved trips that can no longer attend due to the Executive Order will be fully reimbursed, whether they have insurance or not.
The TDSB, which is the largest school district in Canada with 246,000 registered students, is the first school district in Canada to make a decision like this.
