Dear Virtual Secondary School Students and Families,

Today was the first day of Virtual Secondary School for more than 18,000 TDSB students and despite some limited technical issues, it was a successful start to the year.

This is a time of adjustment and a new normal for everyone and we will continue to provide ongoing updates in as timely a manner as possible. The logistics behind getting a new virtual school up and running to support 18,000 students has been an enormous task with many moving parts and there have been bumps along the way. As we have seen in Toronto and across Ontario, many school boards have faced similar difficulties with the opening of virtual schools. However, we continue to move forward and sincerely appreciate and acknowledge your patience and understanding.

We would also like to acknowledge all teaching staff who have joined the Virtual Schools. They have been instrumental in getting things up and running under tight timelines and we cannot thank them enough for their commitment to our students.

We are aware that some students and families have experienced access issues and difficulty logging into Brightspace and apologize for the inconvenience. Please know that we continue to work on all issues and have implemented additional technical support to assist. In order to login to Brightspace, users require both their account ID (firstname.lastname@student.tdsb.on.ca) and password. If you experience any issues, the most efficient solution is to complete this form and once the information is verified, login and password information will be emailed to you. For more information, you can also visit the Brightspace web page.

We know that some students still do not have timetables due to the significant increase in the demand for virtual school just prior to the September 15 deadline. To address this issue, additional sections for courses have just been created. These classes will begin on Monday, October 5 and end on Wednesday, November 25 and will run Monday to Friday, from 3:30 to 6 p.m. and will include a two-hour synchronous/live session with the teacher (same as courses in Periods 1 and 2).

Students must register for these classes through eReg to expedite the process and the deadline to register is September 30. Access to these classes is restricted to students in the Virtual Secondary School who could not get full Quad 1 timetables. Instructions and registration information will be posted online tomorrow at www.tdsb.on.ca/Virtual-School/Virtual-School-Secondary/More-Information.

For students who require a second course for Quad 1, Virtual Night School classes will also be offered on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. More information can be found here: https://www.tdsb.on.ca/High-School/Going-to-High-School/Night-School-and-Summer-School/Night-School

In order to meet the significant demand, we continue to explore additional offerings during Quad 2, as well as Saturday offerings. Stay tuned for more information to come!

Thank you.