A handful of school boards — including the two largest in the province, Toronto and Peel — are cancelling the winter report card for elementary students because of ongoing teacher job action.

The Toronto and Peel public boards, as well as Halton, Niagara and Trillium Lakelands, made the announcement Tuesday. Others are expected to follow suit.

Both the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association are engaging in job action that includes not providing comments on report cards or for the Elementary Teachers, inputting marks.

John Malloy, director of the Toronto District School Board, said in a letter to parents that because teachers “will not be entering marks, learning skills and/or comments electronically, we are not able to produce Term 1 report cards” for students in Grades 1 to 8, nor the kindergarten “communication of learning.”

“I want you to know that this difficult decision was made after careful consideration and a thorough review of all options. However, it is not possible to produce accurate report cards for the TDSB’s approximately 174,000 elementary students given the significant resources and time required to do so,” he wrote.

High school report cards will still be issued, with marks only, and grades will be provided to the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre.

“We regret that report cards will not be produced as we know they are an important measurement of student progress,” said Malloy, adding “it is important to note that teachers are still expected to assess and evaluate students and respond to your inquiries” and that parent-teacher interviews scheduled for Feb. 14 are expected to go ahead.

Peel Director Peter Joshua said his board’s “production of report cards for more than 100,000 elementary students relies on the electronic inputting of data by teachers. While regular assessment practices continue, this term, per job sanctions, elementary teachers are writing and providing marks, but are not inputting them electronically. After exploring every possible solution, at this time, we are unable to provide parents/guardians with Term One Report Cards for elementary students.”

He said “we know how important progress reports are to families and students, and that marks, learning skills and teacher comments are valued. At the same time, report cards are not the sole nor are they the most important records of achievement data we have for your child/teen. They are simply one update on progress.”

Ontario’s teacher unions are currently engaging in work to rules or rotating strikes, as talks with the provincial government have stalled.

Only the union representing the province’s teachers in French language boards has any upcoming bargaining dates scheduled.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce accused the unions of “risking student success and preventing parents from seeing valuable information about their child’s performance in class.”

The lack of report cards “underscores our government’s insistence that teacher union leaders cancel these strikes that are hurting our kids,” he also said.

Joy Lachica, president of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto, called it a board decision but “we have been evaluating our students throughout the term, marking projects and doing all the regular evaluation that we do” and are submitting it, but not inputting it into the computer system.

She said teachers have regular contact with parents at drop-off and pickup time, through communication books and also phone calls home.

“We are confident that parents know how their students are doing because of the ongoing and regular communication that we have,” she said.

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The Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association said it had heard from a few boards and most would be sending out report cards.

The Toronto Catholic board, the province’s largest Catholic board, says it plans to distribute elementary marks.