Tens of thousands of elementary school students won’t be going home with report cards next month due to the ongoing work-to-rule campaign by teachers.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) began the work-to-rule campaign in November amid stalled negotiations with the province.

At the time the union said that its members would no longer fill out report cards themselves but would send marks to a school administrator for inclusion in report cards.

The Toronto and Peel district school boards, however, have now announced that they will not be issuing report cards.

In a letter sent to parents on Friday, the TDSB’s Director of Education John Malloy said that it would simply not be possible for the board to produce “accurate report cards” for its 174,000 elementary students given “the significant resources and time required to do so.”

“We regret that report cards will not be produced as we know they are an important measurement of student progress,” he said. “It is important to note that teachers are still expected to assess and evaluate students and respond to your inquiries.”

The term one report cards for elementary school students were scheduled to go out in February but Malloy said that the board has made “the difficult decision” not to issue them following a “thorough review of all options.”

He pointed out that parent-teacher meetings scheduled for Feb. 14 are expected to be unaffected by ongoing job action.

Meanwhile, in an update posted to its website the Peel District School Board said that it has also chosen not to issue report cards for its 100,000 elementary students.

The board said that it explored “every possible solution” but ultimately concluded that “providing marks without comments and context would not be considered fulsome feedback on student achievement of curriculum expectations.”

Secondary school students in the Peel board will still receive report cards despite a similar work-to-rule campaign by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. Those report cards will have marks but no comments.

“As always, parents/guardians can contact their child’s teachers to learn about their child’s progress,” the update states.

The cancellation of elementary school report cards in some boards comes one day after ETFO began a series of rotating strikes as part of its next phase of job action.

So far three out of the province’s four public school teacher unions have participated in one-day strikes, including the union representing Catholic board teachers, which held a province-wide walkout on Tuesday.