BOARDING schools have lobbied the government to change the definition of a close contact for boarders and classify boarding staff as essential workers to keep schools open throughout COVID outbreaks.
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Australian Boarding Schools Association has proposed only students who share a bedroom, including a cubical where the wall doesn't reach the ceiling, with a positive COVID case be deemed a close contact.
ABSA chief executive Richard Stokes said his organisation had been "working energetically" with Regional Education Minister Bridget McKenzie.
"We can't have boarding households shut down for weeks and weeks," Mr Stokes said.
"That's why we want staff members to be classified as essential workers. With the current close contact rule for workers, we would lose all our staff in one hit.'
The two proposals have been put to the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, who approves national COVID guidelines, and to the state governments.
Although the schooling year has been delayed by a week or two depending on the state, Mr Stokes said it was still just around the corner and the heads of boarding schools needed certainty.
"The fact is there are fantastic people running boarding schools who know how to best look after kids," Mr Stokes said.
"We've been trying to convince the bureaucrats that those on the ground know best and will not put their kids at risk.
"With those two guidelines in place, we can handle anything. Without them, we would really struggle."
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At the end of last year, IPCA successfully lobbied for a national set of guidelines to allow boarding school students to have exceptions from state government border restrictions.
Isolated Children's Parents Association president Alana Moller said the current situation was "very fluid at the moment and changing by the day".
"It is just that little bit tougher on boarding school students and their families," Ms Moller said.
"We would love to see something in place nationally, so students and their parents have some certainty.
"Anyone familiar with a boarding school would realise boarding staff were essential, Ms Moller said.
"There's a weird situation that some teachers would be classed as essential workers during the week, but when they swap over to boarding staff on a weekend, they're not," she said.