ICPA renews calls to get boarding schools reopened for all students

The peak body for rural Queensland parents has slammed the Premier over inaction as thousands of students still can’t go back to school.

THE peak association for rural Queensland parents has slammed the state's Premier for not acting to bring boarding students back to school.

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The Isolated Children's Parents' Association of Queensland (ICPA) has today launched a social media campaign to "Bring our Boarders back" to school, renewing calls for the Premier to intervene and allow all students to go back to school.

It comes after ICPA wrote to the Premier a week ago, imploring Ms Palaszczuk to make a decision immediately around whether boarding schools could reopen for all students in Term 3.

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee issued advice on May 1 which limits the number of boarders in facilities, in some cases to 25 per cent.

"It is with extreme disappointment that I let our members and stakeholders know that we have had absolutely no response from the Premier or the Department of Health in the week since we wrote asking for their consideration of Queensand's rural and remote families with boarding school children who remain isolated due to COVID-19 restrictions," Ms Irons said in a video online.

"The refusal of entry back into our boarding schools by the Queensland government is causing disproportionate hardship to our students and their families as they struggle with social and emotional wellbeing and their educational journey.

"The standard media response in the past week has been that those in Brisbane understand the difficulty that boarding families are going through, with respect, no they don't."

Ms Irons said families were being torn apart, with parents and families being split up as they rent accommodation near their schools so their children can resume face-to-face classes as day students.

"This is simply not good enough," Ms Irons said.

Ms Irons renewed ICPA's call for the Premier "to do the right thing" and let families know if their boarding schools will be open for term three.

"Not next week, not in two weeks and definitely not the day before Term 3 begins. Bring our boarders back and do it now."

The boarding school students exempt from quarantine

Independent Schools Queensland executive director David Robertson told The Sunday Mail about 700 boarders and 400 Indigenous students in rural and remote communities yet to return.

“In light of the easing of restrictions across the state, reuniting these students with their teachers and friends must be a priority," he said.
“We would also like to see the movement and social limitations placed on boarding students who have returned to their schools also eased."
The ICPA's calls were echoed by the Queensland Catholic Education Commission executive director Lee-Anne Perry who wrote to the premier in the past week calling for her to intervene in the delay of updated AHPPC boarding school guidelines.

She said there were still more than 1,000 boarding students unable to return to Catholic boarding schools.