Education department clarifies rules on families exempt from remote learning
Rules on permits and remote learning exemptions have been clarified for families wondering if they can send their children to school for on-site education. These are the changes that have been made.
Education
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Parents can send their kids to school if they are a permitted worker and no other person is able to supervise them at home.
Schools have asked for a copy of a signed permit before they will allow children to attend, sending thousands of parents scrambling to get their permits filled out.
If a two-parent family has one non-permitted worker, then their children will have to stay home for remote learning.
The new rules are expected to reduce the number of children at schools – which had reached 25 per cent at some places, as parents ran out of leave and became frustrated with home schooling.
The Education Department’s new rules for on-site attendance, released on Friday at midday, also allow vulnerable children which include those in out-of-home care, covered by protection orders and deemed to be at-risk by family services.
Children identified by the school as vulnerable are also allowed to be on-site, as are children with a disability where the family is experiencing severe stress.
Schools appear to be unwilling to take such claims at face value, with many asking parents with children with a disability who are stressed to discuss their circumstances with them.
The form notes that principals will ask for referrals from external agencies or mental health bodies and will take “a collaborative family-centred approach to determine appropriate on-site attendance arrangements for children with disability”.
“This will seek to address the severe stress families are experiencing and be consistent with the intent that on-site supervision is to be provided in limited circumstances only to limit the movement of people across metropolitan Melbourne as far as possible as part of efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19,” the form says.
In rare circumstances, an employee will not need a worker permit.
This includes law enforcement, emergency services workers or healthcare workers who carry employer-issued photographic identification, which clearly identifies the employer.
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