Unjabbed parents allowed into WA schools under new rule

Unvaccinated parents will be free to visit West Australian schools when the new school year begins in February.

Australian Medical Association WA president Mark Duncan-Smith. Picture: Marie Nirme

Unvaccinated parents will be free to visit West Australian schools – including volunteering in canteens and attending assemblies and parent-teacher interviews – when the new school year begins in February.

While all school teachers are required to be double-vaccinated under WA’s broad vaccination mandates, advice sent by the WA Department of Education to government schools and obtained by The Australian shows there will be no restrictions on unvaccinated parents attending school and participating in school events.

It means unvaccinated parents will potentially be able to interact with significant numbers of schoolchildren who are still too young to receive their jabs.

The Department of Education advice says there are no requirements for parents to be vaccinated when dropping off or picking up their children, volunteering at school on an “ad hoc basis” of no more than once a week, or attending school events. Vaccine requirements will apply only to parents who volunteer at schools more than once a week.

The head of the WA branch of the Australian Medical Association, Mark Duncan-Smith, said the decision would put unprotected schoolchildren at undue risk of contracting the virus.

That risk, he said, was particularly real given WA’s commitment to bringing down its border restrictions in early February.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for unvaccinated people to be ­visiting schools unless there is a compelling reason. Doing ad hoc volunteering is not a compelling reason, especially with Omicron knocking on our door,” he said.

“I would urge the state government to look at revising that in the face of Omicron and the impending February 5 reopening.”

Some states and countries have banned unvaccinated parents from setting foot on school grounds as part of their efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

In Victoria, unvaccinated parents were limited to drop-offs and pick-ups only during the recently completed school year.

Dr Duncan-Smith said there was a strong rationale for protecting children from the virus, noting that about a third of cases in NSW involved children and pointing to research by Britain’s National Health Service showing between 7 and 14 per cent of children who contracted the virus suffered from symptoms of “long Covid”.

“This is about minimising contact between unvaccinated people and children in schools because we really want to minimise the risk of these kids getting the disease, especially before they are vaccinated,” he said.

School teachers are already ­expected to be among the most exposed when the virus enters WA next year, given students are not required to be vaccinated.

While WA has been Covid-free for almost the entirety of the pandemic, Premier Mark McGowan has said the virus will eventually enter the state when it lifts its controlled border restrictions on February 5 – just after the end of the first week of the new school year.

The freedom for unvaccinated parents to visit schools sit in contrast to Mr McGowan’s hardline stance on those who opt not to ­receive the injections.

He has warned they will face additional restrictions when the state’s hard border with the rest of the country is lifted.