Border permits: Ministers champion national approach for boarding student exemption
Students as young as 13 have been separated from their families for months, due to constantly changing cross-border travel rules. Two politicians are pushing for a national plan.
Rural parents and principals have called for a nationally consistent approach to border permits for boarding students, in a roundtable discussion held Friday by Federal Regional Education Minister Bridget McKenzie.
Minister McKenzie and Nationals Senator Perin Davey have committed to developing a workable framework, and tabling it to all state health and education ministers, to allow rural boarding students and parents to travel across state lines following Covid-safe procedures, so they can be united during term breaks and in the case of emergencies.
More than 25 delegates, from five organisations representing rural boarding school families, shared their concerns with Minister McKenzie and Senator Davey yesterday, explaining that inconsistent rules and lack of communication between state departments was contributing to anxiety in children as young as 13.
“There are about 1600 students, those are rough figures, around the country who board not in the state they live in,” Minister McKenzie said.
“One of the more tragic examples of the impact we heard was a 13-year-old boarder being rushed to the emergency department in Toowoomba whilst their parents, in Narrabri 450km away, weren’t allowed to cross the border to get to them, to be with them.
“That is from a Covid-free community to a Covid-free community.”
Currently, crossing the border from rural NSW to Victoria is near impossible, with boarding students and parents outside “bubble” communities being granted an exemption only in “exceptional” circumstances.
That means Victorian students who attend boarding school in NSW have been blocked from coming home during the term, and if the situation doesn’t change, won’t be able to visit parents for the school holidays starting September 17.
Federal president of the Isolated Children’s and Parents’ Association, Alana Moller, said she had been advocating for a national effort to resolve the issue for the past 18 months.
“It is just proving to be continually and excessively impacting our families,” she said.
When border crossings first became an issue at the end of second term last year, the ICPA advocated to state ministers, and solutions were developed for individual states.
“People thought it was resolved,” Ms Moller said. “Certainly, in the view of parents, they thought ‘we now know what the answers are’.
“The problem is, every time it happens again it is like a bungee cord that snaps back to blank page.
“Every time a lockdown arises there is something different put into place. The anxiety that causes for families, students and schools – it’s not good. We are seeing mental health issues arising out of the pandemic, and this is a reason for that.
“We would love to see that something is put together that everybody can agree on across the states and … a framework that is descriptive in the guidelines, and ensures there is no uncertainty and possibility of it being misconstrued.”
Principal Steve Byrne of Sacred Heart College, in South Australia, attended the roundtable and said the situation had affected up to 30 of his school’s students over the past 18 months.
He said families and schools were more than prepared to follow Covid-safe procedures, including testing and isolating on their home properties, if required.
Students that attend his school from NSW, Western Australia and the Northern Territory had at some points in the past year been blocked from crossing borders.
“Some haven’t been able to get back, so they have had to remain at home or online,” he said.
“Some have had to make other arrangement to stay in the city, which is not ideal either.
“This must be sorted by the end of this school term so these boarders can get home.”
He said he was hopeful the roundtable, and advocacy by senators McKenzie and Davey, would spur state health and education departments into action.
“It is the first time that all of the relevant people were in the room at the same time.
Including myself, as a practitioner, which is extraordinarily rare,” he said.
In addition to a nationally consistent approach to border permits for rural boarding students, he would like priority to be given to boarding students in the vaccination rollout.
“Top of the list is we want our boarders vaccinated – we want them as a priority,” he said.
MORE
PARENTS, SCHOOLS CALL FOR A BOARDING STUDENT BORDER PERMIT
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