Covid border permits: Boarding students stranded by harsh rules
The state department of health has knocked back another border exemption request from boarding school families, leaving parents feeling “helpless”.
A feeling of “helplessness” is mounting for parents of interstate boarding students, who are not allowed to cross state lines to be reunited their families unless they spend 14 days in hotel quarantine.
Lack of a nationally consistent approach to cross-border travel for boarding students is causing stress for families in all states and territories as the September 16 start of school holidays approaches.
The situation is of particular concern for parents of six Yanco Agricultural High School students from Victoria, who are stranded in NSW after their requests for border permit exemptions were denied by the Victorian government two weeks ago.
The families are frustrated by the approach of the state health department, which told them their children, aged 15 to 17, could return to Victoria only if they went directly to hotel quarantine in Melbourne for 14 days with a parent.
The families asked to instead quarantine the children on their rural properties, so they could continue their essential work in agriculture, but have not had a response from the government.
“The NSW government departments have been nothing but compassionate and responsive to our situation. It is the Victorian government that are just ghosting us if anything,” said parent Amanda Garner, whose 17-year-old daughter, Harriette, is staying with extended family at Exeter, in NSW, while Yanco Agricultural High School delivers remote learning.
The Garner family lives on a farm at Birregurra, in southwest Victoria.
”We are on a farm – we have self-isolated here several times already and followed all the rules. No one is wanting to break any rules,” Ms Garner said.
Yanco parent and Elmhurst farmer Jodie Greene also believes the best and safest outcome would be quarantining with her children on their farm property.
She said the silence and inflexibility from the Victorian government was distressing.
“They won’t talk to us, they won’t return our emails. My husband has emailed them six times,” said Ms Greene, whose children, Matilda, 15, and Jordan, 17, had been staying with friends in regional NSW since schools shifted to remote learning.
“They have each other, so that is a start,” Ms Greene said. “My children were at boarding school; that is the bit I signed up for.
“What I didn’t sign up for was not being able to go and see or bring my children home when I knew it was necessary. I actually feel helpless and disappointed in the system. It is gut-wrenching. To have your children taken out of your control – it is a parent’s worst nightmare.”
Ms Greene said it was not feasible for her and her two children to quarantine in a Melbourne hotel without causing severe disruption to her sheep and cattle operation.
“They did say that they would pay for that hotel quarantine, which I’m grateful for. That is just not the point,” she said. “That position could be taken up for someone who really needed it. We can quarantine at home and it would not cost the state a cent.”
Meanwhile, Geelong Grammar School parents that live in NSW have also been denied border exemptions by Victoria’s health department.
The school told parents on August 17 that they were “working with the Victorian
Department of Health to facilitate a co-ordinated exemption program”, which proposed that parents who returned negative Covid test results could travel to Victoria and quarantine in private accommodation, outside the hotel system, in advance of the September school holidays.
In a statement shared with Geelong Grammar School parents yesterday, principal Rebecca Cody said “the DoH advised that despite its detailed review of the exemption application, it had decided that the current risk to public health outweighed the compassionate reasons for travel”.
NSW parent and Frogmore farmer Sue Braid said the decision was disappointing for many parents, but she would not be able to quarantine for two weeks in Melbourne, despite being desperate to see her daughter, Edwina, who boarded at the school.
“Not everyone is in that position to uproot for 14 days,” she said. “I couldn’t leave my son who is in Year 4 here on his own. I’m a farmer who is about to go to the ram sales. There is no way I would be able to quarantine for the whole school holidays in Victoria.”
She wants to bring her daughter home to NSW for the two-week holiday, and have confidence she will be able to return to Victoria for face-to-face lessons if they resume in Term 4.
“NSW (last year) gave our kids the boarding school exemption to get back to NSW when Victoria was riddled with Covid,” she said. “All we are asking is for Victoria to do the mirror image of that for us now.”
Federal Regional Education Minister Bridget McKenzie and Nationals Senator Perin Davey last week announced they were working to develop a national framework to help 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.
In response to questions from The Weekly Times about border exemptions for boarding students, a Victorian government spokesman said: “Victoria has strict measures in place to limit the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant from NSW into the Victorian community.
“Exemptions are only granted in extremely limited and very special circumstances, such as in end-of-life situations, and all requests are individually assessed.”
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