{"id":275344,"date":"2020-09-08T17:13:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T07:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=275344"},"modified":"2020-09-08T19:08:24","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T09:08:24","slug":"boarders-win-border-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/09\/08\/boarders-win-border-approval\/","title":{"rendered":"Boarders Win Border Approval"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Queensland\u2019s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

September 8, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

Queensland boarding school students who live in either NSW or the ACT have won the right to go home for the Christmas holidays, but it comes with strict conditions.<\/p>\n

A letter from Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young to the Director-General of Education Tony Cook on Saturday grants approval for Prep to Year 12 boarding school students with a primary place of residence in NSW or the ACT – and their parents or guardians – to become “an exempt class of persons” under Queensland’s tight border restrictions.<\/p>\n

This means the students will not have to go into quarantine when they return to Queensland after the holidays.<\/p>\n

And their parents or guardians will not be required to quarantine if their sole purpose is to convey the students to and from school.<\/p>\n

However, the exemption only applies to residents of local government areas which have no active cases of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Parents or guardians can enter Queensland by road to collect the students but must return on the same day. Travel in both directions must also be by the most direct route possible.<\/p>\n

The same rules will apply when the students are returned to school.<\/p>\n

The approval letter contains a list of documents that students and parents \/ guardians must carry while travelling.<\/p>\n

The students face strict rules while they are away from Queensland if they want to avoid quarantine upon their return.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They must not leave the boundary of their primary place of residence for the entire time they are away.<\/p>\n

No visitors are allowed at the residence while the student is present (except for people who are essential for the operations of the residence).<\/p>\n

Students who travel by air rather than by road are not exempt, and will be subject to the usual quarantine requirements when they return to Queensland.<\/p>\n

Students and their parents \/ guardians will also not be allowed back into Queensland if during the 14 days prior to their arrival they have been overseas, have had COVID-19 or had close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The approval is an about-face by health authorities after an earlier application by the Isolated Children\u2019s Parents\u2019 Association (ICPA) to allow boarders from northern NSW to return home for the school holidays was refused.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Young met with ICPA representatives on August 27.<\/p>\n

At the time, ICPA Queensland president Tammie Irons said the refusal meant children who live outside the \u201cborder bubble\u201d wouldn’t be able to go home for the holidays.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point those children will not be allowed to come back to their boarding schools unless they have been quarantined for two weeks. So that\u2019s quite devastating for those families and is going to lead to them having to make a lot of decisions in the next couple of weeks about what boarding school holidays are going to look like for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n