Executive Director’s Update to Principals #116: COVID Update - 9 Nov 2021

God who searches;
God who finds:
the ninety-nine
may have wondered where you went when you sought the one alone.
Did they feel lost themselves without you there?
Or did they know that you remain right where you always are:
with each and all of those you love, wherever they may be.
If we should feel your absence
may we sense it as
a movement towards
the others who belong,
so that one’s assurance of being safe is tied to the whole’s recovery. 
Amen.

~ The Corrymeela Community

Updated School Operations Guide

The Term 4 School Operations Guide has been updated and is available to download from CEVN. Key changes affecting schools are below.

The updated SOG will be discussd at tomorrow’s Leadership Gathering, or alternatively questions can be directed to your Education Consultant. 

Please note: Where the SOG makes reference to “regional leadership consultant or regional general manager” (eg. on page 7),  please contact your Education Consultant.

QR codes and visitors to schools (p 7-13)

The use of QR code check ins, verification of vaccination status and retention of relevant information apply at different times and apply to the following different types of attendees to your school:

• Employees– All persons employed by the school or by a diocesan education office including including teachers, early childhood educators and educational support staff, etc.
• Other Workers– Any non-employee performing works on site who will or may be in close proximity to children, students or staff. This does not include delivery personnel.
• Visitors– All persons attending site that are not performing work and do not fit one of the above two categories.

If a person must provide verification of their vaccination status and they refuse or do not meet the vaccination/exemption requirements, that person should be asked to leave site. This is a reasonable request and enables us to maintain our COVIDSafe processes and safeguard the health and wellbeing of the school community. If the person does not leave or becomes aggressive, the school should contact their Education Consultant. If the situation escalates, contact the police.

QR code check-in (p 7)

The use of Service Victoria QR codes for electronic record keeping is now mandatory in all schools to enable the effective contact tracing of any COVID-19 cases.

Employees are not required to check in with a QR code.

Other Workers are not required to check in with a QR code.

Visitors are required to check in with a QR code when entering school buildings but not school grounds.

Schools can permit parents to enter buildings onsite for student pick-up and drop-off providing sufficient QR code locations are available for parents to check in. Where this is not possible, parents should not be permitted to enter buildings for pick-up and drop-off. 

Further information about QR code set-up can be found at Register to use the Victorian Government QR Code Service.

Verification of vaccination status and retention of relevant information (p 8-9)

Other workers performing work on school sites (both inside and outdoors) must have had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by 29 November 2021 or have a valid medication exception. Other workers must also be advised to adhere to COVIDSafe requirements set out in the School Operations Guide.

Under the COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination (Specified Facilities) Directions, if a worker is, or may be, scheduled to work at a specified facility, the operator must collect, record and hold vaccination information about the worker. For the purposes of our schools, this means employees and other workers.

Processes are already in place to record the vaccination status of employees in PRS (Personnel Record System) or eHR/My HR. Schools will have to implement a new process for recording vaccination status for other workers attending site, such as contractors, volunteers and certain visitors.

Examples of other worker in an education context include:

• Persons contracted to work at an educational facility, whether or not engaged by the education operator (i.e. casual relief teachers, IT personnel, NDIS providers, auditors, breakfast club suppliers)
• Staff of diocesan education offices who attend an educational facility (e.g. allied health personnel)
• Staff of any other entity who attend an educational facility
• Volunteers that attend an educational facility and that work in close proximity to children, students or staff (including parent helpers)
• Students on placement at an educational facility

Employees that are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status are not allowed to attend onsite.

Retention of information

Schools are to create a Vaccination Information Register for other workers. This means that schools do not need to keep copies of the vaccination/exemption certificate but will need to keep a record if the pertinent information about the vaccination status. 

The CECV has developed a Vaccination Information Register template (Excel version | Word version) for schools to adopt to assist in this requirement.

Collecting health information

Under the requirements collect, record and hold vaccination status information, schools must be conscious of handling medical information appropriately. Where school employers have collected COVID-19 vaccination certificates that contain healthcare identifiers (which are included on the Australian Immunisation Register, COVID-19 vaccination certificate) for vaccination status confirmation, schools must: 

• Redact healthcare identifier information for storage purposes to reduce the risk that it will be inadvertently used or disclosed
• Ensure that certificates are stored securely

Consider implementing or amending your policies or procedures to prohibit the use and disclosure of health identifier information contained in any certificate.

Verification of vaccination status (visual verification only) (p 9-11)

All visitors attending schools, including for drop off and pick up must adhere to physical distancing, density limits, face mask requirements and practise respiratory etiquette and good hand hygiene.

In addition, visitors who enter school buildings must also have had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by 29 November 2021 or have a valid medical exception with the following limited exceptions:

• when attending to administer medical treatment to their own child when the treatment cannot be administered by the school
• when attending to collect their child who is unwell and cannot leave the school building unaccompanied by their parent/carer.
• when attending for a momentary period that does not involve any sustained contact with staff or students, for example, to collect a completed art project or similar.

Visitors attending any event or activity inside a school building including, but not limited to tours, graduations, kindergarten transition, whole of school events are required to show evidence of vaccination.

Meetings and other discussions (such as Student Support Group meetings) with visitors who do not meet vaccination requirements should be held virtually. 

Visitors attending school sites for drop off and pick up who do not enter school buildings do not need to comply with vaccination requirements.

Any visitor who needs to access an early childhood education and care service (including OSHC) and is required to traverse school building to access the service is required to check in using the Victorian Government QR Code Service but do not need to show their vaccination status.

Sighting Vaccination Status

When visually verifying the vaccination status of a visitor, no information is required to be recorded or retained. It is recommended that this verification occur at an easily controllable location such as an entrance to the school grounds or an entrance to a school building.

School events, gatherings and assemblies (p 11)

Assemblies and other school run events exclusive to employees, students and visitors from a single school can occur but are strongly encouraged to be held outside where possible. These events must adhere to all QR code check-in and vaccination/status Information requirements detailed above for employees, other workers and visitors. Schools must also determine if the activity they are undertaking has additional requirement under the Victorian Government’s Roadmap for Delivering the National Plan.

The roadmap should be reviewed in detail before holding activities that do not fall in to the normal definition of school operations. Activities that have additional requirements include, but are not limited to places of worship and religious gatherings, physical recreation & sport, swimming pool related activities, and entertainment and Leisure (including public events).

Summary of QR code check-in and vaccination/status information requirements (p 12-13) 

* There are some instances when a visitor does not need to verify their vaccination status:

• when attending to administer medical treatment to their own child when the treatment cannot be administered by the school
• when attending to collect their child who is unwell and cannot leave the school building unaccompanied by their parent/carer.
• when attending for a momentary period that does not involve any sustained contact with staff or students, for example, to collect a completed art project or similar
• when traversing school buildings only access early childhood education and care service (including OSHC)

Mandatory Vaccination Policy and new contract templates

CECV has updated and published new contract/offer templates that reference the vaccination requirements for working in a school (education facility) in accordance with employer obligations under the Directions. 

Catholic Education Ballarat has worked with the MACS team to prepare a DOBCEL Mandatory Vaccination Policy. 

We will circulate these documents, along with further details, this in tomorrow’s COVID Update.  

Next COVID Update