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Return to School Plan announced

Following on from the release of the National Framework for Managing COVID-19 in Schools and Early Childhood Education and Care, the Tasmanian Government has today released the Return to School Operational Plan 2022.

The Plan is aligned with the National Framework and has been developed by education and health experts.  Importantly, the Plan has been built on everything we have learnt and implemented, since the start of the pandemic.

To achieve the best possible education and health and wellbeing outcomes, every day that students are at school learning with their friends and teachers, counts. 

The Plan balances the learning needs of all our kids, while ensuring they are as safe as possible in our care.   

The Plan outlines a multi-pronged approach to preventing and managing the spread of COVID-19 in our schools.

Importantly, the Plan acknowledges the potential impact on our education workforce and identifies strategies to cover expected absences to ensure student learning continues. 

Further key measures in the Plan include:

  • continuing our COVID safe behaviours such as physical distancing and staying home when unwell
    • all schools having Outbreak Management Plans in place
    • students not being defined as close contacts in a classroom.  Parents and carers will be notified if a positive case is detected in the classroom and asked to monitor for symptoms
    • masks being mandatory for all secondary students in indoor settings.  These will be supplied.  Masks will be available for primary school students should they wish to wear one. 
    • Rapid Antigen Tests being provided to both school staff and students to use if they are symptomatic
    • Virtual Learning approaches to support students required to isolate.

Also released today is Tasmania’s Early Childhood Education and Care Operational Plan.

We know this is a challenging period, but we are putting these balanced measures in place as part of our transition to living with COVID-19 in our community. 

The Department will continue to work closely with school communities and will be providing more information to parents, carers and students in the lead-up to the return to school in February.

The Plan and associated documents can be found by following these links:

For additional information: