School closures again

Victorian state school students from prep to year 10 in lockdown zones will return to remote learning from July 20 as coronavirus cases continue to climb.

Key points:

• The Premier says returning to home learning in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire will stop movement around the community
• Specialist school and VCE students will return to the classroom as normal from next week
• Those returning to school will not be required to wear masks in the classroom

The state's total number of active cases stands at 1,484 and the newest cases include hospital workers and public housing residents.

Premier Daniel Andrews acknowledged the return to home learning would be challenging for many parents but said there was "simply no alternative".

"We can't have the best part of 700,000 students as well as parents moving to and from school, moving around the community, as if there wasn't a stay-at-home order, as if there wasn't a lockdown," he said.

Prep to year 10 students who attend school in Metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire will go back to home learning until at least August 19, Mr Andrews said.

Year 11 and 12 students, year 10 students doing VCE subjects and children at specialist schools will resume face-to-face learning for term three from tomorrow.

Schools outside the restricted areas will operate normally, and students will be able to attend regardless of where they live.

While the Government's decision only directly affects state schools, it is expected most private schools will follow suit.

Independent Schools Victoria, representing more than 200 member schools, has encouraged its members to follow the advice of the Chief Health Officer.

Free kindergarten for eligible families and extra support

Children of essential workers and vulnerable children will have the option to return to school, as they did during the last lockdown.

This time, parents of children with a disability will also have the option of sending their kids to school for face-to-face learning when required.

"It could be five days a week, it could be two days a week, it could be half a day a week, to provide a bit of respite," Education Minister James Merlino said.

Mr Merlino said students with a disability who did not receive the Program for Students with Disabilities funding would be eligible.

"There are tens of thousands of kids who have additional needs that at the moment don't receive that funding," he said.

"So we've got the broadest step possible — all students with a disability, parents will have the option of sending their child to school for on-site learning."

The Government will also offer extra funding to eligible kindergarten services in the locked-down areas to let them offer free kinder to children during term three.

Other resources available include video or phone counselling for secondary school students.

"These settings, learning the lessons from the past, but keeping more than 700,000 students and their parents and carers not moving around metropolitan Melbourne or the Mitchell Shire will go a long way to the goal that we all have," he said.

'Irresponsible' to have kids going back, Chief Health Officer says

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said students returning to school next week would not be required to wear masks, but would be welcome to wear them if they wanted to.

"Teaching is pretty tough with a mask on," he said.

"They require those facial expressions; they require the ability to be understood and heard clearly."

During the last lockdown, Victoria's child safety watchdog raised concerns about how some of the state's most vulnerable students would access education.

Professor Sutton said reintroducing home learning was a difficult decision to make, but the pandemic had not yet reached its peak and authorities were throwing "absolutely everything at it".

"It would have been irresponsible of me to have gone into a phase where we might have had increasing numbers day on day, to have kids going back to school."

Greater prevalence

Victoria's Chief Health Officer has warned that extensive testing in the state is revealing that child-to-child transmission of COVID-19 is "more apparent" than first thought.

Professor Brett Sutton said while the instances of transmission among children was not a significant risk, the data was showing that it had a greater prevalence in the community.

"Child to child transmission has become more apparent as we have tested more kids," Professor Sutton said.

Lockdown concerns

From the ABC

Victorian schools turned away children living in high-risk homes during the height of coronavirus lockdowns, while other students suffered potentially catastrophic disruptions to their education because of a failure to provide them with adequate technology, according to the state's child-safety watchdog.

Key points:

• The concerns follow a reduction in child protection visits due to coronavirus restrictions
• Children in residential care were also fined for breaching social distancing laws
• Victoria is deciding whether to return to remote learning for some students

Commissioner for Children and Young People, Liana Buchanan, confirmed that serious concerns had been raised with her office about access to education for some of the state's most vulnerable students, calling into question repeated assurances from the State Government that no children would be disadvantaged by remote learning.

In some cases, students known to Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) child protection workers, because their parents had histories of neglecting them or abusing drugs, were not permitted to attend school.

Some children with disabilities and Indigenous children at risk of disengaging from school were also turned away.

"We've had accounts during this period of children in care being turned away by their school, of children who are involved with the family violence service not being allowed to attend school, children with a disability who just can't get the level of support and learning support they need at home, not able to attend on site."

The concerns raised by the commissioner come as Victoria grapples with a decision about whether to return to remote learning for some students when term three resumes on Monday week.

While she would not comment on individual cases or schools, Ms Buchanan said remote learning also created another significant issue within the child protection system — teachers were no longer able to pick up signs of injury or abuse on students which could then be reported to authorities.

This was compounded by a reduction in visits to the homes of children from child protection workers, due to coronavirus restrictions.

It was too early to say whether some of those children had suffered harm while they were isolated from school and child protection.

"My worry is that we're going to see more of that in coming weeks and months, because some of these things take a while for children to disclose," she said.

Children who required laptops and internet access only received it, in some cases, when they returned back to school, Ms Buchanan said.

In a statement, a Department of Education spokeswoman said that schools had worked hard to meet the needs of vulnerable children during remote learning.

What She confirmed specialist schools would open as normal during term three.

"Any move to remote learning in government schools in term three will be based on the health advice," she said.

"In the event this occurs, every student will get the support they need, especially children and young people facing disadvantage."

Children fined for social distancing breaches

The commission has also been told children in residential care, including Indigenous children, received fines of more than $1,600 for breaching social distancing laws during the previous lockdown.

Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People Justin Mohamed said those fined included children as young as 12.

"They're the responsibility of the state, and the state are then fining them," he said.

He said it would have been better if police had used the opportunity to educate young people about the importance of social distancing, rather than giving them a fine they would never be able to pay.

Mr Mohamed said cases of Indigenous youth being fined came as the global Black Lives Matter movement left many of them reflecting on their relationship with police.

"In many cases you wouldn't see a police officer in a positive view if you were an Aboriginal young person, especially in out-of-home care," he said.

"Sometimes, there's a lot of contact with police, through no fault of their own, but it could have been the police who removed them … when they were in harm's way.

"As a young person, you still see … that's the side of society that took me away from my parents."

Mr Mohamed said another key issue for Indigenous young people in state care or youth detention was being prevented from seeing their parents and relatives during lockdown, as these visits were considered vital to maintaining their identity.

Survey gauges pandemic's impact on young Victorians

Since late March, the Commission for Children and Young People has spoken to more than 200 young people in group sessions, about 70 in one-on-one sessions, and about 450 more have completed a survey.

The pandemic forced the commission to move quickly to hear from young people who would no longer have the same level of support as before lockdown.

There are a lot of children living in less than ideal situations, either because … they're living with a degree of neglect or violence at home, or because they've got mental health issues or other support needs," Ms Buchanan said.

"So the prospect of COVID … was really alarming to us.

"We decided the only way that we could really track what was happening for children and young people, as well as getting the data and working with departments like we normally do, was to speak to children and young people."

Highlands Youth Advisory Board member Zach Eaton said he had passed on to the commission the fears of his friends; that the economic downturn created by the response to the pandemic would disproportionately affect them.

But she said more must be done if Victoria again moved to shift students online.

"I need to be fair: no one predicted this pandemic," she said.

"No-one predicted that schools would suddenly have to move to online learning.

"My hope is that … if we need to move to home learning again that there's much stronger guidance from the department to really make sure that schools are encouraged and indeed required to do what they need to for these vulnerable kids."

Lockdowns in Melbourne

Early  research on remote learning from the Grattan Institute suggested students from disadvantaged backgrounds lost about a month of learning during term two, learning at about 50 per cent of their regular rate.

"If you’ve got family members who are illiterate, for whom English is not their first language, or who have addiction problems, they can’t provide the levels of support that other families might be able to provide," Professor Wilkinson said.

"Teachers can provide some level of support, but it's not like the level of support they can get when they’re actually in school, face to face with a teacher all day."

Meanwhile, Independent Schools Victoria has told its schools they can implement remote learning from the start of term three, but advised them to wait until the state government announces a formal return to learning from home.