Many parents do not have emails, credit on their phones making the high trust model proposed problematic. Photo / Getty Images
A Northland school principal fears phase 2 of the Government's Omicron response plan has meant he doesn't know who in his school is a close contact or active Covid case.
Some Tai Tokerau principals have pointed out what they say is a major flaw in the second phase – the shift to trusting caregivers and parents to inform the school about Covid exposures.
Others, however, are just focused on making it work with whatever information they receive.
Previously, the Ministry of Health would inform schools of any active Covid cases or exposure events within their facilities.
But under phase 2 individuals who test positive are expected to notify close contacts, including schools, themselves.
Northland educators have questioned how reliable this high trust model will be and what happens when people don't let schools know.
Tai Tokerau Principals' Association president Pat Newman was confident there'd be parents who would let the school know about any Covid concerns and many others who wouldn't.
"There are many parents who do not have emails, credit on their phones, and things like that. Not everyone is sitting in a CBD with everything in their hands.
"Secondly, there will be parents who think they will have to self-isolate, which will affect their jobs and everything else... and may not inform the school."
Newman worried about the reliability of the high-trust model.
"I am not confident that I will know who in my school is a close contact or a carrier.
"The general understanding is that everyone will follow the Ministry of Health's guidelines and carry it out. However, no one is telling us what we do when the guidelines aren't followed by the parents."
Whangārei Boys' High School was one of the first schools to have a confirmed Covid-19 case and the school's principal Karen Gilbert-Smith had appreciated the contact tracing and public health measures put in place.
But the changes in the contact tracing system under phase 2 were not unexpected, she said.
"We have moved to phase 2 as a country because we are anticipating a massive increase in the number of cases. It wouldn't be practical for the MoH to make those contacts with us."
Gilbert-Smith said schools "must have already" communicated to caregivers the aspects of phase 2 ... especially around the expectation that if a student tests positive the school must be informed so they are able to identify close contacts in the school.
"We have to work on a high trust basis. If we ask parents to do that, we have to trust them to do the right thing. We obviously do not have any control over people who choose not to do that."
Gilbert-Smith said this situation was no different from someone who was sick and did not want to get tested.
"I [as a principal] do not have any control over what people decide to do, but I can only work with the information I get.
"We are as prepared as any other school and have followed the guidelines provided by the Ministries of Health and Education," she said.
"However, none of us really know what it's going to look like when we have 100, 200, or 500 cases in our school. We certainly have processes in place to manage that and that will kick in very quickly."
Sean Teddy, Ministry of Education Hautū (leader), Operations and Integration/Te Pae Aronui, said contact tracing services would be provided to early learning services and schools in the Auckland metropolitan area only.
Tracing would be carried out by the National Case Investigation Service, on behalf of the ministry, to ensure there was additional support, he said.
The service provides the ministry with lists of positive cases linked associated with early learning services and schools, and then the staff will follow up with the relevant service or school to make sure they have the relevant information to enable contact tracing.
Eventually, the service would be rolled out nationwide with decisions on the timeframe yet to be confirmed.
Teddy said regional education offices were still available to support schools and kura under phase 2.
"Throughout our response to the pandemic, our regional education teams have been working with local Public Health Units to make sure schools have accurate and timely information about positive cases associated with their schools, and to support the identification of close contacts.
"When the service is in place, the need to liaise with public health units will reduce as the National Case Investigation Service will be providing key information," he said.
"Until then, our regional education teams are continuing to work with local Public Health Units to make sure their schools have accurate and timely information about any positive cases, to support the identification of close contacts and communications."