As a wave of winter illness rips through early childhood centres nationwide, some providers are concerned about the financial impact if sick kids don’t return soon.
Centres aren’t able to claim Government funding for days a child is enrolled to attend if they’re absent for longer than a three-week period, according to the Education and Training Act.
However, the Frequent Absence Rule doesn’t take into account the significant number of young kids kept home during school holiday periods.
It’s prompting calls from the sector for a revisit in suspending the rule, particularly as health officials are encouraging staff and pupils to stay away while sick.
The country’s largest teachers' union, the New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI), are leading the charge, labelling the rule “ludicrous”.
Rowandale Primary’s Karl Vasau has welcomed an inquiry into student absences, describing it as a “huge problem”. (Source: Other)
Spokesperson Virginia Oakley told 1 NEWS many providers are seeing a spike in children needing to stay home due to the outbreak of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
With so many children absent this week, she said the rules aren’t robust enough and could come at a cost to providers.
“After three weeks they start cutting funding, and with a high absentee rate going into the school holidays.”
Oakley believes many providers will be forced to breach the rule by the beginning of the next school term.
She said it’s outdated with people “really needing to be mindful” about the risk of illness in a post-Covid society.
Erica Stanford, National's early childhood education (ECEs) spokesperson, is asking for the Government to show some leniency and halt the rule.
“This is a simple and effective way of ensuring centres don’t lose funding during this unprecedented outbreak of RSV,” she told 1 NEWS.
Stanford noted many ECEs are reeling from the “significant financial impact” caused by absences and need “immediate support” to help alleviate the burden.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced yesterday he’d “take a look” at the current measures, to ensure they’re not disadvantaging both providers and parents.
“If a kid gets sick, we want them to stay home and from time to time, parents might have a child in school and another in ECE - they might take their child out during the holidays,” he said.
Chris Hipkins told 1 NEWS he plans on reviewing the rules to make sure providers aren't being penalised "for doing the right thing". (Source: Other)
“We need to have a little bit of flex in the system.”
Hipkins noted that ECEs shouldn’t be “penalised for doing the right thing”, such as telling children to stay home when sick.
“But we do expect that if we’re funding kids to be in early childhood education that they’ll actually be there.”
Earlier this week, the Education Select Committee announced an inquiry into school-aged attendance which has been noticeably dropping since 2015.
Figures released in May showed almost 40 per cent of children in primary and secondary schools aren't attending classes regularly.
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