A Sydney school for children and young adults on the autism spectrum is now linked to 18 cases of Covid, including seven students who have caught the virus.
Giant Steps, in Gladesville, provides education to autistic children and young adults from kindergarten to year 12.
The school, which was still not listed on the New South Wales Health list of exposure sites, shut on Thursday last week after a staff member tested positive. All staff and students were directed to self-isolate until further notice.
By Thursday of this week, the cluster had reached 18, including seven students, three staff members and eight family members, according to an email sent to parents and seen by Guardian Australia.
That included two adults who were “currently receiving some precautionary hospital treatment”.
Given the high-level needs of the students, the school had remained open with the approval of NSW Health and had been operating in bubbles to keep children’s classes separate.
A mother of a Giant Steps secondary school student, who did not wish to be named, said the school had been “phenomenal” at limiting interaction between cohorts.
But she was unhappy that while close contacts connected to one “bubble” had been identified on Tuesday, parents with children in other bubbles were only notified two days later when the school shut.
“They closed one part of the school on Tuesday, but we weren’t told until Thursday afternoon that there had been a positive case in the secondary school,” the mother said.
“[The school] was kept open [during the lockdown] with the approval of [NSW Health], and thank God, they stayed open because it would have been a disaster. The only error was not letting us all know on Tuesday and not shutting the whole thing down on Tuesday.”
The mother was also concerned the school had not been listed as an exposure site by NSW Health. The woman’s son, who is 17, had so far tested negative to coronavurus.
Barry Irvin, the Giant Steps chairman, said in a letter to parents this week that the school had initially thought the “challenge” had been “limited to one bubble” but a case was later identified in the “other secondary bubble”.
“These are very challenging and emotional circumstances,” Irvin wrote.
“While there is a natural tendency to reflect in hindsight on how these circumstances could have been avoided or how Covid-19 initially entered our school, we must now focus on the care and support of the entire Giant Steps community.”
Irvin said the school would “obviously review all our procedures” and would continue to support families “having regard to the specific needs of our students and the significant limitations of the isolation restrictions”.
There were 90 students, 21 teaching staff and 66 non-teaching staff at the school, according to the MySchool website.
It comes amid continued frustration about the slow pace of the vaccine rollout among people with disabilities.
Nicole Rogerson, the chief executive of Autism Awareness Australia, said her heart went out to the school community,
“Think of these students, they are confused, they don’t necessarily understand what a pandemic is, much less why they’re isolated,” she said.
“As much as there will be a lot of finger-pointing in the coming days about how it got into this school community, the fact remains the federal government botched the vaccine rollout. This is the result.”
Rogerson said there were good reasons why the school remained open during the lockdown.
“Some schools who deal with students with more severe disabilities, it’s absolutely essential they remain open,” she said.
“It’s too confusing for some students with severe disabilities to understand why they’re having their routine changed, their structure taken away from them, and all of a sudden being home for hours without the right supports in place.
“It was appropriate for the school to be open, but at some point, someone is going to have ask, how did [the virus] get through the door?”
A NSW Health spokesperson said the department was “working with the school, which is closed, to support students, their families and staff in isolation”.
“NSW Health does not disclose details about venues of concern unless there is a public health reason,” the spokesperson said.
“When a confirmed Covid-19 case attends a venue while possibly infectious, NSW Health carries out a risk assessment on that venue to determine whether other people may have been exposed and whether there is a public health risk.
“NSW Health takes proactive steps to contact all close contacts of the case, to give advice on testing, isolation, symptoms to be aware of, and their level of risk.”
Giant Steps has been approached for comment.
