Parents of children returning to school will be asked to sign declaration forms stating that they have no reason to believe their child has an infectious disease such as Covid-19. It is one of a number of new safety measures contained in a draft framework for reopening schools in light of the greater infection threat posed by the new UK variant. The Department of Education, unions and school managers have been meeting this week to discuss the planned reopening of primary and second-level schools. Support for reopening schools among parents is very high, with 90 per cent of the 6,000 parents surveyed by the National Parents Council stating that schools should reopen in line with public health advice. The draft school reopening framework, meanwhile, is understood to state that schools will have the capacity to utilise the entire school premises during the phased reopening.

Source: The Irish Times February 17, 2021 02:51 UTC