830. Hon ALISON XAMON to the Minister for Education and Training:
I refer to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on those community kindergartens that may not have met enrolment thresholds for 2021.
(1) Will the minister provide those kindergartens that are close to meeting the one-class threshold and that have met this threshold in the past an exemption to allow them to operate next year?
(2) If yes to (1), which kindergartens will be granted an exemption?
(3) Will the minister provide those kindergartens that are close to meeting the two-class threshold and that have met this threshold in the past an exemption to allow them to operate two classes next year?
(4) If yes to (3), which kindergartens will be granted an exemption?
(5) If no to either (1) or (3), why not?
Hon SUE ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1) Community kindergartens that have requested an extension to reach either the one-class or two-class threshold have until 25 September to reach this enrolment threshold. Exemption requests from community kindergartens that have still not met the threshold to operate in 2021 by this date will then be assessed by the Department of Education. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be considered in this process.
(2) Not applicable.
(3) Refer to (1).
(4)–(5) Not applicable.