Schools are sometimes faced with the dilemma of outbreaks of what were once known as ‘childhood’ diseases such as measles - particularly amongst non-immunised children and, in some cases, non-immunised staff. With winter coming, and the influenza season to soon follow, schools are reminded that they should review their infectious diseases or immunisation policies to ensure that they are fulfilling the obligations to their students and their staff.

Schools are required under Education Acts and Regulations in several States and Territories to request and record the immunisation status of children being enrolled. If they are not specifically requested at enrolment or at the time of interview, they can sometimes be omitted from student files. This is not good practice.

These records must also be stored in a manner compliant with the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act (1988) and relevant State or Territory legislation (which you can read more about in our whitepaper).  However, schools are not required to collect and store immunisation or medical records of staff.

This in itself raises a number of issues for schools such as:

1. Can you ask your staff to provide this type of sensitive personal information (PI)? Is the collection and storage of this type of information considered to be an essential part of your overall operational procedures? Would you breach any State/Territory or Federal legislation?  Employers can ask employees to provide certificates of fitness from health care professionals for certain issues (eg. in the late stages of pregnancy), however, generally speaking, they cannot ask for this type of personal information.
2. If this information is given freely to the School, is this then considered to be unsolicited personal information (APP 4)? In all probability, that is exactly what it would be. It is certainly considered to be sensitive personal information, so does your privacy policy cover this type of information retention and storage?
3. Are staff offered free immunisation for influenza on an annual basis? Will this reduce the pressure on your Relief Budget? (A rough cost analysis should show that 20 x $20 immunisations equates roughly to one relief teacher for one day- how many days each year could you lose to staff who catch the flu?). Will it improve staff morale and overall work performance?
4. Does the school have a program of immunisation for staff for other infectious diseases such as Hepatitis B?
5. If there is an outbreak of an infectious disease, do you have a policy to advise all staff and are you aware if there are any staff who may be particularly susceptible to the type of disease – for example pregnant women and Rubella (German Measles)? In addition, are you aware of staff who may have a history of other diseases, or whose age or medical background may cause them to be severely affected? For example, it has been quoted that those most at risk of catching measles had not been vaccinated, including many adults aged between 33 and 47 who may not have received the vaccine as children. Also at risk were people whose immune systems were compromised including those undergoing treatment for cancer.

Schools should ensure that their student medical records are up to date so that in the event of an outbreak of an infectious disease, non-vaccinated children can be identified quickly and told to stay home (excluded) if necessary. Note that infectious diseases present a workplace health and safety risk to teachers and staff at schools and staff may also need to be excluded.

For example, the WA School Education Act (1999) states:

27.          Infectious etc. student, principal may require non‑attendance of

(1)      The principal of a school may require that a student —

(a)      not attend the school; or

(b)      not participate in an educational programme of the school,

during any day on which the student or any other student at the school is suffering from a medical condition to which this section applies.

(2)      This section applies to a medical condition that, on advice from the Executive Director of Public Health or a registered medical practitioner, the principal considers may be infectious, contagious or otherwise harmful to the health of persons who are at the school or participating in an educational programme of the school.

In 2014 School  Governance reported on school’s legal obligations as well as common-sense measures they should be taking with regards to the proper management of infectious diseases amongst their students - see our previous article: Infectious diseases and winter: is your school prepared?

Within that article we outlined that some key features of an infectious diseases policy include:

• clear guidelines for managing the diseases;
• staff training on how to recognise infectious diseases;
• instructions on how to notify the relevant health authorities, in compliance with legal obligations; and
• maintenance of records of student immunisations.

Immunisation of children dropped off across the country five to ten years ago but is now increasing as parents review the risks and the benefits associated with protecting their children from disease (see NSW immunisation rates improve and this West Australian article). The Victorian parliament also introduced a ‘No Jab, No Play’ vaccination policy for all child care centres and kindergartens in January 2016. This followed an outbreak of measles in a school. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that all non-immunised children and staff had been excluded from the school.

So, what would happen in your school? Are you in a position to exclude staff (on full pay) if they are at risk of catching an infectious disease for which they have never been immunised? Are you able to insist that they are to take personal leave? Is it an issue of worker’s compensation? Does your insurance company provide for such a situation?

As an example to highlight the types of issues that arise in schools, here is a recent real life scenario in a non-government school:

A teacher in an early learning classroom recently discovered that she was pregnant with her first child. It was a joyous event until she went to speak to her GP about precautions that she should take to ensure a safe and uneventful pregnancy. Her GP asked her if she had been immunised against rubella as a child- she had not. He then asked if, in her class, there were any children who had also not been immunised against rubella. She went back to school and checked the student records and discovered that three children in her class had never been immunised. The teacher then went to her principal and asked to be moved from this class to another one where there were no children who had not been immunised. She did not, however, enquire if the other staff had or had not been immunised.

What would your school do in this type of situation? Maybe it is time to review your risks and your policies?

There is no doubt that schools that have an immunisation and/or an infectious diseases policy are in a far better position to comply with their legal and OHS obligations relating to staff.