Appendix 2 | Background information on ECEC and school closures during the pandemic in Australia Since 2020, ACT public schools continued to remain open for children who needed to attend the school, such as children of essential workers and vulnerable children, and all ACT Specialist Schools continued to remain open for children with disability. ECEC services were also not required to close and children who needed to attend were able to keep attending services, although alternative care was preferred.91 (iii) New South Wales On 23 March 2020, the NSW Premier announced new restrictions following the decision by the National Cabinet in which non-essential activities and businesses would be temporarily shut down.92 Schools would continue to remain open, however, parents were encouraged to keep their children at home. The ECEC sector was never directed to close. When certain geographical hot spots went into lockdown, families were encouraged to keep their children home, though the services were not closed. Schools were at times temporarily closed, as a risk mitigation strategy, where there was a confirmed case of COVID-19 within the school environment, for deep cleaning and contact tracing to reduce the risk of transmission in schools. NSW Government primary and secondary schools remained open for vulnerable students and children of front-line workers for most of 2020–21.93 Throughout 2021, schools were temporarily closed in response to specific outbreaks across NSW.94 Exemptions were always in place for vulnerable students and the children of essential workers to come to school. 56 | (iv) Northern Territory The NT’s approach to the potential closure of schools and ECEC during 2020–21 was to prioritise face-to-face learning for all children by mandating that schools and ECEC were to be the first to open and the last to close.95 The only school closures that occurred in the NT were for a short duration and initiated by schools and ECEC based on local conditions. For instance, the last 4 days of Term 1 2020 became studentfree days to enable better planning for Term 2.96 COVID-19 did not have a significant impact on learning in 2020–21, enrolments remained high and in the case of ECEC, enrolments increased in 2020.97 There were some changes to this situation in 2022 with widespread community transmission of the Omicron variant. As a result, measures were introduced to ensure schools were safe for children to return, including by encouraging face masks and vaccinations, and placing proper ventilation in classrooms.98 However, the majority of students and young children’s education was uninterrupted. (v) Queensland In Queensland, a pupil free week was declared at the end of March 2020, and schools transitioned to remote learning for the first 5 weeks of Term 2, 2020.99 Children of essential workers and students experiencing vulnerability remained able to attend.