Lack of support in education settings Several submissions have raised concerns about education settings ranging from Early Childhood Education (ECE) to schools and Tertiary Education Organisations (TEOs): “Disabled students and their families/whānau continue to face challenges in understanding, navigating and accessing their rights within the education system in light of the complexities and challenges created by the recent Omicron outbreak.” (Submission) Issues were raised about the safety of education settings for disabled people and their whānau, especially where they have not been included in planning: “People are making decisions without any consultation, or care regarding the impact these decisions will have on their whānau.” (Submission) This was made even harder by government decisions during Omicron, such as the decisions not to publish locations of interest, or to release specific COVID-19 positive numbers in the same way that occurred during the earlier stages of the pandemic: “The removal of COVID numbers actually made it exponentially harder for our community to assess the risk, e.g., of sending our children to school – with no accurate numbers or locations available, it has meant increased uncertainty and inability to make accurate risk assessments. We were left unable to make informed choices about our safety.” (Submission) Other government decisions, like the removal of vaccine pass requirements in educations settings, also cause concern for disabled people and their whānau. Some have decided to stay at home and not return to school in term one, a decision not always supported by schools: “In some cases, schools were understanding, but in many, they were not due to the schools’ interpretation of the MOE [Ministry of Education’s] instructions.” (Submission) Several submissions noted that Omicron has been fast paced and that schools themselves are under considerable stress across the board and have not been resourced to cope with the changing risks and advice: “We are aware of how under resourced this sector is, also aware that many experienced educators have stepped away because of the high stress involved in educating during Omicron.” (Submission) 37