Canberra parents say discrepancies in COVID safety measures are confusing as the Education Directorate reveals five public schools were visited by the work safety watchdog in Term 1.
Calwell High School, Amaroo School, Kingsford Smith School, Namadgi School and Wanniassa School were inspected by WorkSafe ACT as staff shortages and occupational violence problems emerged.
As Term 2 begins, the opposition has criticised the Education Directorate for not immediately changing its guidance in line with the Chief Health Officer's advice.
Opposition education spokesman Jeremy Hanson said the Canberra Liberal's position was that mask mandates in schools should be removed after Dr Kerryn Coleman indicated it was no longer a proportionate response.
"The health advice says there is no longer a mandate so why are they mandating it? Without a very good reason it needs to be removed," Mr Hanson said.
Mr Hanson said schools should also allow unvaccinated teachers to work considering the high vaccination rate in the general population and among school-aged children.
Education Minister Yvette Berry said it was necessary to keep the COVID regulations the same for the first two weeks of term to have time to consult properly with school staff.
"Of course parents and students want to take the masks off ... I understand it's very frustrating, but they understand when we talk about the safety and health and wellbeing of our staff and our school students the reason why we're just taking a little bit of extra time," Ms Berry said.
Catholic systemic schools have already lifted the mask mandate, as have NSW government schools.
Australian Parents Council president Jennifer Rickard said the different mask requirements were confusing for children and adults alike.
"If you're a parent that has a kid in a public school and a non-government school keeping the rules the same would have been fantastic and a lot less confusing for kids," Mrs Rickard said.
"I think we have to follow the health advice, but when it gets confusing it makes it really difficult to know what's best."
While Ms Rickard's children attend non-government schools and are not required to wear masks, she sympathised with parents who had to get their kids to mask up during the inevitable morning rush.
Fiona Green has two daughters at Caroline Chisholm School's junior campus, one son at the senior campus and her eldest son at Lake Tuggeranong College.
She said she could appreciate why the older students were required to keep wearing mask while the directorate was gathering feedback from staff and families and to add an extra layer of safety.
"I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea because they are in close proximity with each other. Although that being said ... they tend to hang out with each other on the weekends and after school anyway," Mrs Green said.
"All the school-aged children including the girls have all been vaccinated with the two doses so we're feeling less anxious than we were, but obviously we still don't want anyone to catch it."
As a member of the Caroline Chisholm School P&C, Mrs Green was hoping restrictions would ease so that parents could be more involved in school life.
"I've been involved with the P&C for the last few years. It's been a little bit of a challenge to get those community events happening so it'd be nice to be able to do that again."
ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations spokeswoman Janelle Kennard said parents would like to be allowed to attend some school events and interact with teachers and other parents.
"That welcoming sense of a school is actually really important," Ms Kennard said.
"That's hard when there's a sign on the gate that parents can't come in."
