Dozens of positive cases, more than 4,000 close contacts across at least 107 schools and a handful of closures.
That is how West Australian schools have fared during the first three weeks of classes since the state's Omicron outbreak began.
WA's Education Department has refused to say which schools have recorded positive cases, how many students and staff have tested positive or how many were infected on school grounds.
"It's certainly been a bumpy start and it has been disruptive," WA Education Minister Sue Ellery said yesterday.
And many educators expect it will only get bumpier from here.
Rapid growth in cases challenges schools
The first positive cases in classrooms were recorded just three days into the school year, with two of those schools temporarily closing as a result.
Only 17 local cases were recorded that day – less than a tenth of the current daily spread.
At least six schools recorded positive cases in the first week but that rose to 30 by last Tuesday, including the first school outside of Perth, at Allanson Primary in Collie.
Rules around what schools could and could not do changed quickly, with many caught off guard.
"[COVID] probably hit our schools a little earlier than we expected," the head of the WA Primary Principals' Association, Niel Smith, said.
But many were relieved when casual contacts were removed and the quarantine period for close contacts and positive cases was shortened to seven days.
"That's something we wanted to see happen straight away, so we were very pleased to see that occur," WA Secondary School Executives Association president Armando Giglia said.
Cases continued to climb during week three last week, with a spokesperson for Ms Ellery confirming 107 schools have so far been impacted.
Limited public information on school spread
Of the schools with positive cases the ABC has been able to confirm, the majority have been primary schools.
But without figures from WA's education or health departments, it is not possible to say where cases are coming from or how they are spreading.
A spokesperson for the Education Department said it was not in a position to provide that information.
"The list of impacted schools changes constantly because of community spread and schools coming off the list after cases recover and close contacts complete their period in quarantine," the spokesperson said.
Winterfold Primary School, Corpus Christi College and Newman College have all reported multiple positive cases, as well as Carey Baptist College.
The College closed the secondary school at its Forrestdale campus at the end of last week after the first of two cases emerged.
"Whilst the Health Department is going through the process of establishing close contacts, the College decided that the safest course of action was to close the secondary school for today to provide us with the opportunity to clean the classrooms thoroughly," Forrestdale secondary school head Peter Fallon wrote to parents.
That was despite Ms Ellery proclaiming schools would be "the first to open and the last to close" before the start of classes.
In a statement, Ms Ellery said the Chief Health Officer had not closed any schools, and the decision appeared to have been made by the school itself.
"My message to the administrators of all schools — public and non-government — is that they should act on the advice of WA Health," she said.
"WA Health works with schools to identify close contacts when there is a positive case, and while those students must isolate … the rest of the school should remain open to maximise face-to-face learning wherever possible."
Spread of information challenges principals
One of the biggest challenges for principals has been keeping up with rapidly changing information.
Parents might find out through Facebook that a student has tested positive, perhaps from a rapid antigen test, before WA Health has been able to confirm the case.
"Principals are waiting for accurate information to make the safest decisions," Mr Smith said.
"That can't be helped. It's a time issue."
Mr Giglia said commentary on social media was not helpful.
"It's the Health Department who actually confirms whether there is a case or not, and schools can't act until that confirmation has been made," he said.
In a statement, Education Department director-general Lisa Rodgers praised school leaders for how they had handled those issues.
"Principals have done an outstanding job of communicating the details of cases from WA Health to parents as soon as they receive them," she said.
Less than one in ten schools hit so far
While the number of schools affected may sound like a lot, across WA there are about 1,130 schools — meaning only about 9.4 per cent have so far had to deal with COVID-19 cases.
It is a radically different story to how the rest of Australia returned to school.
In New South Wales, more than 20,000, or about one in every 60 students, tested positive in the first two weeks alone.
The ACT reported similar rates of infection, with 1,300 cases in the first two weeks.
Both states have been offering staff and students rapid antigen tests to screen for COVID-19 at home.
"This is providing confidence that it is safe for children to attend school," ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said last week.
"We've got all of the other COVID measures in place on top of that, and it is making our schools safer."
WA does not have a similar system in place, although it is understood teachers can access fast-tracked PCR testing at some clinics.
Strict rules likely to evolve as cases spread
The WA government says the rules currently in place for schools balance the need for students to keep learning, while reducing opportunities for the virus to spread.
In most cases, students are being limited to only interacting with peers in the same year group, while parents are generally restricted to dropping their children off outside.
But as cases rise, two major changes have been flagged.
Year 3 to 6 students will need to mask up, with a recommendation younger children do too.
New close contact protocols are also likely to be brought in, with seven different sets of rules across three categories of contact.
It will mean that, for example, an asymptomatic teacher who taught in the same room as a positive case might still be allowed to work, as long as they returned a negative RAT daily for seven days.
Speaking yesterday, Ms Ellery gave nothing away when asked when those rules would take effect, and said it would depend on a mix of case numbers, how cases were linked and hospitalisation rates.
Mr Smith said primary schools would welcome that change, whenever it came.
"The sooner we can get teachers back to collaborating face to face, doing what they do with students, the better it will be."
Positive signs but early days
Vaccination rates are continuing to climb among school-aged children, with almost half of those aged 5 to 11 single-dose vaccinated, and almost three-quarters of 12 to 15-year-old's double-dose vaccinated.
Experts say children continue to be less likely to get sick with COVID-19, compared to adults.
"So you might get flu-like illness, essentially like a cold and runny nose, and a bit of fatigue for a few days," University of Sydney infectious diseases epidemiologist Meru Sheel said.
"What we've seen globally, as well as in Australian data to date, [is] that only a small proportion of children end up in hospitals."
The official advice from the federal Health Department is that children do not yet need a booster.
"Severe COVID-19 in children is uncommon and the primary course of COVID-19 vaccines generates a strong immune response," it reads.
But as time goes on, cases will inevitably continue to increase in WA's schools, along with the disruption that isolation can bring.
"From what we've seen over in the eastern states, it takes a while. It goes up, and then it starts to come down," Mr Giglia said.
"We're hoping of course that because we've been so isolated, and the fact that Western Australia has been in the unique position that it's in … that maybe our curve won't be as high as it could have been."
