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Disaster Management Act, 2002 (Act No. 57 of 2002)

Notices

Directions regarding the phased return of children to Early Childhood Development Programmes and Partial Care Facilities

5. Conditions for return of children to early childhood development programme or partial care facility

 

(1) A parent, legal guardian or a person designated by a parent or legal guardian, may, as far as it is practical, return a child to the same early childhood development programme or partial care facility that the child attended during the month that the national state of disaster was announced : Provided that such a programme or facility complies with the provisions of direction 4.

 

(2) Subject to subdirection (3), a child must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, or, if not practically possible, by a person designated by a parent or legal guardian, every day when the child attends an early childhood development programme or a partial care facility and must be screened as provided for in direction 8. In the case of a child who is twelve years or younger and accompanied by a designated person, the parents or legal guardian must provide the child with the required information for the purpose of the symptom screening in terms of direction 8.

 

(3) Where a child arrives at an early childhood programme or partial care facility without being accompanied by a person contemplated in subdirection (2) or without any information that may assist with symptom screening, that child may not be refused entry to the early childhood development programme or partial care facility and the procedure set out in the standard operating procedures must be applied.

 

(4) A parent, legal guardian or a person designated by a parent or legal guardian has a right to enquire from the early childhood development programme or partial care facility about the details of the measures that have been put in place in terms of paragraph 4, before the parent, legal guardian or the person designated by the parent or legal guardian considers returning a child to an early childhood development programme or partial care facility.

 

(5) A child with a known underlying health condition that may place the child at a higher than normal risk category as defined by the Department of Health, may not return to an early childhood development programme or partial care facility, unless a medical practitioner gives a written authorisation that it is safe for such a child to return to, and participate in, the early childhood development programme or partial care facility.

 

(6) An early childhood development programme or partial care facility must inform every parent, legal guardian or a person designated by a parent or legal guardian who returns a child to the early childhood development programme or partial care facility, in writing—
(a) of the provisions of subdirections (1) to (5);
(b) that the return of a child to an early childhood development programme or partial care facility is voluntary; and
(c) that a child who returns to the programme of facility will be subjected to a daily screening as contemplated in direction 8.