Education Minister Yvette Berry has reassured teachers, school staff and families that risks from the potential contamination are ‘low’. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
The ACT Government has defended its decision to close dozens of Canberra schools and preschools in the wake of potential asbestos contamination in coloured-sand products, but has admitted that its communications about the closures could have been improved.
Last Friday (14 November), the ACT Government closed or partially closed about 20 schools and preschools after being alerted that asbestos had been found in various play sand products.
On Monday (17 November), the number of full school closures rose to 69 after asbestos was detected in other sand products.
The products are sold at national retailers like Officeworks and Kmart to schools across the country, but only the Territory has closed schools.
ACT Education Directorate Director-General Jo Wood told a Legislative Assembly hearing on Monday (17 November) that the Territory’s legislation was much tighter than other jurisdictions.
“[When] we suspect something is asbestos, we have to treat it as asbestos … When we have products that have been identified as potentially containing asbestos, when there’s been a recall from a regulator and they’ve identified that through testing of the product, that is a starting point for us,” she said.
“Some other jurisdictions have a definition of a ‘competent person’ [to assess and remove asbestos products] … we need, for each of the schools … asbestos assessors to do that work.”
SES volunteers have been called in to assist with visual inspections of school classrooms to see if any recalled items are present.
While most assessments were completed over the weekend, a small number were finalised on Monday to provide a clearer picture of possible ongoing closures.
As of 5 pm today, the ACT Education Directorate confirmed the following school closures for Tuesday (18 November):
- Aranda Primary School
- Black Mountain School
- Campbell Primary School
- Cranleigh School
- Evatt Primary School
- Evelyn Scott School
- Florey Primary School
- Forrest Primary School
- Gowrie Primary School
- Gordon Primary School
- Isabella Plains Early Childhood School
- Latham Primary School
- Macgregor Primary School
- Macquarie Primary School
- Maribyrnong Primary School
- Miles Franklin Primary School
- Malkara School
- Mount Rogers Primary School
- Neville Bonner Primary School
- Ngunnawal Primary School
- Red Hill Primary School
- Southern Cross Early Childhood School
- The Woden School
- Wanniassa School
- Weetangera Primary School
- Yarralumla Primary School.
The primary schools include their attached preschools.
These schools will be subject to a partial close, meaning some students can head to school tomorrow:
- Arawang Primary School: Echidna Preschool students only, Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6 (Turtle Preschool students cannot be accommodated at this time)
- Chapman Primary School: Year 1, Year 2, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
- Charles Weston Primary School: Preschool, Kindergarten, Year 5, Year 6
- Farrer Primary School: Preschool, Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2
- Giralang Primary School: Preschool, Year 5, Year 6 (the Small Group Program cannot be accommodated at this time)
- Harrison School: Year 7, Year 8, Year 9, Year 10, Senior Small Group Program
- Kaleen Primary School: Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6.
- Lyons Early Childhood School: Preschool, Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2 (Early Childhood cannot be accommodated at this time)
- Majura Primary School: Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6 (the Small Group Program cannot be accommodated at this time)
- Margaret Hendry School: Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6 (including Dom’s Small Group Program)
- Namadgi School: Year 7, Year 8, Year 9, Year 10
- North Ainslie Primary School: Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
- Red Hill: Kindergarten, year 1, year 2, year 3, year 4, year 5, year 6
- Throsby School: Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
- Turner School: Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6
- Torrens Primary School: Year 2, Year 3, Year 5.
The following schools are open to all students:
- Ainslie School
- Alfred Deakin High School
- Amaroo School
- Bonython Primary School
- Calwell High School
- Calwell Primary School
- Campbell High School
- Canberra College
- Canberra High School
- Charnwood-Dunlop School
- Caroline Chisholm School
- Curtin Primary School
- Duffy Primary School
- Erindale College
- Fadden Primary School
- Franklin School
- Fraser Primary School
- Garran Primary School
- Gilmore Primary School
- Gold Creek School
- Gungahlin College
- Hawker College
- Hawker Primary School
- Hughes Primary School
- Jervis Bay School
- Kingsford Smith School
- Lake Tuggeranong College
- Lanyon High School
- Lyneham High School
- Lyneham Primary School
- Mawson Primary School
- Monash Primary School
- Mount Stromlo High School
- Narrabundah Early Childhood School
- O’Connor Cooperative School
- Palmerston Primary School
- Richardson Primary School
- Taylor Primary School
- Telopea Park School
- Theodore Primary School
- University of Canberra High School Kaleen
- Wanniassa Hills Primary School.
The Education Directorate also notes that some areas of the open schools will need to be isolated until remediation work is completed.
These schools are also open, and have no identified sand on site:
- Aunty Agnes Shea High School
- Belconnen High School
- Charles Conder Primary School
- Dickson College
- Lake Ginninderra Secondary College
- Melba Copland Secondary School
- Melrose High School
- Narrabundah College
- Shirley Smith High School.
Meanwhile, Birrigai Outdoor School remains open for excursions, while Flexible Education programs are closed.
Ms Wood said Sunday’s communications about the closures could have been handled better, and work was occurring to better streamline the process.
“It’s about getting the balance between giving people notice that school will be closed and giving people time, where possible, to make other arrangements,” she said.
“We acknowledge that, although we were able to make the overarching announcement around about 5 o’clock [on Sunday], our processes for communicating individually to families took much longer than we would have liked and intended.”
As the announcement needed to be made outside of hours, the Education Directorate attempted to centralise the email and text messaging process rather than having each school contact parents and carers individually.
“There was a number of different communications that had to be sent to the right school, [and] we had some limitations with the speed with which we could send those communications out,” Ms Wood said.
“[Now we’re] looking to be more streamlined in how we communicate … but also looking at how we can use [some of the school’s] usual mechanisms.”
Education Minister Yvette Berry further clarified that such information was usually sent to schools in batches, but when they attempted to centralise the information release, the system “overloaded” and slowed down.
Students at dozens of ACT schools have had to stay home today. Photo: James Coleman.
Last week’s closures concerned products issued by supplier Educational Colours and sold between 2020 and 2025 under the names Kadink Sand (1.3 kg), Educational Colours – Rainbow Sand (1.3 kg) and Creatistics – Coloured Sand (1 kg).
In some samples, laboratory testing detected tremolite asbestos, a naturally occurring but prohibited substance.
Kmart and Target have since issued a voluntary recall for another product that may also contain asbestos.
Education Directorate COO David Matthews said teachers and school staff were given the option of taking leave, working from home, or working from a third location.
He also said they were considering giving impacted employees additional leave.
“These decisions have had to be made quickly and outside working hours. That has given people relatively little notice to make alternative arrangements,” Mr Matthews said.
“We’ll absolutely be taking that into account to ensure that either people can work flexibly or [they’ll] be covered with their leave requirements.”
So far, the closures have only affected public schools.
A spokesperson for Catholic Education stated that they were informed late on Thursday (13 November) about the potential contamination, but decided to remain open after seeking official advice.
“WorkSafe ACT advice is that the substance should be isolated, which we have achieved by closing only those areas in which the substance was used.
“A small number of classrooms and breakout areas were impacted by the potential sand contamination. Those rooms have been isolated and are not in use until we can undertake cleaning and remediation.”
The spokesperson stated that all students were being “appropriately accommodated” in various areas of their school.
Across the border in NSW, no schools are currently closed.
A NSW Department for Education spokesperson said it was aware of potential asbestos contamination.
“As a precaution, a safety alert has been sent to all NSW public schools to immediately and safely remove these sand products if they have them.
“The health, safety and wellbeing of students, staff, and the school community is the department’s highest priority. ”
