A concerted two-week campaign for certainty for boarding students shut out of their schools looks to have been successful.
Queensland Isolated Children's Parents' Association president Tammie Irons said that after a meeting on Friday afternoon between herself, Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young, representatives of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the Department of Education, Independent Schools Queensland, and the Queensland Catholic Education Commission, the message was finally a positive one for parents needing certainty around whether their children could return to school in term three.
"The Chief Health Officer told us that schools don't have to go back to the public health unit if they have plans in place," she said.
"It certainly seems that the main aim now is to get everyone back to school.
"ICPA is hopeful that this will be the case for all our children, and that we can start to see an easing of restrictions for children within boarding houses as well."
The news comes a day after a virtual rally was convened by Queensland ICPA and attended by 154 people, including state MP Ann Leahy, AgForce president Georgie Somerset, and NSW and Northern Territory ICPA presidents.
At the same time, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee updated its advice on reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission in boarding houses, removing the previous advice around a 25 per cent occupancy rate.
State Health Minister Steven Miles said the announcement meant boarding schools could welcome back as many boarding students into their schools as was safe to do so.
ICPA Queensland believed the fine print suggested there would still be schools that were unable to manage the onerous restrictions that still remain in place, but Friday's high-level meeting has eased those concerns.
It comes as tensions among boarding families reached a crescendo, with hundreds having endured a term of confusion, disruption, loneliness and uncertainty.
Much of that was voiced during Thursday's on-screen rally at which placards displaying the #bringourboardersback catch-cry were raised and support pledged.
The desperation felt was voiced by Quilpie parent Annabel Tully, who has two children billeted out with Brisbane families to attend school, one of whom she didn't know, and her son doing lessons alone for 10 weeks because both she and her husband worked full-time.
"We spent 12 months feeding our stock to keep them alive and now we'll spend the next 12 months trying to get our kids back on track with their education," she said. "I think we're at a crisis point with this."
Others described the challenges that families with boarding children had been dealing with as unacceptable, saying that isolated children were falling through the cracks.
The battle for understanding of how the health rules were impacting thousands of families around Australia has been fought in each state, as well as by ICPA nationally, and federal president Alana Moller said the problem was with how the AHPPC regulations were interpreted.
"It's how they are being perceived by particular health districts - we're seeing differences even within Queensland, it's so difficult to deal with," she said.
NSW ICPA president Claire Butler told the rally her members stood fully with Queensland ICPA, saying it was a very real issue in that state as well, especially sandwiched between three states.
Also offering support for the advocacy movement, NT ICPA president Sarah Cook said 60 per cent of boarders there went to school in Queensland, and her son had been one of those home for all of term two.
Ms Irons said schools had been doing all that was listed in the AHPPC protocol for the last eight weeks and were very ready to welcome all students back, keeping parents fully informed at all times.
"One of the biggest concerns has been an exit strategy, but our schools have those," she said. "I think we've got a start now."
Earlier in the week Queensland's health department said the matter was "in line now more with Education Queensland" but on Thursday Health Minister Steven Miles claimed the AHPPC alteration as a fantastic outcome for regional and remote families and the students who had continued to learn at home while their classmates returned to school.
Education Minister Grace Grace said ensuring the health and wellbeing of Queensland students remained their highest priority.
"It is essential that we balance the lifting of all restrictions with ensuring we keep everyone safe during the ongoing global pandemic," she said.
"Relaxing some restrictions is an exciting step forward for Queensland that will have a positive impact on regional and remote school students.
"As we continue our road to recovery, we look forward further to seeing more milestones like these."