The Ministry of Education has announced 700,000 rapid antigen tests are available for schools and early learning services to help them stay open for the children of critical workers.
But what isn't quite as straightforward Is a confusing update around vaccine mandates for after-school sport that came with it.
The school yard lunchtime kick-around has been officially extended past learning hours, and for both vaccinated and unvaccinated children after-school sport is on.
"Clarifying those rules to make that really crystal-clear," Education Minister Chris Hipkins said.
Except it's not really that clear or that simple for the groups who have to interpret it.
"School Sport New Zealand and schools will welcome the Minister's comments from this morning," School Sport New Zealand CEO Mike Summerell says. "I think what we need right now is detail."
Up until now, any outside-of-school-hours sporting activity involving more than 25 students has been classed as 'an event' and required all participants to be fully vaccinated.
But on Friday the Minister of Education said clarification was being made to ensure all students could participate fully in activities like sports and kapa haka.
"So any students participating in those activities, where the school has organised it, they will be treated as if they are vaccinated even if they are not," Hipkins said.
However, club sport is being kept separate.
"Club sport and so on is treated under the framework the same as for any other age group," Hipkins said.
Except the two often cross over and sometimes the venues where school sport takes place have their own vaccine mandates.
"People take part in club sport where schools can't offer those opportunities, and we really strongly align with New Zealand Rugby and New Zealand Football around this, this conversation has to include clubs right now," Summerell says.
What is crystal-clear for schools is that operating with Omicron is well and truly underway, with one in five schools nationwide reporting COVID-19 cases.
To help on Friday, the Ministry announced around 700,000 RATs will be available for schools and early learning centres as a last resort to help them stay open for the children of much-needed critical workers.
More masks are being supplied too.
"In decile one to five we've got 20 masks per child coming and in decile one to ten we've got 10 masks coming, so that's a really reassuring thing and most important is that they are child-sized," Auckland Primary Principals' Association President Stephen Lethbridge says.
Navigating school life and all that comes with it is complicated but crucial for school students living in a COVID world.
