More than 2,000 Tasmanian students are on waiting lists for school psychology services according to state Labor, with some waiting up to five years for support.
Labor leader Josh Willie said the wait times were unacceptable and warned that $228 million in cuts to the Education Department would make things worse.
“You’re talking about childhood development, a critical time in their life and they’re not getting the support they need,” Willie said.
He said students who do not receive timely help risk disengaging from school entirely.
“If students don’t get the interventions they need in a timely way, they start to disengage from school and their education outcomes are impacted,” he said.
“Sometimes we see complete disengagement as they move through the schooling system, which is a tragedy for all of us,” he said.
Darren Robson, Chair of the Educational and Development Interest College of the Psychological Society for Tasmania, said the state has roughly half the recommended ratio of psychologists to students.
He said the Australian Psychological Society recommends one psychologist for every 500 students.
“The longer that wait, the more difficulties children have and the more difficulties we see in schools and in families,” Robson said.
He said well-integrated psychology services in schools deliver significant savings, estimating every dollar spent now saves $10 in future health costs.
Robson said attendance problems are mostly driven by anxiety and behavioural issues – both areas psychologists are trained to address.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff rejected claims of cuts to education, saying funding had grown under a 10-year agreement struck with the federal government.
He said the government had employed an additional 104.75 full-time equivalent support staff across public schools since 2014.
“The waiting list actually has decreased over the course of the last 12 months,” Rockliff said.
He acknowledged more work was needed but pointed to scholarships and workforce incentives to address a nationwide shortage of school psychologists.
