Tasmanian students are waiting an average of 280 days to see a school psychologist, as the state’s education support system buckles under pressure.
The figure is a 66% increase from 168 days in 2023, with more than 2,000 students now sitting on waitlists for psychological assessments.
Labor leader Josh Willie says the delays are placing a “handbrake” on educational and developmental outcomes across the state.
“Schools are one of the key systems for identifying these challenges and long wait times mean too many children are missing out on early intervention when it matters most,” he said.
Students are also facing 156-day waits for speech and language pathology, with 537 on the waitlist.
School social work services show shorter average waits of 7.9 days, though 250 students remain in the queue.
Labor candidate for Rosevears Ben McKinnon, a teacher himself, says the resource shortage is pushing staff to breaking point.
“School support staff are often stretched too thin, resulting in high workloads, burnout and retention issues,” he said.
“It also results in teachers picking up some of the extra slack, taking away from their ability to concentrate their efforts on teaching – the core role they are employed to do.”
Premier Jeremy Rockliff acknowledged the problem but defended the government’s record, pointing to investments in 100 new support staff and 20 scholarships for specialty services.
“We agree we need to ensure that we are breaking down all barriers possible to ensure that our young people can engage in education,” he said.
The premier attributed the crisis to national workforce shortages in speech pathology and school psychology.
“That’s why we are being very proactive and investing in scholarships to ensure that we’re incentivising people to come to Tasmania,” he said.
When pressed on matching mainland wages to attract specialists, Rockliff said the government was in “measured and sensible discussions” with the Australian Education Union.
