PARENTS are raising the alarm after learning Seaford Park Primary School started charging NDIS support workers to use the school’s facilities, which reportedly caused a shortage in critical services during term one.
Since the start of this year, the school imposed a fee of $100 per therapist, per term to “help cover most of the administrative costs”. Under the state government education’s NDIS therapists in schools’ policy, the fee must be charged to the therapist, not to parents or the NDIS.
According to parents who spoke to The News, the issue at Seaford isn’t just a once-off, with other government schools on the Mornington Peninsula also implementing a fee at the “school’s discretion” – which some therapy providers cannot absorb.
Parent Beck Billows said her ten-year-old son, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was seeing a speech therapist during school visits. But that stopped completely during the first school term of this year after her son’s speech therapy provider put him “on hold” until they could understand the terms of the new fee, which came about with “no communication”.
According to Billows, only about 20 per cent of support workers had paid the fee in the first term to continue on-site services, meaning many children had missed out on vital support. Fortunately, Billows said she had managed to find a new speech therapist to attend to her son’s needs at school but warned “so many families out there are unaware that this is happening”.
“The first term of school was such a big misunderstanding with this fee,” she said. “We need one small set fee for every school, not leaving it up to the principal’s discretion or the school council at ridiculous sums that are making therapists turn their back on their children. “It shouldn’t come to money where our kids are missing out on the therapy that is essential to them.”
According to an education department spokesperson, “our policy enables schools to recover costs from NDIS funded therapists for the use of school premises where the school incurs a cost in hosting NDIS funded therapy”. The department also noted it has “clear guidance for Victorian government schools related to requests for the delivery of NDIS funded therapy in schools”.
“Schools are encouraged to support students and their parents/carers in exercising a level of choice and control with their NDIS supports at school where it is safe and practical to do so,” it said. “Ultimately, the decision to allow funded therapists to provide therapy on school grounds rests with the principal. Key considerations for principals include supporting students’ continued access to the curriculum, ensuring child safety, and the practical and administrative capacity of the school to accommodate these requests.”
Another parent Emma Lenowry said she was disgusted by the fee, noting that schools shouldn’t be taking “advantage of the disadvantage”.“We understand there is extra admin, but we’re meant to be here for the children, not gain extra money,” she said. “The waiting list to see a paediatrician is huge, it’s not like booking a GP at short notice, so we rely on therapists for their ongoing support.”
Lenowry raised the issue with the school, saying, “as parents we are here to raise, help, guide, inspire and protect our children as many other things but right now the system is letting us down”. Lenowry said she was lucky at this stage that her two sons aged seven and nine were able to continue seeing a speech therapist, a behaviourist worker, an occupational therapist (OT), and a psychologist during school. But she said her sons missed out on OT and behavioural therapy during the whole of term one because “they wouldn’t pay the fee” as the provider, not the individual therapists, “have their own policies and procedures to adhere to” and whether they wish to proceed. “All our children have had an escalation in behaviour since the loss of therapy in term one.”
According to Lenowry, Peninsula Health are not charged the fee because they’re part of the public health system. Since speaking to other state school parents on social media, Lenowry said many were blindsided by the new measure, with the fee not being consistent at every school.
Lenowry has recently launched a change.org petition calling for a “small flat, standardised fee” to be imposed across all state schools, which she will present to her local MP.According to Lenowry, who made enquiries with various schools, Banyan Fields Primary in Carrum Downs was proposing to introduce a once-off $25 fee and a $1 per visit thereafter.
She confirmed Hastings, Somerville, Baxter, Rosebud, and Mornington primary schools did not have a fee, however, Belvedere Park Primary School in Seaford had a fee of $400 per year.
Seaford Park Primary has been contacted for comment.
A National Disability Insurance Agency spokesperson, said, “the use of school premises is a matter for relevant state and territory authorities”. “NDIS pricing arrangements and price limits are designed to cover the costs of providing therapy services, including overheads. As such, any fees charged by other parties to therapists cannot be claimed from NDIS plans.”
First published in the Frankston Times – 20 May 2025
