South Australian schools defend charging hundreds of dollars in NDIS worker ‘room fees’ for campus visits

NDIS workers warn students are missing out on critical support because principals are choosing to slug them with “room fees”. But schools are standing behind the move.

Principals are charging hundreds of dollars for speech therapists and other support workers to come into schools for appointments with students with disabilities.

Workers say the so-called room fees are causing children on the National Disability Insurance Scheme to miss out on support, but school leaders argue the payments are needed to cover administration and cleaning costs.

Allied health workers have told The Advertiser that campuses across Adelaide have introduced room fees of up to $440 a year, per child.

Riverbanks College B-12 principal Joe Priolo says the school manages at least 80 allied health workers on-site. Picture: Supplied.

Education Department boss Martin Westwell says department policy allows schools to charge room fees. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

The charge is imposed for each worker so a student who sees a speech therapist, occupational therapist and social worker would attract three separate charges, totalling $1320 in that case.

“We’ve had to stop services to some of these kids,” one worker, who did not want to be named, said.

“Some parents are having to take their child out of school and we’re walking across to the park. Parents are really upset about it.”

Opposition education spokeswoman Heidi Girolamo says the extra fees are inappropriate. Image/Russell Millard Photography

A host of schools are charging between $25 and $110 a term.

It is allowed under Education Department policy, at the discretion of the principal, but schools are not allowed to make a profit.

The extra cost must be borne by the NDIS provider and cannot be passed on to parents.

Riverbanks College B-12 principal Joe Priolo said about 100 students at his Angle Vale campus received NDIS support at school, up from 57 two years ago.

More than 40 organisations send a total 80 workers to the school for appointments and they are charged $10 per hour-long session.

Mr Priolo said a staff member spent about 10 hours a week “updating schedules, communicating with staff and parents, making sure the spaces are ready … and those rooms are cleaned more frequently”.

“Then you have all the maintenance and electricity costs with a fixed space. Some of those (NDIS providers) do want to be mobile instead of having their own fixed facilities.”

Mr Priolo said the fees “should be coming out of their (providers) administration budget”.

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Department chief executive Professor Martin Westwell confirmed SA schools had charged room fees since 2019, in line with schools in Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and NSW.

It was common for schools to be “managing over 100 different providers on site”, and some had recorded up to 400 per cent increases in recent years, he said.

“It is not acceptable to me that funding for teaching should be used to cover the costs of having NDIS providers on site,” Professor Westwell said.

Opposition education spokeswoman Heidi Girolamo said it was “completely inappropriate that health professionals are being forced to pay exorbitant fees to support children with additional needs in public schools”.

Education Minister Blair Boyer said Ms Girolamo was criticising a policy that was “put in place by her own party” when last in government.

“This comes from the same person who talks about the need for back-to-basics (teaching), but is happy for schools to wear the cost of NDIS providers coming onsite to provide services; which of course means that has to be taken from the literacy and numeracy teaching schools do to lift NAPLAN results,” he said.

Originally published as South Australian schools defend charging hundreds of dollars in NDIS worker ‘room fees’ for campus visits