IT WILL be work as normal for Tasmanian school chaplains today despite a High Court ruling that a national chaplaincy program was constitutionally invalid.
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Queensland parent Ron Williams won his High Court challenge against the National School Chaplaincy Program in the High Court yesterday after successfully arguing it violated the separation of church and state and encroached on the state's powers over education.
However, after the ruling both federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and School Education Minister Peter Garrett have said the program would continue to be funded.
Scripture Union Tasmania chaplain development manager Peter Swift said he was not surprised by the ruling, but the program would continue as normal until the Attorney General and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations decide what to do.
Scripture Union Tasmania is the state government approved chaplaincy provider.
``We'll just continue as we have been for the past three years,'' Mr Swift said.
``A lot of the media attention has been about the misunderstanding of chaplains, what a chaplain can and cannot do.
``It's not about evangelism, it's about supporting children and staff through a range of programs.''
Mr Swift said since the federal government's extension of the program in November, many more schools had sought to have a chaplain.
Scripture Union Tasmania works with 121 schools around the state, while there are about six chaplains from other providers working with additional schools.
Chaplains are funded either by the federal government or local community groups, or a combination of both.
Education Department secretary Colin Pettit said the department was waiting to be officially informed of the impact of the decision.
Australian Education Union state president Terry Polglase said although the extension of the program and funding in last year's federal budget was welcomed by schools, the union would prefer the role to be filled by a social worker.