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Principals will have discretion over $44 million in state government funding to address behaviour issues in their schools.

The money will flow to Queensland state schools as soon as next week, with Premier David Crisafulli saying principals will be able to decide how best to use it in their classrooms.

The funding will be distributed on a per-capita basis, based on enrolments.

“I would suspect that within the next 24 hours schools will find out what their allocation is, certainly by the end of this week, and money will flow within about a week.

“It might be bringing in some new specialists into the schools, things like behavioral management teachers, occupational therapists, speech therapists … or it might mean training existing people to develop a skill set in that area.”

The Premier said the issue had been put in the “too hard” basket, with teachers and parents becoming increasingly frustrated about the lack of action when it came to addressing behaviour.

“Teachers deserve the right to be able to go to school and teach in a safe environment, and students deserve the right to be at school and not have a projectile thrown at them while they’re trying to learn,” he said.

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said there were about 40 behaviour-management experts currently working in Queensland schools.

He said schools could use their portion of the funding to hire new staff, increase the working hours of existing behaviour-management experts, or upskill teacher aides or teachers.

“Small schools with [a] very small enrollment are going to get a base level of about $1000, but for other schools, it averages out at about $35,000 per school,” he said.