Schools in NSW will be given funding for chaplains but not qualified secular youth workers after the federal government refused to budge from its decision to pay only for religious chaplains.

The national school chaplaincy program will be rolled out across the country next year after all the states and territories agreed on Friday to implement it, despite a push from NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli for youth workers to be included in the funding package.

Education Minister Adrian Piccoli pushed for youth workers to be included. Credit:Tamara Dean

An independent review, commissioned by the NSW Department of Education, found that students felt safer and bullying had been reduced in public high schools with secular welfare officers.

The NSW government sent the review to federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne in August after it emerged the redesigned national schools chaplaincy program would exclude secular welfare workers.