The Commission of Inquiry also heard evidence that the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped a child abuse case against an alleged paedophile teacher three times, while the teacher was able to continue working in schools.

The inquiry's second week is hearing evidence of failures to adequately protect children from abuse in Tasmania's state school system.

Kerri Collins, who leads a team of eight social workers in the Education Department covering 38 schools in the North-West and West Coast, detailed how their role is meant to be about reducing barriers to learning, but they instead almost solely respond to abuse and other critical incidents.

She was highly critical of the 'Strong Families, Safe Kids' Advice and Referral Line - the state's child abuse reporting line - for not responding correctly to incidents.

"We've had children who have disclosed sexual assault from a family member, or close to, and we've had to send that child home because the ARL won't respond," Ms Collins said.

"We've had an instance where there was a disclosure of rape, police became involved, and family member admitted to that rape, but the ARL hadn't even done the police referral and the children were still in the home.

"It's really distressing for people on the ground to be knowing that children are going into dangerous situations, and the ... services that should be responding, aren't."

In one incident, a child with special needs made a disclosure but the ARL allegedly suggested placing the child in a shelter.

"It was highly inappropriate, and together with myself and the principal, we actually got the parents permission even though it's not our role to take them to another service that was really appropriate to [the child]," Ms Collins said.

"But that's because the ARL clicked over to 5 o'clock. You can't even get through. They said 'no, it's not ours'."

Workers often go direct to Tasmania Police Criminal Investigation Branch, but even then, children could still be at risk.

"There have been instances where we've phoned police, they're so tied up, there's nothing else we can do. We've got no power to keep the child at school. ARL won't send it through to child safety, so the child has to go home," Ms Collins said.

Department social workers are also regularly responding to children expressing self-harm ideations, including an instance where a child was having to wait three weeks to see a counsellor at Laurel House. Ms Collins said the social workers were the last people left to be able to offer support - but they were "overstretched".

Operators of the ARL - Baptcare and Mission Australia - were questioned last week about how the service works.

Baptcare ARL manager Rachel Hales said it was their policy to make referrals when they came in.

"Our best practice would be once we have - so, we don't need to substantiate that a crime has happened; as soon as we're made aware that a crime could have been committed, that would be the point that the worker would be doing that referral," she said.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service clinical lead Ignatius Kim described the issues facing ARL as "structural".

The Commission of Inquiry was told of how five children disclosed sexual abuse by a teacher in the early 1990s, but the complaint appeared to go nowhere - and the case was ultimately dropped three times, including as recently as 2018.

A victim said when she disclosed the abuse to the school principal - when she was aged 11 - the principal asked her to sit on the female assistant principal's knee and "demonstrate the position" she was in.

"Not only what I was saying wasn't being believed, I had to actually show them," the woman told the commission.

She was sent back to class afterwards and no support was offered by the school. The teacher was then moved to a different school.

Her parents reported the matter to police and she made a statement, but the case did not proceed. It was later revealed that five complaints had been made about the teacher in the late 1980s.

In the early 2000s, the woman found out the man was still teaching in a primary school.

IN OTHER NEWS:

She decided to make another complaint to police.

"It really just came crashing down on me that he is still teaching children, he's allowed to be in a classroom and he was working in a primary school, and had been since that time," the woman said.

The teacher was charged and some of the other victims gave evidence at a committal hearing, before it was committed to a trial in the Supreme Court.

"We received the summons to appear in court with a date. We ... 100 per cent thought it was going to go ahead," the woman said.

A public prosecutor then called her to say the DPP had withdrawn from the case, with "no explanation" apart from a reference to the potential monetary cost of a Supreme Court trial.

The DPP did not return her calls or letter.

She contacted the Teachers Registration Board, but was told she would have to appear in person, potentially with the teacher present which she was not prepared to do.

The woman put the matter out of her mind until - over a decade later - she received a sudden phone call that the case had been reopened after a disclosure during the child abuse royal commission.

"There's a hope that it would [proceed] and that you could stop him from teaching. And that was my ultimate aim - was to stop him being near children," she said.

For the third time, the case was dropped.

A DPP report on the case stated that - were their original complaints made now - it would have been proceeded with, but a "series of complex legal issues and principles" at the time meant it could not be brought again.

The teacher was still employed by the Education Department at the time, but was "on suspension".

The Commission of Inquiry continues in Hobart on Tuesday.