Parents are concerned they have been left out in the cold as the state government and schools plough ahead with plans to combat "violent extremism" among children.

The NSW government last week announced a $47 million package to dispatch specialist teams and trained counsellors to schools across the state to help identify students at risk of "radicalisation" and help to counter violent extremism in youngsters.

But there are rumblings of discontent among parents who say they were not consulted before the new measures were announced.

The largest parent group, the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW – which represents the mothers, fathers and guardians of around 750,000 public school pupils – admits it found out about the plan at the same time as it was released to the media and the public on November 2.

The federation's president said there was nothing inappropriate about this, particularly given the sensitivity of the issues, and that the government's plans had been "well received".

"It was released to us at the same time as it was released [publicly]," federation president Jason Vials said. "We support what the government's trying to do. Consultation is a good thing."

Others have questioned why there have not been any parents at the table so far.

"The parents have not been brought into this process early enough," one parent group insider told Fairfax Media.

Children spent six to eight hours a day in their school environment and effectively countering violent extremism required the involvement of parents by necessity, the parent said.

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties warned that the whole suite of measures to target violent extremism could be derailed without parent involvement.

"It's pretty obvious that programs like this cannot work unless there's wide consultation over the way in which they are framed and the way in which they work," the council's president, Stephen Blanks, said.

"Once you have people who feel outside the program ... that they have not been consulted, that is what is going to undermine the program.

"I think families and parents are critical players in the fight against violent extremism."

The Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT said it was aware of the state government's plans through the Catholic Education Commission NSW.

"In my role as [a] commissioner on the Catholic Education Commission I was aware of the plans of the NSW government for measures to counter violent extremism in schools and was able to provide the parent perspective at that level as I do on all other education matters that affect parents," said Linda McNeil, who is also executive director of the parents' council.

"I will say that if the measures are to be successful when they are introduced next year, schools will need to work very closely with parent associations and the parent community to ensure that they are rolled out in the right way," she said.

"This is not about targeting or punishing individuals, but trying to identify and reach out to 'at risk' youth to engage rather than alienate young Australians."

The NSW Parents' Council, which represents parents at non-government schools, did not wish to comment.

But Lydia Shelly, who sits on the council's state executive, tweeted on Tuesday that she was disappointed parents had not been consulted about the measures.

"As a parent of a child at an independent school, I am annoyed we were not consulted about this," she wrote.

As a parent of a child at an independent school, I am annoyed we were not consulted about this. #education #cve pic.twitter.com/BuptSG2obn— lydia_shelly (@lydia_shelly) November 9, 2015

A spokesman for the education department said parents would be consulted as the package was rolled out.

"Child wellbeing is a priority for the Department of Education, which has a range of policies and processes familiar to parents to ensure schools provide effective welfare support for students in a variety of challenging situations," the spokesman said.

"As the expanded support for schools announced by the Premier is rolled out, the department will work with relevant stakeholder groups, including parent representative bodies on its delivery."