If you've been affected by the Victorian floods, you may contact the Victorian Flood Recovery .
Financial support for affected families
Emergency payments are available for people whose homes have been affected by the flooding. For information, visit Financial support available for people impacted by the 2022 floods.
Replacing lost or damaged school items
If your school student’s essential school items were lost or damaged in the floods, you can get help to replace them. Support to replace items of up to the value of $1,200 is available for each school student. Depending on what items are being replaced, you will either get:
- a direct replacement, or
- a voucher for the value of the item. You can use the voucher at a suitable stockists
Essential school items include:
- uniforms
- shoes
- laptop
- laptop sleeve
- internet data sim
- stationery pack
- calculator
- headphones
- work boots
- workwear
- swimwear and accessories
- sunscreen
How to apply
Contact the Department of Education hotline on 1800 338 663 to register your request for support. The hotline is open from 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.
As part of the process, you’ll need to give:
- your family name
- contact details for example, residential address, phone number email address
- information about how the flood impacts your family, for example, loss or damage to your home, contents and/or belongings
- your child’s government school name(s)
- the names of the school children in your household
Your school student’s school or State Schools’ will contact you if they need more information to support your application, such as which school-related items need to be replaced.
Information about flood assistance in your language
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_English
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Acholi
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Amharic
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Arabic
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Assyrian
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Dari
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Dinka
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Farsi
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Filipino
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Haka-Chin
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Hindi
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Hazaragi
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Karen
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Khmer
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Korean
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Macedonian
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Nepali
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Nuer
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Oromo
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Pashto
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Punjabi
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Samoan
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Sinhalese
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Simplified Chinese
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Somali
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Swahili
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Tamil
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Tigrinya
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Tongan
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Traditional Chinese
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Turkish
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Urdu
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Vietnamese
- Floods assistance for parents and carers_Zomi
If you’re experiencing financial hardship
If you're experiencing ongoing financial hardship, you should contact your child's school to talk about cost-support options. This includes the option of getting help through State Schools’ Relief.
State Schools’ Relief can support with the cost of essential school supplies, including:
- uniforms
- footwear
- stationary packs
- digital items such as internet USB dongles and headphones
If you are a parent or carer and you need financial assistance with the above items, please request an appointment with your school principal, assistant principal, or welfare/wellbeing coordinator to discuss your needs.
Schools can apply directly, via the SSR online portal, whenever they believe there is a need to support a student whose family/carers are facing difficulty in providing the appropriate uniform, footwear, or educational items for attending school.
Support from the NDIS for children with disability
If your child gets NDIS funding and their belongings such as assistive technologies need repairs or replacement, the NDIS can help. Contact the NDIS National Contact Centre on 1800 800 110 or visit Supporting participants through severe weather in Victoria and for more information.
Mental health and wellbeing support for school-aged children
Children and young people may experience longer-term emotional and psychosocial effects because of emergencies such as floods.
If your child requires support, you may contact your school to talk about:
- support through student support services
- how secondary school students can access counselling and wellbeing support
- for secondary students, a referral to headspace face-to-face and phone counselling services. You can also contact headspace directly on 1800 650 890 or
You may also get support through:
- Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800 or
- Parentline: 1300 30 1300 or parentline.com.au
For information visit, Mental health and wellbeing support.
Recovery to help children deal with trauma
The following resources can help support children and young people deal with a difficult or traumatic time:
- mental health and wellbeing toolkits for children and parents and/or carers
- the Schools Mental Health of evidence-based programs and initiatives, including specific programs for disaster, grief and
- information about supporting children and young people with distressing
- information about mental health support after an
- Phoenix Australia , including for helping yourself and children after a traumatic event
- the Emerging Minds - Community Trauma includes tips for helping children through a traumatic event
- Birdie’s Tree recovery is specifically designed for children aged 0 to 5 to work through traumatic experiences and 'big feelings'
Translated resources about how to deal with trauma
Translated information is available for:
- Trauma - reaction and recovery - Better Health
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - Better Health
- Survivor reactions to traumatic events - Better Health
- Trauma and children - newborns to two years - Better Health
- Trauma and families - Better Health
- Personal hardship assistance - Department of Families, Fairness and
- Relief and recovery translations/interpreters - Vic
Family violence supports following emergencies
Family violence can increase during and after emergency and traumatic situations. If your family is experiencing family violence, talk to your child's school. They can offer support.
More resources and support can be found on:
Donations
If you would like to volunteer with flood recovery or donate to those affected, visit Volunteer and .
Find out more
For information about recovery support for people and communities visit, 2022 Victorian flood recovery.
For up-to-date emergency warnings and information, visit Emergency Recovery Victoria.
Reviewed 11 May 2023