How children are being protected today

Child safety reforms in Victorian schools – what has changed

All children have the right to be safe and feel safe.

From 2016 onwards, Victoria has made big changes to how schools protect children and young people from sexual abuse. These changes followed the learnings from the:

Betrayal of trust: Inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other non-government organisations
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

These include:

mandatory Child Safe Standards, for schools to manage the risk of child abuse and respond to concerns
mandatory education to help students understand their rights, recognise unsafe situations, and seek help
mandatory reporting laws for all organisations with responsibility for children
more power for the Victorian Institute of Teaching to investigate child safety concerns, share information, and take action so that only suitable people can be teachers
better sharing of information between schools and other organisations.

The Department of Education helps schools to implement these reforms.

The following information gives more detail about how we protect children today.

Child Safe Standards

Why we have these standards

Victoria's Child Safe Standards began in 2016 to protect children and young people from harm and abuse. They help schools build safe environments and put children’s safety first.

Victorian schools must have all of the following standards in place to protect children and young people:
Standard 1: Culturally safe environments
Schools must establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued.
Standard 2: Leadership, governance and culture
School leaders must ensure that child safety and wellbeing are part of school leadership, governance and culture.
Standard 3: Student empowerment
Schools must ensure that children and young people are empowered about their rights, are part of decisions affecting them, and are taken seriously.
Standard 4: Family engagement
Schools must ensure that families and communities are informed and involved in child safety and wellbeing at school.
Standard 5: Diversity and equity
Schools must ensure that all students are treated fairly and with respect.
Standard 6: Suitable staff and volunteers
Schools must ensure that all people working with children and young people are suitable.
Standard 7: Child-focused complaints process
Schools must have complaints processes that are child focused.
Standard 8: Child safety knowledge, skills and awareness
Schools must ensure that staff and volunteers know how to keep children and young people safe.
Standard 9: Safe physical and online environments
Schools must have physical and online environments that promote safety and wellbeing and reduce the risk of students being harmed.
Standard 10: Review of child safety practices
Schools must regularly review their child safety policies and practices and look for ways they can be improved.
Standard 11: Implementation of child safety practices
Schools must have documented policies and procedures that show how they protect student safety and wellbeing.

How schools are supported with implementing the Child Safe Standards

The Department of Education supports schools to understand and implement the Child Safe Standards with guidance, templates, and checklists on the PROTECT website.

How the Child Safe Standards are enforced

Schools can't operate in Victoria unless they follow these standards.

The Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority regulates schools’ compliance with the standards.

Strengthening education

Specific parts of the school curriculum help to keep children safe from abuse.

Respectful Relationships education

Victorian government schools deliver respectful relationships education from Foundation to Year 10. This includes teaching students about consent in an age-appropriate way.

For younger students it also includes activities about autonomy, boundaries, the difference between ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ secrets and getting help from trusted adults.

For older students, consent education focuses on ‘affirmative consent’ and what to do if experiencing or witnessing coercion or gender-based violence.

All Victorian government schools must teach consent as part of the curriculum. Schools teach this in an age-appropriate way from Foundation to year 12.

The Department of Education’s Sexuality and Consent Education policy provides more information about this.

Reporting obligations

Under the Reportable Conduct Scheme principals must report allegations of child abuse or misconduct by school staff to the Commission for Children and Young People within three business days. The Conduct and Integrity Division in the Department of Education makes these reports for all Victorian government schools.
There are five types of reportable conduct under the Reportable Conduct Scheme:
- sexual offences
- sexual misconduct
- physical violence
- behaviour that causes significant emotional or psychological harm
- significant neglect.
The scheme helps to make sure that this kind of behaviour from staff is properly investigated.
For more information on the Department of Education’s policy on the Reportable Conduct Scheme visit Reportable and Notifiable Conduct.
For more information on the Reportable Conduct Scheme visit CCYP | Reportable Conduct Scheme.
Registered teachers, psychologists and counsellors must report to Child Protection if they believe that:
- a child has suffered, or is likely to suffer, significant harm from physical or sexual abuse and
- the child’s parents have not protected or are unlikely to protect the child from harm of that type.
It may be a criminal offence not to report in these circumstances.
All adults in Victoria – including school staff – must follow the failure to disclose laws. This means if any school staff member has information that leads them to believe another adult has sexually abused a child under 16, they must report it to police. If they don’t, they can face up to 3 years imprisonment. These laws ensure that protecting children is everyone's responsibility, even if it happens outside the school environment.

Responding to allegations or concerns about child sexual abuse by an adult working in a school

Every school must have clear and publicly available procedures for responding to and reporting allegations or concerns about child abuse.

For more information on the actions schools must take, see Report child abuse in schools.

These actions include reporting to police and the department, contacting parents and carers, and ensuring immediate and ongoing support for impacted students.

Victorian government schools must follow the following policies when responding to possible child sexual abuse by an adult working at the school:

The department has specialist employment and child safety teams that support Victorian government schools with this. Child safety is always the priority when responding to any allegation or concern about child sexual abuse in a school.

Child safety powers of the Victorian Institute of Teaching

The Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) started in 2002. VIT regulates teachers to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and quality teaching.

All school and early childhood teachers must be registered with the VIT to teach in a Victorian school.

To be registered, a teacher must be qualified and must be a suitable person to work with children. To check this, the VIT will look at a person’s criminal history, professional history and any health issues that may seriously impact their ability to teach safely.

After they are registered, the VIT continues to check a teacher’s suitability.

Schools, employers, Victoria Police and the Commission for Children and Young People must all share information about child safety risks to the VIT. Members of the community including parents, students and colleagues can also make complaints to the VIT about teachers.

VIT can investigate teacher misconduct. They can also suspend, disqualify or put conditions on a teacher if they are assessed as being a risk to children, or if their suitability or competency does not meet standards. If a person’s registration is suspended or cancelled, they can’t work as a teacher in any Victorian school.

VIT also have a public Register of Disciplinary Action listing disciplinary outcomes for teachers, including whether their registration has been suspended or cancelled. The VIT also works with other regulators across Australia responsible for the safety of children and other vulnerable people by proactively sharing information about people who may pose a risk of harm to children.

More information about VIT is available at Victorian Institute of Teaching.

Sharing information to protect child safety and wellbeing

Schools and the department can share information about students with other organisations like health services, police, and child protection to help keep children safe. This is possible because of the Child Information Sharing Scheme and Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme.

Sharing information helps the right people work together to support the safety and wellbeing of the child or young person.

What these changes mean for today's children

Schools today are very different from the past.

Every adult who works in a school now:

has been screened for child safety before working with children
has regular and ongoing training about child safety
must follow their school’s child safety code of conduct
knows they must report child safety concerns immediately
understands that child safety is their legal responsibility
works within clear guidelines about appropriate behaviour.

The goal is simple: every child should feel safe and protected when they're at school.

If you're concerned

If you have concerns about child sexual abuse in any Victorian government school you can:

contact the school directly
report to Victoria Police
report to the Victorian Institute of Teaching (if the concern relates to a teacher)
call the Department of Education's Restorative Engagement and Support Team on 9057 4500 or email REST@education.vic.gov.au
contact the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority
contact the Commission for Children and Young People.

There are several different ways to report because we know it's not always easy to speak up, and you can choose what feels safe.

To find out how to report concerns about current students visit Report abuse if you're a current student.

Thank you to those who have spoken up

We know words alone cannot undo harm done in the past. But they represent real, systemic change to make sure that what you may have experienced doesn't happen to children today.

These changes exist because people spoke up about abuse. Their courage has made schools safer for all children.

Thank you.

Our commitment

Child safety in Victorian schools will never be set and forget.

The Department of Education is committed to continuously improve child safety in schools. We will remain vigilant about the risk of child abuse and we will continue to review child safe practices for our schools.

We will keep listening to victim survivors, their supporters, their families and friends. Their voices help guide our work to protect children and young people now and in the future.

For more information, see Department of Education Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy.

Updated 3 December 2025