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Victorian schools face surge in violent incidents, audit finds

A Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) report tabled in Parliament on 28 May 2025 examines how the Department of Education is protecting staff from work-related violence by students in the state’s 1,570 government schools.

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  Incidents are rising fast. Recorded occupational-health-and-safety (OHS) incidents involving school staff jumped from 8,908 in 2014-15 to 30,675 in 2023-24. Within that total, cases of student-related violence leapt from 2,279 to 11,858, averaging 46.7 % growth each year.

  
  


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  Numbers are still an under-count. In 2023-24 up to 5,014 incidents (29.7 % of the year’s total) were incorrectly classified and excluded from internal reports. Across the past decade a further 11,093 incidents went unreported, meaning the department understated violence by 16.5 %.

  
  


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  Leadership flying blind. Because of these gaps, senior executives do not receive complete, consistent data to guide safety decisions.

  
  


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  Policies exist but are not fully reviewed. While the department offers resources, training and a tailored support model, it lacks a systematic process to review policies or collect lessons learned after incidents.

  
  

VAGO issued four recommendations: develop a way to gauge under-recording, fix data quality so all incidents reach executives, strengthen policy-review cycles, and formalise post-incident reviews so lessons inform future practice. The Department of Education has accepted all recommendations (two in full, two in principle).

With more than 76,000 staff spread across primary, secondary, specialist and P-12 campuses, accurate data are critical to ensuring schools remain safe workplaces. The audit warns that until recording and reporting are fixed, the department “cannot be confident” its safety measures are properly targeted.

The department must now build a reliable incident-tracking system and embed continuous policy review. VAGO will monitor progress as part of its ongoing assurance program.