Respond to an emergency

How to respond to an emergency or critical incident involving a student.

Schools

Child safety guidance for teachers, educators and staff working in schools.

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Resources and posters
For early childhood The 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse are:
identify
support
refer
report.

At all times while you are completing the 4 Critical Actions, you must respond to any emergency or critical incident.

This involves taking immediate action when:

a student’s life is in imminent danger or threatened
a student is seriously injured or needs urgent medical help
a serious crime or incident involving a student has just occurred or is in progress.

Child abuse can take many forms. See types of child abuse and what to look for.

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Ensure immediate safety

In an emergency, you must ensure everyone’s immediate safety. This may occur while you are calling 000 and waiting for emergency services to arrive. This action should not compromise the health and safety of you or anyone else.

You can:

administer first aid
defuse a situation by separating those involved
ensure all parties are in a safe environment and supervised by a school staff member.

Call 000

In an emergency, call 000 for:

police
ambulance
fire When you call:
stay calm
give an exact address or location
stay on the call and follow any instructions from emergency service officers. If you have a speech or hearing impairment, dial 106 to access the text-based relay service.

For more information, visit triplezero.gov.au.

Separate, supervise and support

Where Victoria Police have been called to respond to an incident of child abuse, you should separate, supervise and support those involved.

Separate

Separate those involved, including any witnesses. This ensures immediate safety and prevents discussion of the incident between parties until Victoria Police can attend.

Supervise

Ensure appropriate school staff members supervise the separated parties.

Where the incident involves a staff member, they should be asked to remain with an appropriate staff member.
Where the incident involves two or more students, a staff member should be allocated to remain with each student in separate rooms.
Where the incident involves a member of a student’s family or someone from the community, they should be asked to remain with a member of the school’s leadership team, but do not put any school staff in danger if that person wants to leave the school.

Instruct the supervised parties not to discuss the incident with anyone else until Victoria Police can attend.

Support

Use a trauma-informed approach to provide support to everyone involved.
Provide everyone involved with neutral emotional support, such as offering water and a place to sit down.
Seek advice from Victoria Police or on whether it is appropriate to arrange an interpreter. When distressed, individuals can feel more comfortable speaking their first language, as second languages can be harder for individuals to access. For more information see, the managing and reporting school incidents (including emergencies) policy.

Use a trauma-informed approach

When responding to a child abuse disclosure or incident, it is important to use a trauma-informed approach.

A trauma-informed approach is centred on the needs of victim-survivors. The approach emphasises psychological, cultural and physical safety.

To learn more, see professional learning on trauma-informed practice.

Preserve evidence

Leave the area where the incident occurred as you found it, until Victoria Police can attend and provide you with further instructions. Victoria Police will tell you what steps you need to take.

If a student is abused at school, your school must preserve any items that may be of potential forensic value that may later be seized by police.

This may include:

laptops
other devices
CCTV footage
other objects and materials. For more information, follow the guidance at preserving evidence.

Continue the 4 Critical Actions

After responding to an emergency, continue with the 4 Critical Actions.

Education & training

Updated 31 March 2026

Economic Growth Statement

Mini vic.gov.au

Respond to an emergency

Schools

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Support

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