Schools need better systems for students exposed to family and domestic violence, writes Emily Campbell.
Children exposed to family and domestic violence (FDV) are victim-survivors in their own right – not merely witnesses, bystanders, or extensions of the adult victim-survivors in their household.
As the place where they spend the most time outside of home, schools are in a critical position to support students in these situations.
New research finds Australian schools need comprehensive support systems to address the learning and safety needs of children experiencing FDV.
The report, Examining the Impact of Domestic and Family Violence on Young Australians’ School-Level Education, highlights the need to equip schools to intervene earlier to prevent future harm and better support students’ unique needs.
Inconsistent approaches
A co-author of the report, Monash University professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon, says there are significant differences across Australia in how schools identify and respond to student disclosures of family violence.
“This inconsistency exists between jurisdictions and also within individual school communities, depending on who the young victim-survivor tells,” she says.
“It is largely due to a lack of national and state-based guidance and limited training that prioritises student safety and wellbeing in the context of family violence.”
The research examined a sample of survey responses from more than 1600 Australians as part of the 2022 Adolescent Family Violence in Australia national survey.
Respondents who reported experiencing FDV during their school years described either being directly subjected to violence or witnessing violence between other family members.
Researchers found less than one-in-five students reported disclosing their experience of FDV to someone in their school community, with many instead skipping school or becoming fearful of school authority figures.
Some students who proactively disclosed reported feeling reassured and supported when staff listened non-judgementally, validated their feelings and took action to help.
Others who disclosed reported feeling dismissed or not taken seriously, which compounded their trauma.
Fitz-Gibbon says schools must move beyond the current ad hoc responses and instead adopt a whole-of-school approach.
“To ensure consistent and effective responses, we urgently need a national approach that embeds trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate responses into school policy and practice,” she says.
“This requires resourcing of comprehensive staff training, clear referral pathways and accountability mechanisms to support children who disclose their experience of FDV while at school.
“Schools should be supported to provide trauma and FDV-informed training to all school staff, so they feel confident to respond appropriately to disclosures from students.
“There is also a need for clear pathways to refer students to appropriate external supports and to build collaborative partnerships between schools and specialist FDV services.”
Disengaged from education
The report shared many heartbreaking examples of the complex and intersecting ways that FDV had an impact on students’ participation and achievement in school, affecting aspects from friendships and extracurricular activities to academics and attendance.
Young victim-survivors commonly reported high levels of absenteeism, skipping classes regularly or dropping out altogether.
A smaller number of respondents reported ”throwing themselves” into their studies, identifying school as a place they could temporarily escape the troubling circumstances at home.
Some respondents cited difficulties with studying and completing homework due to high conflict environments, parental interference, loss of motivation, an inability to concentrate or being denied access to the internet and learning resources.
Fitz-Gibbon says some students who report FDV were suspended, ignored or labelled ”troublemakers”.
“Too often, children experiencing violence in the family home are misunderstood, punished or pushed out of the education system,” she says.
Fitz-Gibbon says the cost of inaction is profound, with long-term detrimental impacts on the academic engagement of students, their mental health and wellbeing.
All education settings can benefit by becoming trauma-informed, knowing the resources available and where to refer children and families for professional help.
In terms of best practice for responding to student disclosures, Fitz-Gibbon says teachers do not need to have all the answers but need to know how to respond supportively and where to refer.
“Best practice starts with believing the student, responding calmly and non-judgementally and ensuring the child’s safety is prioritised,” she says.
“Mandatory reporting requirements must be complemented by a relational, child-centred response.”
Adapt and accommodate
The research provides robust evidence on measures to ensure young victim-survivors can access early interventions and safety supports at school.
Fitz-Gibbon says schools must be adaptable and accommodating to help affected students remain engaged in education.
“This means creating safe environments, offering flexible attendance and learning options, investing in staff trainingand providing access to onsite or partnered support services,” she says.
“These adjustments aren’t ‘extras’; they are essential for students experiencing FDV to remain engaged in education.”
Some schools are demonstrating leadership by embedding tiered models of trauma-informed support, building close relationships with specialist services and adapting attendance and learning policies to better support students. However, such examples remain the exception, not the norm.
“The experiences of young people in our study demonstrate why flexible attendance and academic policies for students impacted by FDV would be beneficial,” Fitz-Gibbon says.
Research conducted by Fitz-Gibbon for South Australia’s Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence reveals that parents who perpetrate FDV against children through coercive control often do so under the guise of parental discipline.
Fitz-Gibbon says the experiences of young victim-survivors highlight the need to better engage families and communities to change understandings of discipline, particularly through culturally responsive, trauma-informed approaches to educating.
“We must develop deeper understandings of coercive and controlling behaviours as they are experienced by children and young people in families,” she says.
“Without such awareness, there is a risk that controlling behaviour will continue to be minimised as ‘strict parenting’ or young people’s disclosures will be dismissed.”
Respectful relationships
It is unclear whether current respectful relationships and consent education programs in schools effectively address family and domestic violence (FDV) or adequately equip children to recognise abuse in the home from a young age.
Content focuses on intersecting topics like gender stereotypes, power dynamics, sexual violence, misogyny and much more in the context of peer and romantic relationships.
However, there are concerns that students are ill-equipped to explicitly identify different forms of FDV or differentiate between what is reasonable parental/caregiver behaviour or discipline versus abuse.
A National Respectful Relationships Education Expert Working Group was established in 2023 to provide advice to the federal Education Department on how to support delivery of consent and respectful relationships education programs in schools.
The federal government also committed $77 million last year for states and territories, with jurisdictions and the non-government school sector to decide how to invest the funding to best meet local needs.
Fitz-Gibbon says the Respectful Relationships program is a vital prevention tool.
“However, it must continue to evolve to reflect children’s lived realities,” she says.
“Many current programs focus on peer relationships and intimate partner dating dynamics but say little about FDV in the home.
“We need curricula that help children name and seek help for abuse in all contexts and settings.”
References
Fitz-Gibbon, K., Meyer, S., Maher, J., & Roberts, S. (2022). Adolescent family violence in Australia: A national study of prevalence, history of childhood victimisation and impacts. ANROWS. bit.ly/45VpW8l
Stewart, R., Fitz-Gibbon, K. and Roberts, S. (2025). Examining the Impact of Domestic and Family Violence on Young Australians’ School-Level Education. Aust J Soc Issues. bit.ly/4gdrv4Z