Sexual misconduct claims against non-Catholic independent schools almost double

Sexual misconduct claims against Victorian private non-Catholic schools have nearly doubled in the past year.

Sexual misconduct claims against Victorian private non-Catholic schools have nearly doubled in the past year, new data shows.

Sexual misconduct claims against Victorian private non-Catholic schools have nearly doubled in the past year, new data shows.

Despite educating only 15 per cent of students, independent schools received twice as many complaints as government schools which teach two-thirds of students, according to the annual report of the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP).

Sexual misconduct allegations in the private school sector rose from 93 from 2020-2021 to 171 in 2021-22. This compares to 71 in the Catholic system and 55 in government schools for the past year.

The substantiation rate for sexual misconduct allegations has increased in each of the last four years, rising from 21 per cent in 2018–19 to 31 per cent last year.

Overall, there have been 1455 sexual misconduct claims in the school sector in the past five years, making up 69 per cent of all such claims. Two thirds of such claims involve a female alleged victim.

Physical violence was the most common allegation type in government schools in 2021-22, accounting for 42 per cent of all claims. Two thirds of the physical violence claims involved a male alleged victim.

The CCYP annual report was tabled in State Parliament on Wednesday, along with the Victorian Institute of Teaching report which revealed more than 250 sexual misconduct allegations against teachers.

Victorian Institute of Teaching chief executive Peter Corcoran said the institute continued to be challenged by the increasing number of teacher conduct cases being reported to the institute from key stakeholders.

“Our current caseload represents a 168.8 per cent increase per year of the baseline case load since the introduction of the Reportable Conduct Scheme in Victoria in 2017,” Mr Corcoran said.

“Our investigators and legal officers have undertaken an extraordinary amount of work

preparing high quality briefs for consideration by the VIT Council.”

Victoria Police notified the regulatory body of 210 investigations into registered teachers who were believed to have committed a crime, down from 365 in 2021.