Principals in Victoria will get increased powers to deal with aggressive and violent parents following a state government review.
The School Community Safety Order Scheme has been in place since 2022, giving government, independent and Catholic school principals the power to ban parents or carers who engage in harmful or abusive behaviour from school grounds.
However, a recent review of the scheme, involving schools sharing the details of real incidents with the education department, has identified ways to strengthen those powers.
The review has recommended reducing the administrative work principals have to do to issue a safety order, and protections for school staff on social media.
One incident shared by a school during the review involved a 12-month safety order against a parent for aggression towards a student who was not their child.
The government said its review found schools considered the scheme an important tool for protecting their communities.
It will now consult with principals, teachers, parents and carers via an online survey on how to implement stronger powers for principals.
Minister for Education Ben Carroll said the majority of parents and carers worked well with schools to resolve any concerns.
"However, harmful behaviour affects our students and their education — that is why we are taking further action," he said.
Under the current scheme, safety orders issued by a principal can stop or limit adults from coming into the school.
They can include exceptions for times of the day or specific locations.
The orders are intended as a last resort where less restrictive options are not available.
If the person banned has a child at the school, the child has to be allowed to continue attending and the school must allow the parents to remain involved with their education.
Need to consider non-school social media, union says
Australian Education Union Victoria president Justin Mullaly said principals' powers to ban parents and carers from school grounds should extend to posts on non-school-controlled social media, such as parent WhatsApp groups.
"At the moment, the safety orders provide for school social media accounts, but there's other activity on social media," he said.
"There's no ability to put in place these orders because they're not on school accounts."
Since their introduction three years ago, Mr Mullaly said the safety orders had been a vital tool for principals to deal with "unwarranted and undue offensive behaviour".
Parental violence, while rare, had always been issue, but incidents had been increasing over time, Mr Mullaly said.
"We want to have environments in our schools where we're bringing up our children, where we're educating our children in a way that actually meets their needs," he said.