Sexual abuse notifications
Sexual abuse can harm children in many ways. Incidents of this nature that occur at an education and care service must be reported to the Education Standards Board.
However, it is important that providers and educators understand that not all sexual behaviour poses a risk to children’s safety.
We are often notified about sexualised behaviours between children under ‘Incidents of physical or sexual abuse and allegations of physical or sexual abuse’. This would typically be for an allegation of abuse by an adult towards a child or children.
Incidents between children may be notifiable as posing a risk to a child. An example would be where one child has power over the other because of size, strength or age. Or where the behaviour is inappropriate or concerning.
Other child-to-child sexualised interactions should be reported as ‘Any circumstance posing risk to health, safety and wellbeing’.
Please remember: You must still notify the Child Abuse Report Line on 13 14 78 about any child abuse or neglect concerns. This is in addition to any notifications to the Education Standards Board.
For more information:
- Education and Care Services National Regulations, r. 175(2)(c)(d) and (e)
- Responding to problem sexual behaviour in children and young people, Department for Education, Catholic Education SA and Association of Independent Schools of South Australia
- Managing allegations of sexual misconduct in SA education and care settings, Department for Education, Catholic Education SA and Association of Independent Schools of South Australia
- ‘Sexualised behaviour in children: A sensitive issue,’ ESB Bulletin, August 2019
- Guide to the National Quality Framework, ACECQA, pp. 462–465
- Reporting Abuse and Neglect - Education and Care (RAN-EC) training: list of approved training organisations