Asthma in Victorian Schools: What Every Staff Member Needs to Know

Asthma is one of the most common medical conditions affecting school-age children in Australia. Around one in nine children has asthma, and schools are one of the settings where attacks are most likely to occur — during sport, on excursions, or triggered by dust, cold air, or stress. For Victorian school staff, knowing how to recognise and respond to an asthma attack is not just good practice. It is a professional obligation.

This guide covers what Victorian schools are required to have in place, what staff need to know, and how to respond confidently when a student is struggling to breathe.

What DET Victoria Requires

The Department of Education and Training (DET) Victoria requires all government schools to have an Asthma First Aid Policy aligned with the Asthma Australia guidelines. This includes maintaining a standard asthma kit on-site at all times, ensuring staff know how to use a spacer and puffer, and having a process in place for managing students with known asthma.

Schools must also keep individual Asthma Action Plans for students who have been diagnosed with asthma. These plans, prepared by the student’s doctor, outline their triggers, usual medication, and the steps staff should take if symptoms appear. They should be reviewed annually and updated whenever a student’s condition changes.

Under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 and the duty of care owed to students, school staff are expected to act reasonably to protect students from foreseeable harm. For a student with known asthma, failing to respond appropriately to an attack — or failing to have a working reliever on hand — would not meet that standard.

Understanding the Standard Asthma Kit

Every Victorian school is required to maintain a standard asthma kit for use in emergency situations where a student’s own medication is unavailable. The kit must contain:

• A blue reliever inhaler (salbutamol 100 mcg), in date
• At least four spacer devices
• A copy of the Asthma Australia First Aid chart

The spacer is a critical piece of equipment. When used with a puffer, it significantly improves how much medication reaches the lungs — particularly for children who may have trouble coordinating their breath with the inhaler. Spacers should never be shared between students without thorough cleaning, and ideally a fresh spacer should be used for each student.

It is worth checking your school’s kit regularly. Expired medication is a common oversight, and a reliever puffer that is past its use-by date may not deliver the full dose when it is needed most.

Recognising an Asthma Attack

Asthma symptoms exist on a spectrum, from mild to life-threatening. Staff should be able to recognise the signs at each level.

Mild to moderate symptoms include wheezing, persistent cough, shortness of breath, and tightness in the chest. The student may be able to speak in full sentences but will look uncomfortable and may be anxious. They should be able to walk but may not want to.

Severe symptoms include significant difficulty breathing, the student only being able to speak in short phrases, visible effort in the neck and chest muscles, and a blue tinge to the lips or fingernails (cyanosis). This is a medical emergency.

Some students — particularly very young children or those who are very fit — may not always wheeze even during a significant attack. If a student says they cannot breathe properly, take them seriously.

The Four-Step Asthma First Aid Response

Asthma Australia recommends the following four-step approach for responding to an asthma attack:

1. Sit the student upright — do not lay them down. Keep them calm and still.
2. Give four puffs of a blue reliever inhaler — one puff at a time, using a spacer. Ask the student to take four breaths after each puff.
3. Wait four minutes — if there is no improvement, give four more puffs.
4. Call 000 — if there is still no improvement after a second round, or if the student deteriorates at any point, call for an ambulance immediately and continue giving four puffs every four minutes until help arrives.

This approach is sometimes called the “4x4x4 rule” and is widely used across Australian schools and childcare settings. Familiarity with it can make the difference between a controlled situation and a crisis.

Never wait to see if the student improves on their own without giving medication. Every minute of oxygen deprivation matters.

Sport, Excursions, and High-Risk Situations

Physical activity is a known trigger for exercise-induced asthma in many students. Before sport days, cross-country events, or physical education sessions, staff should check whether any participating students have asthma and ensure their medication is accessible — not locked in a first aid room on the other side of the school.

The same applies to excursions. Any student with a known Asthma Action Plan should have their reliever medication with them, either in their bag or with a supervising adult. Schools should include medication management as part of their excursion planning process.

Cold air, smoke (including bushfire smoke), pollen, mould, and strong chemical smells are all common triggers. On days where air quality is poor, it is worth having a plan for moving activities indoors and keeping a closer eye on vulnerable students.

Staff Training: Beyond Knowing Where the Kit Is

Having an asthma kit and printed action plans is a starting point, but staff need practical, hands-on training to feel confident using them under pressure. Reading a chart when a child is struggling to breathe is a very different experience from practising the technique in a calm setting.

DET Victoria encourages schools to ensure that staff who are likely to be responsible for student welfare — including classroom teachers, physical education staff, excursion supervisors, and office staff — have completed an asthma first aid course. Refresher training every two to three years helps maintain competency, as techniques can fade quickly without practice.

A first aid course that includes asthma and anaphylaxis management will also address the interaction between the two conditions, which matters because some students may have both. Knowing when to reach for the blue puffer versus the EpiPen — and when to call 000 regardless — is knowledge that genuinely saves lives.

Building a Culture of Preparedness

The most effective schools treat asthma management as an ongoing responsibility rather than a compliance exercise. That means regular audits of medication and equipment, clear communication between families and staff about changes in a student’s condition, and honest conversations at the start of each year about which students have asthma and what their plan looks like.

It also means making sure relief teachers and new staff are briefed on any relevant students, not just the full-time team. Many incidents happen precisely because the person present did not know the student’s history.

Asthma is manageable — but only when the people around a student know what to do.

Book First Aid Training for Your School

AB First Aid delivers practical, engaging first aid training tailored to school staff in Melbourne’s north-west and beyond. Our courses cover asthma, anaphylaxis, CPR, paediatric first aid, and workplace emergency response — all aligned with current Australian guidelines and DET Victoria requirements.

We run regular public courses at our Tullamarine training centre, with flexible scheduling to suit school terms and staff availability. Group bookings are available for in-school training if you’d prefer to keep things on-site.

View our public course schedule or get in touch with the team at AB First Aid in Tullamarine to find the right training option for your school.

References

• Department of Education and Training Victoria. (2023). Asthma. Retrieved from https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/asthma/policy
• Asthma Australia. (2024). Asthma First Aid. Retrieved from https://asthma.org.au/about-asthma/asthma-first-aid/
• National Asthma Council Australia. (2023). Australian Asthma Handbook. Retrieved from https://www.asthmahandbook.org.au
• Safe Work Australia. (2022). First Aid in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/first-aid
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2024). Asthma. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/health-conditions-disability-deaths/asthma/overview