Free School Incident Report Template

Incident reporting in schools is important because it ensures key issues aren’t ignored. By documenting incidents, school leaders can promote accountability and identify the root cause.

Having all of the details recorded can help applicable parties develop an action plan to correct the problem. They can track progress and note improvements going forward, ultimately creating a safer and more productive school environment.

Furthermore, a school incident report helps keep parents informed about their child’s experiences at school. It notifies them of behavioral issues and any plans to address them, and alerts them if their child has been affected by bullying or other concerning incidents. With this information, parents can provide support at home and work with the school to help their child succeed.

Writing a school incident report will help you capture all of the key details of an incident involving bullying, a medical emergency, or other disruption. Follow the steps below to ensure your student incident report is comprehensive:

Step 1 – Name the Parties

Name yourself as the reporter and state your role, whether it’s an administrator, educator, support staff, teacher’s assistant, or custodian.

Also, identify all other parties involved in the incident. They may be students, teachers, or others on the school campus. For each party, provide their name, role, class/department, and grade level (if applicable). State whether there were any witnesses to the event and identify them as well.

Step 2 – State the Location & Date

Provide the school’s address and specify the exact location of the incident. This may be a specific classroom number or a common area, such as the cafeteria or the library. Even if the incident occurred in a more general area, try to be as specific as possible, such as “the non-fiction area of the library closest to the main entrance.”

To offer further context, list the date and time of the incident as close as possible to the actual occurrence.

Step 3 – Categorize the Incident & Describe It in Detail

Legal Templates’s incident report template for schools lets you choose from the following incident categories:

• Physical altercation
• Verbal threat or bullying
• Property damage or theft
• Inappropriate behavior
• Accident or injury
• Violation of school policy
• Medical emergency
• Other

Select the one that best describes the incident that occurred. If none are a good match, choose “Other” and create your own category label.

Once you assign a broader label, you may describe the incident in further detail. Here are some examples:

• After-school incident description: Two students had a verbal disagreement while waiting for pickup after school. A staff member intervened, separated the students, and contacted their parents.
• Bullying incident description: A student reported that a classmate repeatedly made hurtful comments about their appearance during lunch periods. Staff spoke with the students involved and began reviewing the situation.
• Classroom incident description: Two students were roughhousing during a science experiment. One of them knocked over a container of hydrochloric acid. They notified a teacher who immediately isolated the area and cleaned up the spill following classroom procedures. No one was injured.
• Field trip incident description: During a museum field trip, a student wandered away from their assigned group but was located by staff within minutes. The student was returned safely to the group, and parents were notified of the incident.

Step 4 – Record the Incident Response

Discuss how staff members responded to the incident. Note whether they took immediate intervention and how the problem was solved (the student was removed from the situation, the spill was cleaned up, etc). You should also indicate:

• Whether medical services were provided
• Who was notified of the incident (including the school administrator, principal, parents, guardians, etc.)

Even if immediate action was taken, it’s still best to develop a long-term plan to remediate the situation and prevent it from happening again. Depending on the severity of the incident, you may take the following steps:

• Deliver a verbal warning
• Issue disciplinary action
• Schedule a parent-teacher conference
• Administer detention or suspension
• Provide a counseling referral
• Review a behavior contract with the student

Step 5 – Provide the Final Details

Ensure that you use our school incident report template to provide the final details of your account. Include any witness statements, if applicable. Date your school incident report to verify when you’re writing it.

View an example of our school incident report template to better understand how to compile all of the incident details and communicate an issue affecting a student’s learning or well-being. Then create your own using Legal Templates’s form. Once you fill out all the guided questions, it’ll be available to download in PDF or Word.

School incident reports contain sensitive details that should be handled with care. Here are some legal considerations to keep in mind when writing a student incident report form so you respect students’ privacy, ensure timely reporting, and follow applicable laws:

• Report crimes to law enforcement. If someone on the school campus commits a crime, contact law enforcement immediately. While authorities have their own reporting processes, you may need a police incident report to track the event in your school’s records.
• Follow special procedures for specific types of incidents. Incidents that are severe in nature may have specific processes to follow:
• Sexual harassment or assault. Follow Title IX reporting procedures for federally funded schools.
• Disability-related incidents. Report incidents as required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
• Civil rights violations. Follow recordkeeping rules established by the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.
• Child abuse or neglect. Make a mandatory report to the appropriate authorities as required by law.
• Respect students’ privacy. When sharing school incident reports with parents, schools must protect students’ privacy. They should only share information that the parent is allowed to see and avoid including private details about other students. Schools must also comply with privacy laws, such as FERPA, to ensure student records are handled properly.