Recording and reporting racist incidents

Find out when to report racist incidents and bullying to your LA or the police, and how recorded incidents can inform your school's anti-racism action plan. Adapt your behaviour policy to include your approach to racism and see example policies from other schools.

Last reviewed on 15 September 2022
School types: All · School phases: All
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Contents
  1. What's a racist incident?
  2. There's no national requirement for schools to report racist incidents
  3. It's up to schools to decide what to record
  4. Use your behaviour policy to tackle racist bullying and racist incidents

What's a racist incident?

A racist incident is "any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person", according to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report (page 362, section 45.17).

There's no national requirement for schools to report racist incidents

You don't have to report racist incidents to any external bodies, whether they involve pupils or not – unless your local authority (LA) requires it, or the racist incident is a crime (see below for more on this).

The DfE told us this and also provided the information in the rest of this section.

But your LA might require you to report incidents

Contact your LA to see what it expects from you. In some cases, you might want to work with your LA designated officer to tackle the problem.

See Citizens

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