It comes as the union puts on extra workers to cope with a flood of teachers seeking help and WorkSafe takes action against the ACT Education Directorate for failing to keep staff safe.

Educators who spoke to The Canberra Times under the condition of anonymity have painted a concerning picture of poor management around violence in ACT schools, in some cases more than a year after the roll-out of the Education Directorate's new occupational violence policy.

The directorate has spent the past two years implementing $8 million worth of reforms designed to build a culture of reporting. But while some teachers said they were well supported by their schools, others said they were explicitly discouraged from logging a number of violent events.

Those incidents, which in some cases were allegedly screened by principals before they could be entered into the directorate's reporting portal, ranged from windows and computers being smashed during class to violence against staff and other students. Some happened as recently as this year. Many involved students with complex needs, such as those living with disability or trauma. Some happened in mainstream settings.

"I was told verbally more than once, 'Let's not put that [report] in, it'll make the school's data look bad'," one teacher said.

Another said the reluctance to report certain incidents appeared to come out of concern for the students involved, but often made the situation worse.

Speaking to an ACT Assembly hearing this week, the directorate's director-general Natalie Howson said work was under way to help teachers understand that reporting was important to keep everyone safe, including students.

Logging incidents into a central portal allowed the directorate to track trends and follow up with schools if problems appeared to be continuing, she said. Extra support and expertise could then be deployed, but the directorate relied on the professional judgement of school leaders and teachers on the ground when assessing risks.

The directorate's updated violence policy, launched last July and developed alongside the Australian Education Union, has been described by Education Minister Yvette Berry as nation-leading and acknowledged by WorkSafe as a step in the right direction.

But while the union says things are improving, cases are still not always handled properly.

"I've heard some really good stories and some not-so-good ones since [the policy] came in," the union's ACT secretary Glenn Fowler said.

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Multiple teachers described how their safety concerns and requests for extra student support had been rebuffed at a school level, with emails often going unanswered.

A pregnant worker punched in the stomach repeatedly by students said she had done all the right things and reported her assaults.

"But there came a time when my doctor and I agreed the risks to my baby were too high," she said.

Another teacher said a push by staff to develop a behavioural response plan at a high school was repeatedly knocked back by leadership.

"It got to the point my family were terrified, mum would say ‘I’m waiting to get that call you’re in the hospital’," she said.

"I cared about the students, they needed help. But then one day, I couldn't protect the other kids from [a particular student]. I just broke.

"I've been tackled before, I've been threatened. But I've always had a good rapport with the kids. This was out of control."

After returning to work following that incident, she said she still felt fear in the classroom. Instead of a welcome back guided by the new policy, she said she had been forced to carry out her own risk assessment.

Another teacher who recalled barricading themselves in an office to escape a violent parent reported a similiar experience, saying they were cut off from colleagues while on stress leave.

"[The parent] seemed to know where I lived, I stopped sleeping, I became unwell," the teacher said. "But no one followed up with me."

In one 2016 case investigated by WorkSafe, a learning support assistant known as Melanie was attacked 34 times in class but only given compression bandages to protect her arms against bites from students.

"I logged a report for every [assault]," she said.

Left in harm's way for more than six months, Melanie said it was only intervention from the union that saw things change. It demanded an investigation, pushed for a move to another school and helped her successfully claim compensation to cover her medical bills, she said.

Recently discharged from a mental health facility following her ordeal, Melanie said if the union hadn't stepped in she doesn't know what would have happened.

"They came to meetings, they visited me in the facility. It was such a slow process but they gave me a voice," she said.

Mr Fowler said some of his staff had been coping with vicarious trauma supporting teachers through harrowing situations.

"This has been a sleeper issue, now everyone is coming forward, we've had to put on more staff," he said.

Violence was behind more than two-thirds of work health and safety reports lodged by directorate staff in the 2017-18 period. Of those 2398 reports, some could relate to the same incident if several staff were involved, David Matthews of the directorate said.

A directorate spokeswoman said there were 2191 violent incidents in 2017, with many occurring in the younger year levels and involving students with complex needs. Less than five per cent of incidents involved a perpetrator other than a student, such as a parent or a community member.

Ms Berry, who began work on reforms after the union raised the alarm with her more than two years ago, said the rise in reports last year reflected efforts to improve reporting. She stressed that total time lost due to injury remained relatively stable for the directorate over the same period.

"I know we are absolutely on the right path to start seeing improvements and reducing the numbers of incidents in our schools," she said.

At Tuesday's hearing, education spokeswoman Elizabeth Lee asked the directorate why reports had not been followed up in the past.  Ms Howson said it sometimes took time to work out which controls would have the right impact on a student, particularly younger children who the system was still getting to know.

Deputy-director Meg Brighton added that if a principal was seeing multiple incidents in their school they were expected to take action, noting that the directorate was still on a learning journey of its own and working to strengthen its responses to violence.

As of Friday, 61 of the ACT's 87 public schools had gone through new occupational violence training, including all three schools investigated by WorkSafe. Remaining schools would be trained by the end of the year, Ms Brighton said.

The number of teachers taking leave due to violence, bullying or harassment has tripled in the past five years, according to directorate figures.