Accused youth criminals fitted with ankle monitoring bracelets will not be allowed to attend mainstream schools after a state government plan was dumped at the 11th hour.
A trial of ankle monitoring for up to 50 repeat youth offenders on bail is set to be rolled out in Victoria.
When implemented from April, the education and justice departments had planned to keep high-risk youths in classrooms with fellow students.
Education Minister Ben Carroll said he first learned of the plan on Saturday morning after it leaked to the media following school principals being briefed.
"My reaction was that bureaucracy got this wrong," he told reporters at state parliament on Tuesday.
He has ordered the departments to go back to the drawing board after speaking to cabinet colleagues and principals.
"I made it very clear this was not going to happen under my watch," Mr Carroll said.
"Kids that are high risk wearing electronic bracelets are not suited to mainstream school settings.
"They will not be in mainstream schools."
The ankle monitoring program was among a raft of measures green lit under a stand-alone youth justice bill passed in August to combat rising community safety concerns.
Statistics released in December showed crimes by children aged 10 to 17 had reached their highest levels in Victoria since 2009.
There are 78 flexible learning options across the state, including about 35 in the non-government sector, Mr Carroll said.
"They are tailored to support kids that are disengaged from education," he added.
"That is where these kids are best suited, it's where they will get the support they need, and they'll get the opportunity to live a life of purpose."
Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said the decision to "backflip" on the proposal should have been made sooner and the minister had lost control of his own department.
"It is unacceptable that minister Carroll did not know that not only was his department thinking about or briefing teachers or principals about this issue, the department was actually implementing the policy," she said.
