The NSW minister for education announced on Thursday a strategy aimed at supporting teachers to manage complex behaviours in the classroom to improve outcomes for disadvantaged students.

"We will be empowering schools to increase proactive early intervention and prevention, balanced with strong and appropriate discipline using evidence-based best practice to support students inside and outside of the school gate," Ms Mitchell said.

"Student behaviour has sat in the too hard basket for too long and the best tool for success we can give these students is a world-class education."

In 2019, Wagga schools were ranked as the state's most violent, with 60 incidences.

Among the raft of changes will see suspension duration decreased, with the longest maximum time halved from 20 days to 10.

Suspensions will also be reserved for the management of physically violent behaviours.

"We know that suspension disproportionately affects vulnerable students, particularly those with disability, leaving them even further behind in their education than they were at the beginning of the suspension," Ms Mitchell said.

The new initiative will now be trialled in state schools, but Riverina organiser for the NSW Teachers Federation, John Pratt, criticised the lack of consultation ahead of its implementation.

Mr Pratt said the announcement on Thursday was the first he had heard of the new rules.

He described Ms Mitchell's strategy as an "inadequate one-size-fits-all approach" aimed at "blaming teachers" instead of resourcing the problem.

"This will make teachers' lives much harder," Mr Pratt said.

"It sees suspension as a punishment, which is not the case. The suspension is a time out for the school and student, for them to regroup and put in place a return to the school that will be successful and safe.

"We want the school environment to be safe for teachers, staff and students. Suspensions give the school time to plan for that."

Mr Pratt agreed with Ms Mitchell's sentiment that suspension "disproportionately affects vulnerable students", but saw the reduction of time as a poor focus for rectifying that problem.

"Schools need extra resourcing to manage behaviours identified in the classroom," Mr Pratt said.

"Teachers need the resources to implement a phased return to class if needed, or an aid, more facilities or staffing that will help give the student the care they need."

Physical violence, Mr Pratt said, is often a manifestation of a student's learning disability, and said the Department of Education's new approach would treat the symptoms without recognising the cause.

"The behaviour is dangerous, not the student," Mr Pratt said.

"Schools need appropriate resources for managing learning disabilities because every student is entitled to an education but it has to be in the appropriate environment."

To access the resources needed to better manage the classroom behaviour, Mr Pratt said, is often filled with "bureaucratic requirements and hurdles before any assessment can take place".

"They don't have the time, they have 29 other students they are having to care for," Mr Pratt said.

"Teachers need access to specialists who will get their hands dirty and assist with the hardest to manage students."

Mr Pratt also questioned how teachers would be brought across the new system during its trial period.

"[Will there be] some online training that teachers will have to sit through before they're thrust into dealing with any number of behaviours and told, 'you've got the training so it's your fault if you can't manage'?"