This article examines how policies and strategies to address school-related gender-based violence have evolved since 2000, when gender-based violence within education was largely invisible. Through an exploration of policy enactment in three countries--Liberia, South Africa, and Brazil--it traces remarkable progress in policy, programmes, and research. The analysis asks why, despite such achievements, there is little evidence that these policy enactments have succeeded in reducing violence. The case studies reveal disconnects in the ways violence is conceptualized and acted upon by policy actors, which inhibit effective action. The article concludes that more attention is needed to the "middle level" space between national and local policy enactments, and to tackling--at national, district, school and community levels--the norms and inequalities at the heart of gender-based violence.