Victoria's youth have been the political focus of both Premier Daniel Andrews and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy at the start of the final week of the state election campaign.

The Premier on Sunday pledged free dental coverage for state school kids, while his opponent promised a pilot program of boot camps for non-violent juvenile offenders.

Under the Coalition's plan, Children's Court magistrates would have the power to send teens who are not violent to be disciplined at a camp, instead of serving a youth justice sentence.

The two-year pilot would cost $5 million and builds on the Coalition's tough-on-crime election platform.

Mr Guy said the program would target 15 to 19-year-olds who would attend the camp up to 12 weeks and be taught discipline and respect.

"[It's] a great way … of dealing with kids who are under 19, who may be going wayward but we don't want to see them in the criminal justice system forever for their life," he said.

"We want to give them a new way forward … we don't want them to lead a life of crime, this is a way to do things differently."

Victoria spends $131,400 per prisoner each year, well above Australia's national average of $109,821, but almost one in two Victorian prisoners return to jail within two years of their release.

Both parties have promised to build new corrections facilities to cope with the state's burgeoning prisoner population.

But Labor's Minister for Families and Children Jenny Mikakos said boot camps had not worked interstate.

"What we have seen from those states that have had boot camps, is they've actually shut down those programs because they were shown to be an expensive failure that saw most participants go on to reoffend," she said.

An evaluation of boot camps introduced by former premier of Queensland Campbell Newman in 2013, done by independent auditors KPMG, showed they failed to cut repeat offending.

The camps were shut down in 2015 by the Labor Government in that state.

Free dental care in public schools

Meanwhile, the Victorian Labor Party has promised to give every state school student free dental care if it wins next weekend's state election.

The $396 million scheme would involve sending 250 dental vans to schools, where children could have check-ups and fillings.

Labor estimates the plan would save families about $400 a year.

"This will save money for families, it will bring better dental health care for kids," Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy said.

"Dental health care is often really treated as the poor cousin of general health and we want to change that."

Opposition health spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge said waiting times for general dental appointments had "blown out" under Labor from 12 to 20 months.

"Daniel Andrews said he would have a dental health strategy released by the end of 2017 but it has never been seen," Ms Wooldridge said.

"[He] hasn't cared for four years, why would anyone believe he cares now?"

According to the most recent Victorian Health Services Performance report, wait times for general dental care have increased from 18.6 months in September 2017 to 20.7 months in September this year.