CALGARY — Alberta’s government is spending $100 million to hire more teachers, educational assistants and specialized support staff as schools face growing challenges related to classroom complexity and student behaviour.Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced the funding Monday, saying the province is expanding supports across the K-12 system to help schools manage increasingly complex learning environments while improving safety for both students and staff.The funding will create 221 new classroom complexity teams, including 158 teams for students in Grades 7-12 and 63 additional teams serving kindergarten to Grade 6 classrooms.“Every student deserves a safe, supportive classroom, and every teacher deserves the tools to succeed,” Nicolaides said. “This money will strengthen supports, improve safety and ensure teachers have the resources to manage increasingly complex classrooms.”The province said the new funding is intended to address growing behavioural challenges in schools, while providing educators with additional resources and training to respond to student needs.Under the plan, all public, separate and francophone school divisions will receive at least one additional complexity team. School authorities will have flexibility to deploy the teams where demand is greatest and adjust resources as needs change.The province is also directing part of the funding toward targeted training for teachers, educational assistants, administrators and other school staff. Training will focus on classroom safety, behaviour management, de-escalation techniques and strategies to support students with complex needs.The Calgary Board of Education welcomed the announcement, saying existing complexity teams have already demonstrated positive results in elementary schools.“We have already seen the positive impact the Classroom Complexity Teams are having in CBE schools,” said Calgary Board of Education chair Laura Hack. “Expanding these teams into grades 7 through 12, together with funding for staff training, will strengthen our ability to respond to learning needs across more schools.”The Calgary Catholic School District also praised the additional support.“Supporting students means supporting the educators who serve them every day,” said Lory Iovinelli. “The Calgary Catholic School District has consistently advocated for increased supports for students and staff, and we are grateful to see continued spending in one of education’s most pressing priorities.”According to the province, K-6 complexity teams typically consist of one teacher and two educational assistants who provide direct classroom support for younger students. The expansion is expected to add up to 63 teachers and 126 educational assistants.The new Grade 7-12 teams will include one teacher and one educational assistant, with access to additional specialists such as behaviour experts and social workers. The province said the expansion could support up to 158 teachers and 158 educational assistants, along with specialized staff.The announcement builds on previous provincial efforts to address classroom complexity. Earlier this year, Alberta committed $143 million to support up to 476 classroom complexity teams in the province’s most challenging K-6 classrooms.Budget 2026 includes a total of $355 million for class size and classroom complexity initiatives during the 2026-27 school year. That includes $200 million through the Class Size Reduction Grant to hire more than 1,400 teachers, $100 million for complexity supports and training, and $55 million to continue the existing Classroom Complexity Grant.The province said a cabinet committee focused on class size and classroom complexity helped guide the latest funding decisions by reviewing education system data and identifying emerging pressures facing Alberta schools..HILTON O’BRIEN: Alberta needs an ‘Inspector General of Education’."These teams will be deployed at the school board level to allow the school boards the flexibility to target the supports where they're needed the most and move them around," stated Nicolaides. "This team-based approach ensures that schools have access to coordinated expertise rather than relying on isolated supports."The Western Standard also asked Nicolaides whether the government would consider creating an Inspector General for the Alberta education system, who would regularly audit schools for their conduct both fiscally and otherwise.This is something John Hilton O'Brien, Executive Director of Parents for Choice in Education, pushed for in a recent Western Standard article after, in April, the Calgary Board of Education settled an expensive lawsuit over the sexual abuse of students at its John Ware School.With a $16 million settlement awarded to 50 students who came forward, an investigative reporter accused the school of “a culture of apathy — or at worst, complicity.” In response, the Alberta government took away the ability of the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) to discipline teachers, as it had for decades been the only teachers' union in Canada to discipline its own members."I'd be happy to look more into that. I haven't had an opportunity to read that particular column, but I'd be happy to look more at the idea and explore whether that's something that would be necessary within the education system," stated Nicolaides in response.
