Some Calgary Board of Education trustees are calling on the provincial government to provide more funding for public schools to help students with complex needs.

Administration told trustees at a board meeting on Tuesday that the CBE received $115 million in student learning support last fiscal year. However, that year, the board spent $156 million on student learning support. That left a difference of $41 million which came from the remainder of the funding received from Alberta Education, which is meant to help fund all students.

“That is a concern for me because I feel like the provincial government should be funding the actual cost of serving children with complex needs,” said Trustee Susan Vukadinovic at Tuesday’s board meeting.

This comes after a presentation from administration about the student learning supports that are currently available within the CBE system.

According to the presentation, the district developed a continuum of supports and services that aim to be universal, targeted and individualized, which follow Alberta Education’s three priorities: Learning excellence, well-being, and truth and reconciliation.

Universal supports and services include accessible learning environments, accessible tools and resources, varied instructional techniques, and creating structures and routines.

Targeted support services include specialized service providers, adaptive learning environments, adaptive instructional techniques and structures that promote well-being.

Individualized supports include specialized programming, student support plans, modified curricula and specialized services.

Province says funding support was topped up

Administrators said the continuum of supports and services will be assessed using three key measures, including the Alberta Education Assurance Measures and the Alberta Education Local Components which measure access to support and services. Local measures such as report card results, attendance data, CBE student surveys, employee well-being surveys, employee support and services utilization rates, professional learning data and parent surveys are also used to monitor the impact of these supports and services.

Altogether, the continuum of supports and services try to follow Alberta Education’s principles of inclusive education, administration said. This includes:

• anticipating, valuing and supporting diversity and learner differences
• creating a culture of high expectations
• understanding learners’ strengths and needs
• removing barriers within schools and other learning environments
• building capacity
• collaborating for success

“So, when we consider accessing supports, the school is always the starting point. Within schools, resources – both human and material – are purchased and allocated according to student learning priorities. Each school principal receives their ramp or school budget with funding allocations based on the students that they serve,” said Christopher Radu, an education director with the CBE.

“Decisions are made at the school level in consultation with education directors as to how to allocate resources based on the current student population. This work has started in the spring and continued on through the fall, where adjustments can be made in response to student enrollment and needs.”

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides told LWC in an emailed statement that the province has invested $1.5 billion this school year for specialized supports at schools across Alberta. Nicolaides added that the province invested an additional $125 million to increase base instructional funding grants, as well as targeted program services and support grants.

“This means that all students, including our youngest, most vulnerable learners, receive additional funding supports. This additional funding means that the Calgary Board of Education is funded to the tune of more than 1.42 billion, an increase of more than $116 million from last year,” the email read.

“Every year, my team and I talk to our school authority partners to get their feedback on the current education funding model so we can review its performance. We are working on an alternative funding model and are confident that we will be able to revise the funding model to better meet the emerging needs of all school authorities.”

Trustees raise concerns about accessibility, barriers to services

Some trustees voiced accessibility concerns, saying parents are often confused on how to access the supports and services. Trustee Susan Vukadinovic said a lot of families find it challenging to navigate the support systems at schools.

“I still meet the occasional family where … somehow it hasn’t landed with them that your first point of contact is the teacher,” she said.

“I’m a full believer in the value of that … So, I’m just mulling over why it is that I still, even though the vast majority of families get that in the plans, why do we have the occasional family where they aren’t clear that that is their very good first step.”

Trustee Laura Hack, who represents Wards 3 and 4, said it is “heartbreaking” that the CBE is only able to provide appropriate supports based on need and resources because more and more students are needing support at schools. She said there are still barriers to accessing the supports and services, saying many families aren’t able to afford thousands of dollars for psycho-educational assessments at private clinics.

She added that most of the referrals are made for boys, and girls are often underdiagnosed and struggling internally.

“We know that only the most needy students, who usually look like the most destructive students at school, get the referral to centralized access service providers at the CBE,” Hack said.

“I know we don’t say that we have a wait list, because we can’t legally say that we have one, but there is a fact that there is more need than resources … We know that accessing these [supports] and supporting our students in their education will spend millions of dollars now but will save billions and trillions of dollars later.”

In response, administration said the work takes a commitment that involves a lot of relationship-building within communities. While not perfect, the continuum of supports and services is there to ensure equity for all students across the districts and aims to instill confidence in teachers and educational support staff.

“With this shift over the last two years in particular, while we see a great need we also see incredible action. We will continue to maintain that action and continue to make adjustments in response to our students,” said Chief Superintendent of Schools Joanne Pitman.