Edmonton K-6 ‘high-priority’ classrooms to receive 143 complexity teams

Teams of three support staff will be dispatched to “high-priority” classrooms in Alberta, the province announced on Thursday.

In an effort to address classroom complexity in Alberta, the province has announced it will be deploying 476 complexity teams to K-6 schools.

Of those teams, Edmonton public schools will receive 101 and Catholic schools will get 42.

Teams consist of one teacher and two education assistants and will be dispatched to Kindergarten to Grade 6 high-priority classrooms.

“Research indicates that addressing student needs during the formative K-6 years is more effective and less costly than attempting to remediate behavioural or academic gaps in secondary school,” said the province in a statement.

Nearly 1,500 people will need to be hired to staff the complexity teams.

Hiring processes are made by the respective school authorities and do not involve the province.

“We do recognize it’s late in the year, and there may be some challenges, but we have to move forward,” said education minister Demtrios Nicolaides at a press conference in Calgary. “We’re always standing ready to help our school boards in whatever way that we can assist them.”

The complexity team initiative will cost $143 million from the 2025-2026 budget.

Nicolaides said the funding wasn’t used to address classroom complexity issues last year due to the lack of data.

“We didn’t have a strong line of sight into the nature of complexity affecting our schools,” he said. “Once we were able to receive that data, we were able to analyze and determine which schools required the most support and then we were able to distribute the dollars in that fashion.”

Nicolaides said the province will have more to say on education funding when the 2026 budget is released later this month.

Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) president Jason Schilling was skeptical of the province’s plan, saying that hiring enough teachers and EAs will be “a huge challenge.”

“Our school boards have a lot of work to do to help make this happen,” said Schilling at a virtual press conference Thursday. “But we also had a government that has disrespected and devalued public education for so long, and teachers, just recently stripping their Charter rights away with Bill 2.

“The government has more work to do to repair the damaged relationship with Alberta’s teachers.”

After speaking with educators at a teachers’ conference in Calgary, Schilling said he’s heard from principals that they’ve been struggling to fill positions.

“They’re not getting resumes,” he said. “Teachers are burning out and leaving.”

The Ministry of Education and Childcare gathered class size and composition data near the end of last year. The report released Thursday found that 655 schools and 4,486 classes were “high-priority classrooms.”

High-priority classrooms are defined by having seven or more complexity factors, large class sizes and 11 or more students who speak English as an additional language (EAL), or have mild/moderate or severe needs.

Complexity factors include EAL students, refugees, Indigenous students, gifted students and those with mild/moderate and severe needs, said the report.

The data looked at the composition rate and occurrence rate as well as class size, narrowing the schools needing complexity teams from 655 to 476.

Edmonton Catholic Schools chief superintendent Lynette Anderson said the teams are a positive step toward addressing classroom complexity.

“Our focus is on practical classroom-based supports, including planning strategies and hands-on assistance that helps teachers do what they do best,” said Anderson. “As Alberta’s population increases, classroom demands will also increase, and it is therefore critical that educators and support staff have the resources, training and supports they need to work safely and sustainably.”

Complexity teams will provide in-class assistance to teachers which can include helping students learn English, managing disruptive students or helping coded students with enrichment, said the province.