A Calgary school board is requesting additional funding to support students with “complex needs,” reporting that nearly a third of students require assistance with learning “English as an additional language.”
The Calgary Board of Education is requesting $148 million in additional funding to support students with special learning needs, as well as the growing number of students who don’t speak English.
In the CBE’s budget priorities for the 2026-27 budget, the board revealed that of the over 142,000 students, “about 31 per cent” or 44,000 students, are learning English as a second language. The memo notes that this is 17.6 per cent higher than the rest of Alberta.
The board is requesting that the provincial government allocate $50 million to support students with severe learning needs in specialized environments, $50 million to support “complexity” in regular classrooms, $30 million for infrastructure “to support neurodiverse learners” and $18 million to transport students with complex learning needs.
The CBE notes that the funding would be used to hire interpreters for students learning English as an additional language, as well as speech-language pathologists, among other support services.
An infographic from the board’s request shows that approximately eight out of a typical 28-student class, or approximately 28.6 per cent, require support to learn English as a second language.
Jamie Sarkonak, a columnist for The National Post, pointed out on X that hiring additional support as interpreters due to the high volume of immigrant students who don’t speak English is unheard of in Canada.
“The board is now proposing to hire interpreters for regular classrooms. This somehow became normal without anyone raising it with the feds,” she wrote. “Schools can absorb some non-English speakers, certainly in the younger grades, but these figures are huge. There’s no way it doesn’t affect classroom learning for those born here. Meanwhile, education costs more because of all the new supports needed.”
The board’s budget priorities request notes that the number of students with “specialized learning needs” has grown ninefold, from 3,000 to 27,000 in just four years.
It stated that one in five students, or 19 per cent, have specialized learning needs. And over 7,000 elementary school students are identified as having either ADHD, specific learning disabilities or both.
The report noted that CBE currently spends over $160 million on 3,500 students with “complex needs.” It said that an additional $50 million in that area would allow the board to fund an additional 3,500 students and maintain specialized classes and “unique settings.”
“Without it, more students with complex needs will have to be supported inside regular classrooms, increasing class size and teacher strain,” the report said.
Last week, the Alberta government announced the establishment of a Class Size and Complexity Task Force aimed at addressing growing challenges with classroom aggression and diverse learning needs in the province.
This year’s provincial budget allocated $55 million to address classroom complexity, 20 percent more than last year’s budget.
Many of the provinces’ independent schools also serve new Canadian families and those with special learning needs. Independent schools could face challenges as Elections Alberta has approved a citizen initiative petition calling for the province to end public funding for accredited independent schools, which could upend Alberta’s decades-old “funding follows the child” education model.
John Jagersma, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta, told True North that the proposal would devastate his sector.
He explained the petition takes a month to apply for, adding that its proponent, Alicia Taylor, is a Calgary district representative on the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s governing council.