Minister of Education, Adriana LaGrange. (Government of Alberta)

By rdnewsNOW Staff

Bill 15

Government proposes bill to reform disciplinary process for teachers

Mar 31, 2022 | 5:18 PM

Officials with the Alberta government say students, parents and teachers across the province stand to benefit from reforms to the discipline process for all teachers and teacher leaders.

If passed, Bill 15, the Education (Reforming Teacher Profession Discipline) Amendment Act, 2022 would create the Alberta Teaching Profession Commission, and appoint an arm’s-length commissioner, to oversee teacher and teacher leader conduct and competency complaints for the profession. Officials say this process would apply equally to all teachers and teacher leaders, whether they are members of the Alberta Teachers’ Association or not.

“Alberta’s government is committed to ensuring student safety is at the centre of our disciplinary processes,” said Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Education, on Thursday. “I want parents and the public to have peace of mind and know that we are improving accountability in the process, enhancing the reputation of the teaching profession and increasing public assurance when it comes to oversight of discipline matters.”

Creating a new model for teacher and teacher leader discipline overseen by a commissioner is hoped to bring Alberta in line with comparable provinces and other regulated professions such as nurses, where an arm’s-length organization oversees disciplinary matters, say government officials. By aligning Alberta’s processes with those used in other provinces and professions in Canada, parents are expected to be assured the new commission would further protect students and enhance accountability and transparency.

This legislation is described as the next step that builds on the Students First Act, 2021. The online teacher registry will make publicly available all hearing, appeal and minister decisions where there is a finding of unprofessional conduct or professional incompetence, as well as consent resolution agreements initiated by the Alberta Teaching Profession Commissioner.

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The proposed approach is expected to modernize the teacher and teacher leader professional oversight process, elevating the status of the teaching profession, while removing any perception of conflict of interest where a union could both advocate for and oversee disciplinary matters for its members. Government officials say this approach would not affect the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s (ATA) or the College of Alberta School Superintendents’ roles in professional development, or the ATA’s role as it pertains to collective bargaining.

“I applaud the government’s efforts to reform the discipline process used in Alberta schools,” said Sheldon Kennedy, co-founder, Respect Group Inc. “Professions and organizations all across North America are modernizing and refining their policies and processes to ensure they are unbiased, support victims and ensure transparency for the public. I’m pleased to see Alberta’s education system doing the same.”

“Placing students as the first priority in the education system and promoting the public interest in this regard are essential values to uphold for regulated members within the College of Alberta School Superintendents,” added Wilco Tymensen, president, College of Alberta School Superintendents. ”Therefore, CASS supports aligning conduct and competence discipline processes for all teachers, principals, and system leaders in our province. CASS believes that strengthening an overall duty to report within legislation and the establishment of consistent processes will only enhance public assurance and student safety.”

“Given the high prevalence of sexual violence in Alberta across the lifespan and the very low reporting rate of this crime, particularly among children and youth, the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services supports efforts to streamline professional regulation, transparency and accountability utilizing an external review process for all professionals who are in positions of power and authority across all of our institutions and systems,” stated Debra Tomlinson, chief executive officer, Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services.

If passed, officials say the Reforming Teacher Profession Discipline Act would:

• Create an Office of the Commissioner to give the commissioner authority to oversee a significant part of the process for complaints of alleged unprofessional conduct and professional incompetence made against any Alberta certificated teacher or teacher leader.
• Lead to greater accountability, public assurance, and consistency in addressing complaints under one legislated governance structure by the commissioner’s office.
• Make the registrar, who is already established and operating within Alberta Education, responsible for the intake of all complaints.
  • The Alberta Teaching Profession Commissioner would have the authority to address and investigate a complaint and determine the most appropriate course of action to take regarding a complaint.
• Enhance the teacher and teacher leader registry, starting in September 2022 when the registry is launched, to include consent resolution agreements and all decisions where there is a finding of unprofessional conduct or professional incompetence.
• Combine the effectiveness of the Commissioner model in British Columbia and some arm’s-length features of Saskatchewan’s Teacher Regulatory Board such as posting upcoming hearing dates to ensure greater transparency.
• Set out in regulation processes related to how current complaints will be transitioned from the ATA and the registrar’s office to the commissioner ensuring procedural fairness in completing these matters.
• Reinforce requirements for stakeholders in the education system such as the registrar, commissioner, ATA, CASS and employers to report to police where there may have been serious harm or a threat to student safety.

Alberta government quick facts

• Alberta currently uses a dual-system model to address complaints of alleged unprofessional conduct and professional incompetence for certificated teachers and teacher leaders.
• Alberta is the only Canadian province where the teachers’ union has the sole responsibility for overseeing complaints of alleged unprofessional conduct and professional incompetence filed against their union members that question a teacher’s suitability to hold a teaching certificate.
• The ATA is responsible for overseeing complaints made against its active members and the registrar at Alberta Education is responsible for non-ATA teachers and teacher leaders.
  • The ATA serves as the collective bargaining agent for teachers and some teacher leaders (principals), while it also oversees the disciplinary process for its members.

Sarah Hoffman, NDP Critic for Education, made the following statement in response to Bill 15:

“The UCP government has been attacking Alberta teachers for three years and this bill is just more political harassment from an Education Minister desperate to distract from the catalog of harm she has inflicted on our education system.

“Alberta teachers have been on the frontlines supporting Alberta students through two years of pandemic mishandled by an uncaring and adversarial government. According to the UCP’s own budget, there are already 1,000 fewer teachers in Alberta classrooms than when Rachel Notley was premier.

“Rather than respecting teachers and ensuring they have all the resources they need to help students learn in a safe and caring environment, Adriana LaGrange has taken away educational assistants and other supports that students with complex needs rely on.

“She is also forging ahead with a widely discredited K-6 curriculum that Alberta teachers, trustees, staff, families and educational experts have overwhelmingly condemned.

“Albertans can’t trust the UCP with curriculum, with school building, or with education as a whole. We certainly cannot trust the UCP with a professional conduct process.

“This minister needs to reverse the damage she has caused to Alberta’s education system instead of using her position to bully Alberta’s hard-working, dedicated teachers and staff.”

Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling says Bill 15 is a vindictive piece of legislation designed to punish the teaching profession for standing up to the minister’s bad decisions and gross mishandling of public education.

“The Minister is misrepresenting cases and revictimizing students and witnesses for her own political advantage. This is a crass, insensitive bid to undermine public confidence in teachers and the ATA. The minister’s plan is to deprofessionalize teachers, and in doing so, she will destabilize one of the best performing public education systems in the world,” said Schilling on Thursday.

“The ATA has always taken its work in discipline very seriously, and we have managed this process in a way that has always maintained the honour and dignity of this profession by protecting the public interest,” added Schilling. “The process that the ATA has established is transparent and accountable—it stands in stark contrast to the secretive and unaccountable process that the Minister has maintained in place for private and charter school teachers and superintendents who have been regulated directly by the government—this hardly inspires confidence in a process that will be run by government and answerable only to the minister.”