INNISFAIL - Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) trustees have approved a new advocacy document that calls for closer cooperation between educators and government, including when it comes to supporting student mental health.
The document approval came during the division’s recent regularly scheduled board meeting. The 11,000-student CESD is headquartered in Innisfail and includes schools across the region.
The board will use the advocacy document to lobby the provincial government and community leaders. It includes three recommendations and proposed actions.
The first recommendation calls for increased cross-ministry work to better meet the increasingly complex needs of students, including collaborative discussions between local health and education staff with a focus on student needs.
“Our division is really recommending a cross-ministry effort to address the increasing complex needs of students,” superintendent Kurt Sacher told the Albertan. “We need to interact more effectively with Alberta Health, mental health, and different departments that come into play.
“When you look specifically at the students who qualify moderate or severe for complex needs, those numbers have increased significantly over the past few years.”
The division says the number of students with moderate and severe complex needs has increased from 431 in 2020-21 to 538 in 2022-23.
“If we had a more collaborative approach with Alberta Health we think we could be more successful, so we are encouraging different departments of government to have a cross-ministry effort. We are all in this together and if we work together we can support the complex needs of students,” he said.
The second recommendation calls for enhanced career pathways for students, including simplifying the process for school divisions to gain access to dual credit courses, financially support and enhance access to dual credit, work integrated learning and collegiate models, and simplify supervision requirements and the sharing of safety inspection reports.
Both the minister of Alberta Education and the premier have spoken about their support for career pathways and engaging students in planning for their futures, he said.
“We are very excited to see that and I think the board wants them to really follow through with their commitments. We are excited about the direction and we want to see them complete those,” he said.
The third recommendation calls for a reduction in red tape, including the return to one provincial audit on student diagnosis for program unit funding rather than two, and provide the ability for Alberta Health Services and school divisions to share assessments.
It also recommends a change to the pediatric rehab model so that health practitioners such as speech language pathologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists and mental health professionals can provide more direct support to students in schools.
“We ask that the government continue to reduce red tape so that we can get more out of the money already being invested in education. We would like to see a more collaborative approach,” he said.
Trustees have already discussed the new advocacy document with some local MLAs, he said.
“They made them aware of the document and hand-delivered copies to them,” he said. “They also have the intention to talk at school council meetings and let parents know what it is that is important to them.
“Whenever they have an opportunity to chat with government these are three really big-ticket items.”
