EDMONTON -The Education Act – which passed around 12:40 a.m. Tuesday – will govern schools, school boards, teachers and students and includes a wide range of changes to the more than 20-year-old School Act that it replaces.
For example, it gives school boards more flexibility in their operations, raises the mandatory age of attendance from 16 to 17, and gives young adults until the age of 21 to finish their high school programs at the province’s cost.
It also gives schools more authority – and responsibility – to deal with bullying, whether it takes place on or off school property.
Human Services Minister Dave Hancock, who launched the effort to rewrite the School Act when he was education minister, said in the legislature it was exciting the bill passed.
“Education Act passes 3rd Reading!” Hancock posted on Twitter shortly after the vote. “One giant step forward for #inspiringeducation.”
This is the third version of the Education Act proposed in the legislature, and is the result of almost five years of work and consultations. The previous two were pulled by the government, most recently over protests from home-schooling parents, who felt references to the Alberta Human Rights Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms threatened their ability to freely share their values with their children.
That reference was removed from the third version, introduced by Education Minister Jeff Johnson.
All Progressive Conservatives and Wildrose MLAs in the legislature early Tuesday endorsed the bill. The Liberal and NDP MLAs on hand voted against it, in objection to references to human rights being removed.
Several school trustees were in the legislature gallery during the late night debate to observe.
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However, the changes in the new Education Act aren’t expected to come into effect for almost three years. Education Minister Jeff Johnson says it will take that long to write regulations to support the changes and to give school boards time to make their policies conform.
With files from The Canadian Press
Read the full Education Act below:
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