Overview

• Contract negotiations between the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the province broke down last week and remain at an impasse as classes begin.
• The union holds a strike mandate from 51,000 members, and the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association has authorized school boards to lock teachers out.
• Finance Minister Nate Horner’s office says any lockout would be a reactionary response and calls on the union to return to bargaining.
• Parents are preparing contingency plans such as arranging child care or working from home, with advocates warning low-income and disabled students could be hit hardest by disruptions.
• Policy shifts are adding confusion and workload, with sex-education now opt-in, a school-library book order paused for rewrite, and a new ban on transgender girls 12 and older in female sports prompting eligibility forms that the ATA says increase administrative burden.