Alberta parents brace for potential teacher strike amid confusion over school policy

EDMONTON – Alberta parents are bracing for a potential teacher strike or lockout as shifting provincial policies on books and sports also add confusion and chaos to the school year.

Last week, contract talks between the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the provincial government broke down. As of Friday afternoon, the two sides remained at an impasse.

The union has been granted a strike mandate by 51,000 rank-and-file members, and the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association has authorization for school boards to lock teachers out.

Meagan Parisian, vice-president of the Alberta School Councils’ Association, said parents are concerned about the serious impact of a labour disruption, with some families trying to arrange child care or potentially working from home.

“My elementary kids and my kindergartner will be crushed, because they absolutely love school, they love their teachers and they love their school community. And I think that’s the boat that a lot of students are going to be in — if there is a lockout or a strike, they’re just going to be crushed.” 

She said parents also have a lot of questions about many new social policies being discussed or implemented this fall.

In July, Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government announced a ban on books with sexual content in school libraries. That order is now on pause and pending a rewrite.

Across the province, parents also need to opt in to, instead of opt out of, sex education lessons.

The government has also prohibited transgender girls 12 and older from competing in female sports, starting this month.

Some school divisions have started sending eligibility forms to parents asking them to confirm their children were assigned female at birth for them to compete. 

Parisian said altogether the changes are a “bit chaotic” and have triggered a lot of questions from parents about how their kids might be affected. 

“It’s ‘Everything, Everywhere, All At Once,’” she said, referring to the 2022 movie.

Beverly McCool, a parent and caregiver in Grande Prairie, said there are limits to how much child-care operators can accommodate in the case of a strike or lockout.

“Nobody’s budgeting to pay for full-day child care in September,” she said.

She worries that some families, especially those with children who have disabilities, won’t be able to afford private care without financial support.

“It’s definitely going to disproportionately affect the marginalized communities, kids with disabilities and low-income families.”

McCool said some might resort to unregulated child care to cope with possible school closures.

“It’s going to be people having to do what they can to survive.”

The new rules related to books and sports, she said, seem to add red tape for families and teachers and might throw some events into question, like a planned book swap event McCool says might not go ahead.

Locke Spencer has six children enrolled in Grade 3 to Grade 12 in Lethbridge schools. He said he and his wife are lucky to have some flexibility to try to make at-home learning work.

But he said a strike or a lockout can be somewhat unpredictable.

“That is certainly a source of stress and complexity for many families,” he said.

He said he’s also mindful of potential learning gaps, like those that came from classroom interruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If there’s an interruption for two weeks, at the end of the two weeks, it’s not just done and you forget about it. There’s catch-up to do, and that’s a lot of work,” he said.

That, too, contributes to the complexity in the classroom that teachers deal with, Spencer added.

When asked if the province’s policy changes, like the book ban, are top of mind, Spencer said trust in the political system seems to be eroding at various levels of government.

“Some of the things governments are doing, if you don’t have the same confidence and trust in them, certainly can add to stress.”

Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling has said the added work for teachers to administer new policies, including removing books from classrooms, has added to their frustration.

Parisian said school councils across the province stand in solidarity with teachers. “We know that those working conditions are where our children learn and thrive and become successful,” she said.

Finance Minister Nate Horner’s office has said a lockout would only be issued as a “reactionary response, if it appears that union tactics could harm students and families.”

In a statement earlier this week, Horner also called for the union to get back to the bargaining table to get a deal done.

“Parents and students deserve the peace of mind that kids will remain in their classrooms,” he said.

Parisian said there’s a silver lining to the chaos and confusion at the beginning of the school year.

It’s prompting parents to get more engaged, she said.

“More parents have been asking more questions about what’s happening within their school community, or what will be happening within their school community this year and going forward.”

She said that will lead to conversations about school boards, and who serves on them, ahead of municipal elections set for Oct. 20.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2025.