Support Our Students Alberta

10/08/2026

*NEW* 🎙️Public Good on the Prairies podcast episode featuring Research Director Heather Ganshorn:

"What Happens In Alberta Does Not Stay in Alberta”

“This is the first of three consecutive episodes about the “parental rights” movement in the Prairies. The episode focuses on the “parental rights” groups that are operating in Alberta, their tactics, and the ways these groups have impacted legislation in the province. We consider the motivations of these groups and the broader impact they are having on public education and the public good.”

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/3-5-what-happens-in-alberta-does-not-stay-in-alberta--75626253

10/07/2026

Some good news yesterday as EPSB Trustee Doll’s Education For All motion was passed. This will open a review to examine pathways to ensure student access to education would align with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child where every child has a seat.
Thank you to advocates who reached out to their trustees ahead of this vote! And gratitude to the EPSB Trustees who voted in favour of the motion, and who also spoke passionately in defense of Education For All children.

We hope other school boards in Alberta will follow this example of leadership.

https://shrlnk.ca/s/coITgaTG

10/06/2026

A new policy brief from the JHC and authored by Sophia Jewell highlights the significant economic, social, health, and legal impacts of excluding children without immigration status from public education in Alberta.

Unlike several other provinces, Alberta ties a child's right to attend school to parental immigration status, a practice expert research shows harms long-term provincial prosperity and worsens broader societal outcomes.

Ahead of the crucial Edmonton Public Schools Board (EPSB) trustee vote on October 6 2026, community members are encouraged to read the policy brief, share its findings, and contact their local trustees to advocate for equal access to education for all children.

Read more: jhcentre.org/news-and-events/edstatusreport2026

Find the contact for your local EPSB trustee: epsb.ca/ourdistrict/board/trustees/findmytrustee/

10/06/2026

“The [UN] convention [On The Rights Of The Child], which Canada ratified in 1991, and Alberta endorsed in 1999, states that public education must be free and compulsory for all children.”

EPSB will vote on this motion today!

An Edmonton public school trustee wants to see if the division can change its registration policy to keep children with lapsed immigration status enrolled in school.

10/05/2026

We sent advocacy letters to each and every EPSB Trustee imploring them to vote in FAVOUR of Trustee Doll's Education for All Motion which will be voted on at the October 6 meeting.

Please reach out to your elected trustee(s) and feel free to use parts of our open letter here. Remember to add personal stories if you can:

https://www.epsb.ca/ourdistrict/board/trustees/findmytrustee/
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Dear Edmonton Public School Board Trustees:

We write today to implore you all to vote in favour of Trustee Doll’s motion on October 6, 2027 which, if passed, will review pathways to operationalize the principle of Education for All. As parents and advocates for Public Education, and most importantly as advocates for students, we believe that this is an ethical and necessary motion in these oppressive times. As an organization, Support Our Students fundamentally believes that all children have a right to access free public education regardless of race, background, and immigration status.

In light of the Alberta School Board Association’s resolution, we believe Trustee’s Doll motion aligns with the spirit of moving towards material inclusion of all children at the board level. We also hope this is an opportunity to bring more attention across the province that thousands of children are being kicked out of schools due to circumstances beyond their control.

As elected officials in a country that is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, all school board trustees in Alberta have a duty to advance the promise of public education; which means free, universally accessible education for ALL. Article 28 of the Convention states that parties must “recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;

(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need.”

School boards also have the enshrined ability to accept all children according to the Education Act as written. What is needed is bravery and political will. A vote in favour of Trustee Doll’s motion is not only a symbol of allyship, but also a courageous, ethical act to stand up for vulnerable kids who did not choose their status. Immigration paperwork procedures are bureaucratically unreliable; overly complicated, and unfairly inconsistent. A child’s continued education cannot rely on this arbitrary practice. We also know now, from the pandemic, that educating all children in a consistent and continuous manner benefits not just the students themselves, but also improves our communities at large.

Immigrant children did not cause the challenges faced by our public education system and yet they are being blamed through hateful rhetoric. We know our public education’s struggles are caused by decades upon decades of chronic underfunding and diversion of public dollars away to private entities. The solution is NOT to turn vulnerable kids away, but to find a way to include all students. We know teachers and staff are up to this compassionate task instead of being turned into de facto immigration officers.

When we receive stories about children who are being kicked out of their neighbourhood schools in Edmonton, our hearts break at the injustice and unfairness. These kids are roaming the school yards and plastering their faces against classroom windows, yearning and begging to be led back inside to be with their friends and classmates. As Trustees, you can do something to fix this horrible situation.

We also hope that if passed, EPSB will set an example to other Alberta school boards that it is materially possible to stand up for the rights of children. We’ve learned through history what happens when ‘good’ people, especially those with power, stand by and do nothing while immigrants are scapegoated and targeted.

We ask that you do the right thing and fulfill your moral obligation to vote in favour of Trustee Doll’s motion in support of Education for All, regardless of status.

Thank you and yours in the name of Public Education,

SOS Alberta

10/01/2026

We made a film about children in Alberta who are being denied access to school because of their family's immigration status.
These are real kids. Real families. Living in our communities right now.
One child was told he couldn't come back to school at the end of a field trip. Another stopped going for months out of fear. A teenager watches her siblings stay home every day while she goes to school alone.

🎬 Watch and share their stories: https://youtu.be/iDy63jXXTLE?si=6mT7f7Xkd4-yoDJT

Documentary NowStreaming

09/29/2026

📣🚨 ACTION ALERT!! 🚨

Right now, thousands of kids are being kicked out of school in Alberta because of unjust and scapegoating provincial policies.

We are calling Edmonton public education and human rights advocates to directly contact your trustee (and all EPSB trustees) to urge them to vote IN FAVOUR of Trustee Doll’s motion supporting Education 4 All. This is not only symbolic but also materially actionable to find operational solutions. It shows Trustees around the province that we can find tangible ways to include all children. Plus we cannot shrink away silently in the face of oppression and scapegoating of kids - who all deserve an education.

From AWARE’s backgrounder (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6759d58128026e2fa971c4a8/t/6aad98d30081da516376a546/1789761748033/Ed4All_FactSheet_SchoolBoards.pdf):

“School Boards Responsibilities:
…
The Alberta Education Act does not explicitly prohibit so-called “non-resident” students (i.e., those whose documentation does not meet the province’s standards) from attending school; it simply does not guarantee funding for them. Section 13 of
the Act provides that school boards may allow these students to enrol, charging a tuition fee that the board sets. So the issue, unsurprisingly, boils down to funding. Counter to the implication of the
referendum questions and the rhetoric surrounding them, temporary residents do indeed pay taxes that help fund the education system. The reality is that most families with temporary or precarious immigration status are working lower-wage
jobs and have limited means to pay additional fees or high tuition rates.

Put simply, Trustee Doll’s motion would commit the board and administration to figuring out the details of how EPSB could accommodate students who are excluded from provincial funding. It recognizes that, due to the way that funding is calculated,
a large urban division like Edmonton Public is already supporting a significant number of effectively unfunded students. It would shift the conversation at the board level from “why we can’t” to “how might we” support these kids.

As far as we’re aware, no other school board in the province has committed to looking at these questions in depth and considering what school boards can do rather than continue to engage in jurisdictional finger-pointing.

We therefore strongly support Trustee Doll’s motion and urge all other Edmonton Public School Board trustees to vote in favour. We also urge trustees with other school boards to pursue similar motions.”

09/29/2026

Every single child in Alberta has a basic right to access a barrier-free education regardless of status or bureaucratic labels. Requiring fees for immigrant children means adding more unjust barriers for kids who do not choose their circumstances.

A question on the ballet of the 2026 Alberta Referendum relates to healthcare and education rights of individuals with a non-permanent immigration status.

09/24/2026

Edmonton advocates: please attend if you can! There will be information on the upcoming referendum related to kids’ access to education!

09/23/2026

We are glad to see Edmonton Public School trustee Sarah Doll using her voice to stand up for kids. We hope more trustees in other districts will follow suit instead of quietly appeasing the province’s unjust policies that perpetuate exclusion of vulnerable children.
Trustee Doll will be making a motion to educate all kids regardless of immigration status. The province made a decision not to fund students whose status is lapsed or in process, but school boards can find ways to make room for them if they had the ethical will. Every child has a right to education. Kids should not be reduced to bureaucratic paperwork over which they have no control.