Alberta fast-tracks 41 school projects — will child care space be part of the plan?
Alberta accelerated 41 public school projects on July 9 under the $8.6-billion Schools Now program, moving more than 39,000 new and upgraded student spaces forward. Nineteen are approved for construction and 22 are advancing into design. The province is responding to roughly 90,000 new students in four years, and the program aims to deliver up to 90 new schools and about 200,000 spaces by 2031-32. It is the largest school-building push Alberta has seen in a generation.
It also raises a question worth asking now, while the drawings are still open: will the province use this opportunity to plan for community and child care space alongside the classrooms? Twenty-two of these projects are at the design stage, which is the moment when space for school-age care programs can still be designed in rather than found later.
Families who need care before and after the bell are the same families filling these new classrooms. The opportunity is to build for the whole school day, ensuring there is enough space not just for the children in education, but for the child care their families need.
Read the announcement: alberta.ca
