Rocky View Schools will receive an additional $3 million from the Alberta government to help schools respond to increasingly complex student needs.
The funding expands classroom complexity supports previously introduced for kindergarten through Grade 6 and adds teams serving students in Grades 7 through 12.
RVS announced the additional funding July 9, saying the division will have flexibility to determine which schools and classrooms require the resources most.
The term “classroom complexity” covers the growing range of educational, behavioural and other support needs teachers encounter within a single classroom.
Earlier this year, provincial complexity funding provided additional teachers and educational assistants to 12 RVS schools serving younger students.
At the time, the Board of Trustees welcomed the funding but said student needs were not limited to those schools or age groups.
The latest allocation addresses part of that concern by extending support into Grades 7 through 12.
Exactly how the additional $3 million will be distributed among Rocky View schools has not yet been announced.
The division says having local flexibility will allow resources to be directed where demand is greatest and adjusted as needs change.
RVS has continued to argue that classroom complexity is a system-wide challenge and that stable, predictable funding will be important for longer-term planning.
That issue is particularly significant in a school division experiencing sustained enrolment growth in communities including Chestermere, Airdrie, Cochrane and Langdon.
For Chestermere families, the funding does not necessarily mean every local school will receive a new complexity team. Those decisions will be made by RVS based on student and school needs.
It does, however, provide the division with another $3 million worth of tools for classrooms where one teacher is increasingly being asked to meet a very wide range of learning needs.