News Centre

On Dec. 8, 2020, the 2020-2021 School Enrolment Report was presented to the Board of Trustees for information. The report provides enrolment data for CBE schools and programs.

For the first time since 2007, the Calgary Board of Education has seen a decrease in student enrolment.

The official Sept. 30 count showed that total student enrolment was 122,641 — down over 3,000 from 125,809 on the same date in 2019. This data includes kindergarten to Grade 12 and other programs such as online learning and homeschooling.

Decreases occurred in most divisions with the exceptions of Grades 7-9 and Grades 10-12.

The largest decrease is in kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs. These optional programs are down 25.5 per cent from the previous year with a combined reduction of 2,387 students. As well, new this school year, the Education Act introduced a common age of entry of five years of age on December 31. It is estimated that this impacted approximately 900 students who will now only be eligible to begin kindergarten in the 2021-2022 school year.

Hub Online Learning (updated Jan, 12, 2021)

The Hub is a learning approach that has been created for the 2020-2021 school year for families choosing to have their children remain at home due to COVID-19 concerns while in-school classes have resumed. This support allows students in Grades 1-12 to remain registered at their home schools while receiving course instruction through a format of online instruction and independent work. Including Unique Settings, enrolment in Hub online learning is 18,130 students as of Sept. 30, 2020.

We created one transition point to allow students to return to in-person learning for the remainder of the school year. About 3,400 students will be moving back to in-person instruction beginning on Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. These students are spread across schools and grades throughout the system.

Over the next few weeks we will be determining appropriate staffing levels for both hub and in-person classes. While we are attempting to minimize disruption, we anticipate some teachers will return to in-person instruction and new classes could be created in both settings. Any changes will be communicated to families by their school.

Enrolment in alternative programs is 25,680, a slight decrease of 523 students or about 2 per cent from last year.

Definitions

• Homeschooling serves students whose families wish to have a primary role in their education.
• The CBE operates four outreach programs, such as Discovering Choices, for students who find that regular school programs and services do not meet their needs.
• Unique settings include schools like Emily Follensbee and Christine Meikle, which provide educational programming for students who have multiple and complex learning needs.
• Other unique settings within the CBE include Children’s Village, Dr. Gordon Townsend, Dr. Oakley, Nexus/Trust Treatment/Project Trust, West View Secondary, William Roper Hull, and the Young Adult Program. These settings provide educational opportunities for students with unique learning needs which are impacted by extenuating factors.
• CBe-learn delivers online programming for junior and senior high students, as well as multiple levels of support for homeschooling. CBe-learn is located at the Career and Technology Centre at Lord Shaughnessy High School.
• Chinook Learning Services (CLS) provides High School Upgrading programs.
• In addition, CLS provides Academic Success Programs including Summer School for Grades 10-12, Off-Campus Programs (work experience), International School Programs (student groups and individual international students over 18 years of age) and Summer Band Programs. Adult English Language Learning and non-credit Continuing Education (professional & personal development) are also provided.