Click to watch news conference
On Monday, May 26th, the Minister of Education and Childcare announced that Alberta’s government is considering new standards that would provide consistent requirements for school boards in selecting and managing school library collections that include sexual content. These changes are a response to an increasing number of concerns from stakeholders, including parents, regarding availability of explicit sexual content to students in some school libraries.
As a first step, the Minister is inviting Albertans and education partners to provide input on what they believe is acceptable for school library collections through an online survey, open until June 6, 2025. https://your.alberta.ca/school-library-materials/surveys/slme
Survey data will inform new government standards that would bring consistency across Alberta school authorities.
Further information, including the news release and public survey, can be found at school library standards engagement. I encourage you to share the survey link with your school communities and direct any parent or school community questions to the survey. The survey will be open until June 6, 2025, and is expected to take 5 to 10 minutes to complete.
The Minister also met with some key education partners, including the presidents and executive directors , to engage in discussion on the proposed standards. Additional engagement to support implementation of the standards may be considered at a later date.
If you have any questions, please contact Lindsey Graham, Executive Director of Policy and Planning, at edc.policybranch@gov.ab.ca.