Teacher discipline process is broken, says ATA official

It has been more than two years since the government took over the professional discipline of Alberta teachers and it’s not going well, according to Tim Jeffares, the ATA’s associate co-ordinator of Regulatory Affairs.

Through legislation passed in September of 2022, the government created the Alberta Teaching Profession Commission (ATPC), which officially began operation on Jan. 1, 2023, ending more than 80 years of the ATA investigating and prosecuting professional conduct complaints against its members.

The newly developed process, like the ATA’s previous process, enables anyone to initiate a complaint against a teacher or teacher leader via an online portal. However, with the new process, once received, complaints are communicated to the respective superintendent.

“If you receive a complaint, your superintendent will know, no matter how frivolous, vexatious or without merit that complaint may be,” Jeffares said.

Once the commission receives a complaint, it has four possible courses of action at its disposal: no further action, mediation, dispute resolution or investigation. Jeffares says that an inordinate number of complaints are being referred to investigation.

Since the change took effect, the ATA’s Regulatory Affairs team has assisted more than 370 members who’ve had complaints made against them. Currently, the team is assisting 225 members who have matters before the commission.

Jeffares says the number of complaints being filed against teachers is high, reflecting a trend seen in other professions in the province.

He sat down with the ATA News and elaborated on his assessment of the system, how it’s affecting teachers and how well it’s protecting the public.

Q. Now that the commission is handling teacher discipline, what is the ATA’s role in the process?
A. A policy was passed at the 2023 Annual Representative Assembly on representing teachers in this process. This is different than representing teachers in employment matters, which is the work of Teacher Employment Services. Regulatory Affairs is a separate subunit of the ATA that focuses solely on representing teachers embroiled in regulatory matters with the Alberta Teaching Profession Commission.

Our role is to ensure that the commission treats the teacher in a procedurally fair way. From time to time, we’ll end up in disciplinary hearings where we’ll need to consider helping the teacher mount a defence because the allegations and the proposed penalties are out of sync with other teacher regulators across Canada.

Q. How well is the process working and how effective is it?
A. From my perspective, the process is broken. It’s not working well. The timelines are egregious. The lack of use of front-end processes that would really solve these issues for teachers and complainants is problematic. Teachers and complainants are languishing for years under this process.

There seems to be a revolving door at the commission, with investigators joining and leaving at an alarming rate. The commission is currently using third-party investigators with no background or understanding of the educational setting, some from out of the province, to fill in the void from all the staff that have left, and that’s created all sorts of chaos, inconsistencies in investigation practices, lost evidence, poor communication and long delays for teachers.

Q. What has been the impact of this new process on teachers?
A. When you have a complaint, you’re under a great deal of stress. It impacts mental health, physical health, professional relationships in the building, relationships with students, relationships with your superintendent, because all those people know. It’s an awful lot to deal with.

We are conducting ongoing research with respect to teachers who have gone through the process and they’ve reported to us the biases that they’ve encountered, how long time frames have impacted their physical and mental health and their professional standing, and how it has made them second guess being in the teaching profession.

A number of teachers have said that they are thinking about relinquishing their leadership position because the only reason they got a complaint was that someone was unhappy with their decision — it wasn’t that there was anything unprofessional about how the decision was made.

Most of these teachers are innocent of anything. Many complaints are parents that are frustrated, but they’re not using the correct channels to ameliorate those school problems, and the commission sees fit to send all these issues to investigation, where they languish for long periods of time, so the issues never get meaningfully resolved.

Q. What is your team doing to address this situation?
A. We work tirelessly to encourage the commission to get on with things and to make sure that there is an active investigator for each case. Often these cases fall completely dormant and we constantly write objection letters and hold their feet to the fire so they get on with this stuff. I wish I could say that that was impactful, but it seems as though the commission is content to maintain the ineffectual status quo.

Q. To what do you attribute the high volume of complaints that are being made against teachers?
A. More than anything, it’s sort of a propensity for people to fire, ready, aim, to make their first course of action to file a complaint with the regulator. The best solutions for most problems are closest to the school where the student is — if you have an issue, dealing with the teacher, the assistant principal and the principal are the best solutions, but some complainants seem to be prone now to just filling out an online form, hitting send and calling it a day.

Q. How effective has the process been in removing bad teachers from the profession and protecting the public?
A. To our knowledge, since January 1, 2023, only two ATA members have been in an actual hearing, so a lot of the rhetoric used by then minister Adriana LaGrange about the ATA not holding teachers accountable and not punishing bad teachers was unfounded and deliberate misdirection. Clearly this new process isn’t achieving that goal or protecting the public good.

Q. How do the number of hearings compare to when the ATA oversaw them?
A. The Association may have conducted 25 to 30 hearings per year and maybe 15 to 20 appeals per year.

Q. What would you like to see changed?
A. At the very least, the ATPC could put a standard in place for starting and completing investigations so that these matters could get put behind teachers, a process where they have active investigators assigned to every case and they’re moving through the timelines in a reasonable, fair way.

Q. What is your message to members who learn that they are the subject of a complaint?
A. Any member who is subject to a complaint needs to contact the ATA as soon as possible.

Given how long and drawn out these things are, coupled with the procedural issues that we’ve seen from the start to finish of the process, it’s important that a member feels supported and has support because complaints aren’t going to go away in two weeks — more like two years. To navigate that process alone is an awful lot while a teacher is doing their job. ❚