When a provincewide teachers’ strike ended in October, Caleb Meadus didn’t return to his classroom when more than 730,000 other Alberta students did.

Instead, April Meadus says the education of her 13-year-old autistic son was disrupted by uncertainty and inconsistent in-classroom support. 

“He’s home with me right now, 85 per cent of the day,” said April, a mother of six living in Cold Lake, Alta., about 290 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

She said she believes the provincial government’s $143-million plan to create school complexity teams isn’t a solution. The teams will go to K-6 schools, which won’t help Caleb get back into his Grade 8 classroom. 

“I spend multiple mornings right now sitting in the parking lot, bawling my heart out,” April said. 

“It’s not the teachers. It’s not even the principal — they’ve cried with me. This is much higher up.” 

Caleb was diagnosed with autism at age three and has a medical certificate diagnosis requiring a full-time educational assistant (EA) at school along with additional supports like speech therapy. 

April said Caleb is enrolled at the Assumption Junior Senior High School in Cold Lake, operated by the Lakeland Roman Catholic Separate School Division. The school division declined to comment on Caleb’s specific situation.

Up until 2020, the family lived in B.C., and his mother said Caleb attended school with the necessary resources. His first few years in elementary school in Alberta were good, April said, although the support was less consistent than before.

“Everybody within the local school board, and teachers and staff — ever since he started — have gone above and beyond and done their best,” April said. 

Since October, she said Caleb’s ability to attend school regularly has been limited. Some days, he can attend for short periods when supports are available. Other times, he has to leave early or stay home entirely, according to his mother.

Some weeks, Caleb is only getting a few hours in class, depending on the availability of classroom support, April said.

“My son shuts down as soon as he hits the school doors because he’s been pushed away so many times,” she said. 

“My son thinks that nobody loves him.” 

April said the disruption also means she can no longer work, and her family of eight now relies on one income. She said the unpredictability of support availability day to day has made steady employment almost impossible. 

“Who’s going to keep you, as an employer? Because there’s no consistency,” April said.

Lakeland Catholic School Division board chair Anna Brockhoff told CBC News the division has been allocated funds to staff one complexity team, which is slated for a Cold Lake elementary school. 

“We feel like this is just a stepping stone of more to come,” she said.

When the complexity teams were announced earlier this month, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said the first round of funding is targeted to address the academic and behavioural needs of the province’s youngest students. Funding for junior and senior high schools is coming, he said. 

But that’s if people can be hired for those positions, according to Danielle Danis, president of CUPE Local 2559 in Fort McMurray. The union represents public school board employees in Cold Lake. 

Danis, who has been an EA in Fort McMurray schools for more than 20 years, said filling 952 new EA roles — even by next school year — won’t be an easy feat. 

“Already we have positions that never get filled,” Danis told CBC News. “There’s not enough people wanting to get into the field because of everything that’s going on with cutbacks.” 

When asked about potential barriers to hiring, Brockhoff said the school division has all the tools necessary to see a complexity team established but added: “At the end of the day, I don’t have a crystal ball.”  

At a news conference on Wednesday, the Alberta government said that it will invest $355 million to address complexity issues with its 2026 budget. Of that, $55 million is earmarked for the classroom complexity grant, available to all school divisions to provide necessary supports across all grade levels.

“The remaining $300 million will be allocated to school divisions over the coming months once we have an opportunity to gather a little bit more data and have some more in-depth conversations with school boards about how those dollars can make the most impact,” Nicolaides said. 

He added investments are also being made to increase the base rates of support grants for student well-being, including the specialized learner support grant.

In the meantime, April said she’s considering other options, including homeschooling all six of her children or leaving Alberta entirely. 

“I won’t say I’m losing the respect, but I’m losing the interest — the mojo — within the educational system. I’m even debating moving back to a different province because the education is so bad here right now.”