Nova Scotia plans to hire specialized workers to tackle the rise in violence in schools.
The forty-seven workers will include student supervisors, security guards, child and youth care practitioners, educational and teaching assistants and teachers “specializing in behaviour and classroom management,” according to a news release from the provincial government.
In the release, Becky Druhan, Minister of Education, said the Public School Administrators Association and the Nova Scotia Teachers Union for suggestions on where to implement these resources.
“These new specialized resources are here to do one thing: make sure schools are safe places where staff and students can focus on learning,” Druhan wrote.
It will cost about $976,000 to add these new workers on top of the specialized behavioural support staff already working in the school system.
The regional centres for education and the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial will hire the workers.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Druhan said the new staff would be spread across hundreds of schools. She said some have already been placed and some positions have yet to be filled.
There was already a pilot project in the South Shore Regional Education Centre, where dedicated staff support students “who are having difficulty coping in school settings due to social, emotional or behavioural issues,” the release said.
A committee of teachers is reviewing the outcomes of that project, the province said. It was funded through the government’s Ideas for Education program, which hopes to give teachers a chance to “use their frontline knowledge to improve Nova Scotia’s education system.”
Druhan also added that the province would expand on any pilot projects that are successful.
The department also added that they’re still working to update the Provincial School Code of Conduct Policy. So far, more than 4,600 workers, student support staff, teachers, bus drivers, and administrators have given their input. More than 800 parents, principals, and people in school advisory councils have also given their ideas.
On Thursday, Druhan told reporters that they still hope to implement the new code of conduct policy by the end of this school year in 2025.
In June, the auditor general revealed that teachers did not have the resources to deal with rising violence.
