St. Albert Public Schools suspends U.S. student trips amid border tensions as other school divisions proceed with caution

Article content

Amid rising political tensions between Canada and the United States, at least one Edmonton-area school board has taken the step of suspending all student travel to the U.S., while others are monitoring the situation closely and continuing with scheduled trips for now.

At a public board meeting last week, St. Albert Public Schools passed a motion to “suspend immediately and until further notice any and all student travel into the United States of America.”

Article content

The decision comes in response to what the board describes as “policies that are on their face counter to the laws of both the United States and Canada with respect to discrimination and due process.”

The board said the decision came because it’s committed to “providing students and staff with a welcoming, caring, respectful, inclusive and safe learning and working environment” and stated that future trips will focus on destinations within Canada or other international locations.

While no previously approved or paid-for trips have been cancelled, some that were under consideration will now not proceed, the board told Postmedia via email.

Meanwhile, Edmonton Public Schools (EPSB) confirmed “there are currently five schools in the division that have trips scheduled to the United States for the remainder of this school year. At this time, they are all still going ahead.” The board declined to share names or details of these schools and trips.

Article content

Article content

The division added that it monitors updates and travel advisories from the Government of Canada on an ongoing basis and that there have been “no changes in insurance coverage for travel to the United States.”

Edmonton Catholic Schools (ECSD) said it does not have any U.S. student trips scheduled for the remainder of this school year, nor does it have any confirmed for the 2025-2026 school year. ECSD noted that all international trips are governed by its Administrative Procedure 260 – Field Trips, which includes detailed risk assessments, safety planning, and review of federal travel advisories.

The division said, “International travel is only permitted for high school students and must be directly connected to Alberta curriculum or extracurricular performance-based objectives.”

Illness absences remain low in most divisions

On the topic of illness-related absences, currently, several schools in EPSB are reporting student absence rates above five per cent, with some even reaching above seven per cent, though the division-wide average sits at 2.93 per cent.

Article content

The division said that it works closely with Alberta Health Services (AHS) “when illness rates reach 10 per cent or higher,” with AHS providing direction if an outbreak is declared.

However, ECSD said one of its schools “reached the reporting threshold for illness” earlier this year in January, which AHS confirmed as a respiratory outbreak. The division did not mention the name of the school but said it continues to promote prevention measures and recently distributed a measles prevention letter from the Office of the Medical Office of Health, which was shared with families.

St. Albert Public Schools, meanwhile, stated that they “don’t seem to have experienced” any schools exceeding the 10 per cent illness threshold this spring. Should that occur, schools are instructed to alert the division office, which then co-ordinates with AHS on whether an outbreak is declared and communicates with families accordingly.

No school divisions reported significant staff absences or impacts on extracurricular activities due to illness at this time.

Article content

cnguyen@postmedia.com

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post, and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun

Article content