New school rules for the fall will allow parents to pull their children out of religion classes.
Alberta Education released changes to the Guide to Education late Wednesday afternoon that will apply in the new school year. The changes also apply to charter schools but not private schools.
The changes are required because Section 11.1 of the Alberta Human Rights Act comes into force Sept. 1.
This section requires school boards to provide parents with advance notice if they are going to be teaching children subject matter that deals primarily and explicitly with religion, human sexuality or sexual orientation.
The parents can then decide if they want their child to be excused from the classroom or have them remain there, but excuse them from taking part in the instruction or use of instructional material. This option has been available already for quite some time for the human sexuality classes, said Terence Harding, spokesman for Alberta Education. But new classes are now on the notification list. The list now encompasses: Aboriginal Studies 10; Career and Life Management (CALM); Health (Grades 4, 5, and 6); Health and Life Skills (Grades 7, 8, and 9); Religious Ethics 20; Religious Meanings 20; and World Religions 30.
Harding said Aboriginal Studies was included because it has a spirituality and religion aspect to it.
The new rules put Catholic and other religious schools in the odd position of having to tell parents that their children will be receiving religious education. Alberta Education says school boards can satisfy the requirement to give notice of religious instruction by providing a clear statement on registration forms.
Science topics such as reproduction and evolution will not be included under the notification requirement, Harding said. Biology classes that deal with reproduction are not primarily or explicitly about human sexuality, and evolution is taught as scientific theory and not in any religious sense, he said.
The changes came about as a result of Bill 44, which added protection of parental rights to the Alberta Human Rights Act last year. The amendment was the responsibility of Culture and Community Spirit Minister Lindsay Blackett.
The key criticism of "parental rights" was that it could force teachers to defend themselves before the quasi-judicial human rights commission for discussing sexual orientation, sexuality or religion.
One of the chief concerns for teachers was that complaints would be laid against them, either for failing to properly notify parents or for dealing with something that comes up in the classroom in a way that one parent judges to be inappropriate, said Carol Henderson, president of the Alberta Teachers' Association. Although she only had the chance for a preliminary look at the new rules, the complaints process was somewhat of a relief.
"The procedures are clearly laid out, it looks like, so parents do have to address their concerns with teachers first, and that's a good thing."
hbrooymans@thejournal. canwest.com