How 'complex' is your child's school? Look it up in Alberta's newly released data

Alberta released class-by-class complexity data for the first time on Feb. 12, 2026.

It flagged more than 4,000 classrooms that it calls highly complex because of the number of students and type of learning challenges, chronic student behaviour or other factors.

Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides also identified 655 high-priority schools when he announced the government will be funding new complexity teams to help.

So, how does your child's school compare to others? Use the search box below to understand what administration and teachers at your school are managing.

The table below doesn't count students. It counts classrooms.

There are two things it measures for each school.

Table 1 — Composition: This is about the number of different kinds of challenges a teacher is managing in a class.

It looks at nine different factors, including if a student is learning English as an additional language (EAL); has "mild/moderate" or "severe" learning disabilities; has an individualized program plan (IPP); is Indigenous (First Nations, Métis and Inuit); is "gifted" and therefore needs different and more challenging work; is a refugee; is on a waitlist for an assessment of a medical or learning challenge; or another code as defined by the specific school district.

Table 2 — Occurrence: This is about the number of students in the class who require additional support. But this one is only based on students learning English as an additional language (EAL), or those coded with "mild/moderate" or "severe" learning support needs.

A low occurrence means there are zero to four students in the class with more complex needs, medium equals five to 10, and high equates 11 or more.