West Coulee Station Elementary School in Lethbridge. (Image Credit: Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

‘Complexity teams’ to support southern Alberta school divisions

Feb 12, 2026 | 3:45 PM

The Alberta Government has announced funding to support complexity in school classrooms.

They say that average class sizes are largely within “acceptable ranges,” but composition and complexity are growing rapidly.

That is why it has announced $143 million to establish 476 “complexity teams” in 476 K-6 schools across the province. Each team will have one teacher and two educational assistants.

Complexity teams will work to support the diverse needs of students, such as academic, behavioural, social, or emotional. This can include helping students learn English, managing disruptive students, or helping coded students with more enrichment.

The teams will be able to bring in additional specialists when needed, and will provide in-class assistance to teachers.

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Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says addressing student needs during the formative K-6 years is more effective and less costly than trying to remediate behaviour or academic gaps in secondary school.

“Establishing complexity teams will help teachers manage increasingly diverse classrooms and most importantly, make sure that more students are able to receive individual attention. By focusing on grades K-6, we can make sure student needs are addressed early, before they become larger issues,” says Nicolaides.43

A news release from the province shows that there will be 43 Complexity Teams in school divisions south of Calgary. They are as follows:

• Lethbridge School Division – 10
• Medicine Hat School Division – 8
• Holy Spirit Catholic School Division – 5
• Horizon School Division – 5
• Palliser School Division – 5
• Christ the Redeemer Catholic School Division – 4
• Grasslands School Division – 3
• Livingstone Range School Division – 2
• Foothills School Division – 1
• Westwind School Division – 1

Mike Nightingale, Superintendent of the Lethbridge School Division, says this is a stie in the right direction.

“We welcome this additional funding to support our classrooms and appreciate the government’s recognition of the complexity we are seeing in our Division,” says Nightingale. “This investment represents an important first step in addressing the increasingly complex realities in our classrooms.”

He adds, “We look forward to learning more in the near future about how these teams will be funded and deployed to support students across our Division.”

The Lethbridge School Division is actively recruiting staff with the goal of establishing complexity teams as quickly as possible, once funding is received.

Use the following links to find the Alberta Government’s data on class sizes and complexity.