Alberta is providing $5 million to help rural and remote school authorities bring specialized services to students, including help with the travel costs of psychologists and therapists.

The Nov. 12 announcement also includes $6 million for educator training. Both allocations form part of classroom-complexity funding announced in June.

Thirty-nine school authorities will receive the rural services funding, with priority based on remoteness and population density. Eligible expenses include transportation, accommodation and professionals’ travel time.

Training support can cover substitute teachers while staff attend sessions on behaviour assessment, de-escalation and crisis response.

The funding is part of a wider provincial response to changing classroom needs. Alberta’s program overview says schools have added nearly 90,000 students over four years.

That overview describes 699 classroom-complexity teams supported by $218 million. Of those, 539 are designated for kindergarten to Grade 6 and 160 for grades 7 through 12.

Elementary teams typically include a teacher and two educational assistants. Teams serving older students have a teacher and an educational assistant, with access to specialists such as social workers or behaviour experts.

For secondary schools, the province says authorities can move teams among schools according to need. Alberta plans to publish its next annual classroom data update in early 2027.