The Public Costs of Excluding Children Without Status from Education in Alberta
Parveen Parmar, Director of Advocacy
For the past year, a team of volunteer advocates at the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights has been working on Upholding the Right to Education for Children Without Status in Canada, a project focusing on children who are denied access to school due to their own or their parents’ immigration status. Grounded in international human rights law, the project aims to make access to education for children without status a national human rights priority.
Our volunteer team is working across three areas:
Economic and policy research. Sophia Jewell, volunteer advocate and researcher, has prepared a new policy brief examining the costs of excluding children without status from public education and the benefits of ensuring access.
United Nations advocacy. Volunteers are finalizing a communication to the United Nations documenting barriers to education faced by children without status in Alberta and elsewhere in Canada. With families’ informed consent, the communication also shares their experiences, fully anonymized.
Public awareness. We are developing public education and advocacy initiatives, including social media, storytelling with families who choose to participate, and opportunities to bring together educators, families and human rights advocates.
We are grateful to our volunteers for the time and care they have brought to this work, to the experts who generously contributed their time and expertise to the research, and to the families who trusted us with their experiences.
Why we’re sharing this now
Children in Alberta and across Canada are currently being denied access to school because of barriers related to immigration status.
Our new policy brief, The Public Costs of Excluding Children Without Status from Education in Alberta, asks a simple question: What does excluding children without status from education actually cost Albertans?
The research examines the economic, social, health and legal impacts of exclusion and what Alberta stands to gain by ensuring every child can access education.
What the analysis found
The Public Costs of Excluding Children Without Status from Education in Alberta was researched and written by Sophia Jewell, a volunteer with our advocacy team. Sophia interviewed ten Canadian experts in economics, sociology, education, migration, political science, nursing, public health, criminology and law. She also reviewed more than 100 scientific articles and compared education policies across Canada.
Unlike British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, Alberta’s Education Act ties a child’s right to attend school to their parents’ immigration status. This means children between the ages of 6 and 18 can be denied access to school, including children who are Canadian citizens.
The brief examines the impacts of exclusion in four areas:
Economic costs. More than 70% of experts interviewed said the current policy is likely to harm Alberta’s long-term prosperity. Research from the United States has estimated that the economic returns from educating children without status exceeded costs by more than $633 billion USD. Children who fall behind may also require greater resources to catch up later.
Social costs. More than 95% of experts interviewed considered the social impacts of exclusion to be very serious. The research reviewed in the brief connects lack of access to education with increased risks of homelessness, incarceration, social exclusion and suicide.
Health impacts. Education is an important social determinant of health. Children excluded from school lose access not only to learning, but also to peer relationships, health and safety information, and other supports connected to the school environment.
Legal risks. Experts identified the potential for a costly Charter challenge based on discrimination. The brief also considers Canada’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Canada ratified in 1991.
“At what stage do we wish to spend the money or put in the resources? … Do we wish to go to the very end of that social carousel to then wait until the problem has metastasized and then deal with it?”
— Dr. Temitope Oriola, Professor of criminology and sociology and associate dean in the Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta
The brief recommends that Alberta amend the Education Act so that every child living in Alberta can attend school, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Other provinces already demonstrate different approaches. Ontario has explicitly protected access since 1993, British Columbia bases eligibility on where a child lives, and Quebec created a specific exception in 2013.
Standing with the Education for All Coalition
We are sharing this work in support of the Education for All (Ed4All) Coalition, a grassroots campaign advocating for access to education for all children in Alberta, regardless of immigration status.
Through advocacy with school boards and the provincial government, petitions, public education, youth storytelling and community organizing, Ed4All has been working to remove barriers that keep children without status out of school.
We are grateful for the Coalition’s ongoing leadership and hope this brief provides another tool to support the broader Education for All campaign.
Act before the October 6 Trustee vote
On October 6, 2026 Edmonton Public School Board trustees will vote on an Education for All motion. The vote is an opportunity for the Board to consider steps it can take to address barriers preventing children without status from accessing education.
Ed4All is asking community members to make their voices heard ahead of the meeting. You can:
Speak at the board meeting. Ed4All is looking for community members, allies and people with relevant experience to speak at the EPSB public meeting. Each speaker has up to three minutes.
Email your trustee. Ask your Edmonton Public School Board trustee to support Education for All.
Share the policy brief with your networks, school communities and elected representatives. Speaker information, trustee contact information and other campaign resources are available on the Education4All campaign page.
Ensuring children can attend school is not only a question of access to education. The research in this brief shows that exclusion carries broader economic, social, health and legal consequences.
Questions about the brief? Contact Sophia Jewell at sjewell@ualberta.ca.
Questions about the project? Contact Parveen Parmar at parveen@jhcentre.org or the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights at info@jhcentre.org