AB-002: Bill 2: Back to School Act

This bill directly affects Alberta school boards and the Teachers' Employer Bargaining Association — the organizations that employ and manage certificated teachers across the province's approximately 61 school jurisdictions. On a day-to-day basis, school board administrators and HR staff will need to implement mandated salary increases of 3% per year across all four years, update substitute teacher pay rates, apply new northern and remote retention allowances for teachers north of the 55th parallel, and incorporate new collective agreement provisions around discipline, occupational health and safety, and timetabling. School boards of all sizes are affected, from large urban divisions like Calgary and Edmonton to small rural and Francophone authorities, and compliance timelines are immediate — teachers must return to work the moment the Act comes into force, and salary adjustments are retroactive to September 1, 2024. The Act also commits school divisions to hiring 1,000 net new certified teachers per year for three consecutive years, which will substantially affect recruitment, payroll, and operational planning across the province.