Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it was great to hear Mr. Moses here today talk about the new Safe and Caring Schools Regulations, including a Territorial School Code of Conduct. They'll become enforced September 1st. I would like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment how these regulations and school code of conduct were developed.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and before I begin, I would just like to acknowledge all Members for wearing their boutonnieres today in support of standing up against bullying. The regulations were worked on when the legislation was first introduced into the House during the 17th Assembly. These regulations will take effect on September 1, 2016, and a lot of consultation was held with DEAs, DECs, as well as superintendents and teachers, as well as students throughout the Northwest Territories to ensure that we got the regulations right when we developed these school codes of conduct. We also based it on the needs, the strengths, and the resources that each school and community had in their communities.
I thank the Minister for his answer. Can you please elaborate a bit on how the youth were involved and engaged in this process?
This bill in particular was very unique in that it involved a lot of our students across the Northwest Territories. In each of the communities that the standing committee travelled to in the last government, they did not only interact with adults and partnerships with the schools, but they involved some of the students in the grades. What was really neat was, I know up in Inuvik they utilized the e-learning program where they're able to speak to students in Tuktoyaktuk from Inuvik, and here in Yellowknife, they did go to Sir John School and got a lot of feedback from the schools as well as through online submissions.
When we talk about the Code of Conduct, could the Minister please provide us what kind of training the staff, and I mean not just the teachers but the administration, SNAs, and volunteers, are going to get to make sure the schools are safe.
Currently, the department has developed a handbook for all DEAs and DECs to help them understand what their roles and responsibilities are with all aspects of education, including creating that safe environment for students as well as teachers in the school community to participate in. We've also developed resources supports that are online, free training, and we've also worked to ensure that DEAs and DECs have the supports in place for when the regulations comes into effect September 1, 2016. We're also providing orientation workshops for all newly elected members within the DEA and DECs to make sure that they understand what their roles are when they're making decisions on behalf of the schools that they represent.
MR. SPEAKER:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I’d like to thank the Minister for the answer. During my Member’s statement I talked about training for youth, and you know it's great to train the staff and you know the people that run the school and that, but have you looked at potential training for youth so they can you know stop the bullying and make sure the schools are a safe environment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, there are a couple programs that we're running. First one is the Skills for Healthy Relationships program, that are targeted to grade seven to 12, the WITS Program which was mentioned earlier in the Member’s statement, and that's targeted from kindergarten to grade six. And then the other ones that we're having is Positive Behaviour Supports targeted from kindergarten right through to grade 12, as well as online resources, and obviously the Kids Help Line is another way that we can do that. Plus things that we do as well here, as we did in the Great Hall today, around creating awareness and speaking to the children, speaking to the youth, speaking to the leaders, and to the educators, that people should speak up and stand up.
Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
