Government of Yukon strengthens student safety through full implementation of Safer Schools Action Plan

The Government of Yukon has fully implemented the 23 action items in the Safer Schools Action Plan, which focuses on improving the safety and wellbeing of students.

While recognizing that the work to ensure students are safe at school will never end, the action items in the Safer Schools Action Plan emphasize creating safe and caring environments, transparency, accountability, victim-centred approaches, collaboration and reconciliation in education settings.

Since the launch of the Safer Schools Action Plan in February 2022, transformative work has been undertaken to address policy gaps and enhance safety and oversight across all Yukon schools and government departments.

Key advancements over the past year include:

• implementation of new policies and procedures for preventing and responding to harm by adults, including guidance for information sharing and reporting allegations to the RCMP (actions 1 and 6);
• completion of actions 2, 3, 11, 18 and 20, focused on enhancing corporate guidance and leadership capacity across the organization to improve coordination and response management of critical incidents;
• the development of comprehensive victim support plans (action 4);
• a new joint agreement between the departments of Education and Health and Social Services regarding interdepartmental operations and communication when a child’s safety is, or is likely to be, at risk (action 7);
• new corporate procedures and guidance for responding to situations where employees are charged, convicted, or under investigation for criminal conduct, including improved information sharing with the RCMP within the bounds of appropriate legislation (action 8);
• completion of training and new requirements for all school-based staff on preventing and responding to harm by adults (action 10, 13 and 14);
• implementation of new onboarding practices for all school-based and administrative staff (action 12);
• development of processes to strengthen the collection, maintenance and archiving of the assignment of adults who work with students in school-related activities (action 15);
• development of a process for ongoing review of policies, procedures and best practices for higher risk educational settings (action 17);
• finalization of a Values and Ethics Code for Government of Yukon public servants (action 21);
• finalization of a new government-wide communications policy that outlines roles and responsibilities of the public service for leading internal and external communications related to critical incidents and emergencies (action 22); and,
• an updated temporary assignment directive to provide employees with development opportunities and encourage sharing and networking between departments (action 23).

The Government of Yukon employed a whole-of-government approach to the implementation of the Safer Schools Action Plan, which involved close collaboration between the departments of Education, Health and Social Services, Justice, the Public Service Commission, the Women and Gender Equity Directorate, and the Executive Council Office. The Government of Yukon also worked closely with the RCMP, and will continue to work with all stakeholders to ensure students are safe at school.

While progress to ensure student safety in places of learning has been achieved through the Safer Schools Action Plan, the Yukon government remains committed to the important work of ensuring student safety. Ongoing efforts will focus on continued improvement, implementation and operationalization of strategies to protect our students.