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Overview
Alberta’s population is growing rapidly as more people from across Canada and around the world choose to make the province their home. This rapid growth has put pressure on our K to 12 education system, with student numbers increasing at historic rates.
To meet this challenge, we introduced Schools Now, also known as the School Construction Accelerator Program, in fall 2024. With this program, we are making a generational investment to build more schools now for Alberta students and families.
By building and updating schools across the province, we are creating better learning opportunities and bringing school closer to home.
Program highlights
In the first year of the program, Schools Now delivered strong results across Alberta.
A total of 45 new school projects were launched and funding approvals were fast-tracked for more than 30 previously approved school projects, accelerating school project completion timelines by as much as 9 months to a year.
As a result, 9 school projects opened for students during the first year of the program, creating and renovating almost 6,000 student spaces.
With Schools Now in its second year, the momentum continues.
- In November 2025, 5 more projects were fast-tracked: 4 in the design phase were approved to advance to construction and 1 in the planning phase to design.
- In February 2026, 4 more projects were accelerated: 1 in the design phase was approved to advance to construction and 3 in the planning phase were approved to move to design.
- In Budget 2026, 40 new school projects were approved for communities across the province, including:
- 14 projects in Calgary (February 27, 2026)
- 16 projects in communities across Alberta, excluding Edmonton and Calgary (March 5, 2026)
- 10 projects in Edmonton (March 9, 2026)
To address immediate space pressures during the current school year, we are also delivering 109 modular classrooms to areas of highest need. These modulars will add 2,725 new student spaces and relocate another 575, providing students with safe, high-quality and accessible learning environments.
Program commitment
New and renovated schools for Alberta students.
Through an investment of $8.6 billion, we will build more schools and speed up construction through in-year funding approvals.
Combined with previously approved school capital projects, Schools Now will deliver about 200,000 new and renovated student spaces by 2031-32 by:
- building up to 90 new schools
- modernizing or replacing up to 24 existing schools
- building or expanding up to 15 public charter schools
- completing over 80 school projects announced before the launch of Schools Now
- expanding the Modular Classroom Program
Learn about planning and building schools.
Accelerated school construction
As part of the program, we have also made improvements to our funding process to speed up the construction of new school projects. Funding for projects that are ready to proceed to the next step can be approved without having to wait for the next budget cycle, saving valuable time and opening schools sooner.
This new process is paying off, and we have accelerated 38 previously announced school projects across the province, with 4 projects accelerated twice, so far:
- 4 projects were approved to move to the next stage in February 2026
- 5 projects were approved to move to the next stage in November 2025
- 11 projects were approved to move to the next stage in May 2025
- 11 projects were approved for full construction funding in February 2025
- 11 school projects were approved to move to the next stage in fall 2024
By eliminating the wait for the next budget cycle, every project that received accelerated funding in the first year of the Schools Now program saw its construction schedule jump ahead by at least 6 weeks, and one-third advanced by 9.5 months.
Bishop McNally High School in Calgary was accelerated twice, moving forward by more than a year, and of the 5 projects accelerated in November 2025, 3 benefited from 2 rounds of acceleration, advancing each project’s schedule by 9 months.
In total, 26 of the 38 fast-tracked projects secured construction funding approval.
Accelerated projects
Active school projects
With the 40 projects approved in Budget 2026, there are now 161 active school projects in Alberta.
Calgary and area (61 projects)
Edmonton and area (54 projects)
South region (14 projects)
Central region (10 projects)
North region (22 projects)
News
- New school projects coming to Edmonton (March 9, 2026)
- New school projects coming to Calgary (February 27, 2026)
- Accelerating more school projects (February 18, 2026)
- Schools Now speeds up classroom projects (November 20, 2025)
- Fast-tracking more school projects (May 21, 2025)
- More schools for Edmonton and region (March 19, 2025)
- More schools for Calgary and region (March 14, 2025)
- Building schools in every corner of the province (March 7, 2025)
- School construction reaches warp speed (February 15, 2025)
- Fast-tracking new schools for Alberta students (September 18, 2024)