Thank you for the invitation to speak to your committee today. We would like to share our school board's experience welcoming refugees from Syria, and some information on how many students we have received to date, our process for accepting and integrating them into our school system, and our next steps.
The Calgary Board of Education is the largest school board in western Canada and the third largest in Canada. The CBE is one school system educating more than 117,000 students in over 220 schools with over 13,000 staff. We work together to provide learning as unique as every student.
Since January 4, 2016, the Calgary Board of Education has received 414 Syrian refugee students. The CBE has also welcomed 57 students with refugee status from other countries since January of this past year. The Calgary Board of Education has an established process for registering and settling students into our system, regardless of their country of origin.
In a typical year, our Kingsland Centre registers over 4,000 foreign-born and refugee students. The CBE has a diverse student population. More than 25% of our students identify as English-language learners. We have a robust strategy to support their needs, both through an inclusive model and through English as a second language classes.