Province Making Significant Progress on Jenkins Report
The Provincial Government and the education authorities are taking meaningful steps to improve the safety of students across the province as they continue to implement recommendations following the delivery of Student Safety in Island Schools: Handling of Complaints and Incidents of Staff Sexual Misconduct, also known as the Jenkins Report.
The report was authored by former Chief Justice David Jenkins and proposes recommendations for how the education system can be modified to improve the safety of students and staff. The report contained more than 60 recommendations for the Department of Education and Early Years, the two education authorities, and other government departments.
“I am quite pleased with the progress that’s been made since the delivery of the report back in February, and I’m confident the majority of these recommendations will be in place in due time and will improve safety significantly in Island schools. Staff across government and the two education authorities have been doing incredible work improving safety in Island schools, not only once we received the report and recommendations but for many months prior to that. I am grateful for their hard work and comprehensive approach.”
- Minister of Education and Early Years Robin Croucher
As it stands now, 58 of the 61 recommendations are either complete or in various stages of development. Some of the recommendations underway or complete include:
- Developing a sexual misconduct policy for Island schools
- Ensuring both education authorities are meeting or exceeding incident reporting requirements
- Completing a jurisdictional scan for additional safeguards for background checks beyond vulnerable sector checks
- Ensuring all staff complete a criminal record check and a vulnerable sector check prior to hiring and requiring updates every three years thereafter
- Ensuring an annual offense declaration for all staff, including immediate disclosure of new offenses
- Developing a new code of conduct for all Island schools
- Improving training, mentoring, and support for school administrators and staff
- Continuing meetings between the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Department, and the education authorities and seeking advice in various areas including reporting flow, language use in policy, grooming training, and use of a central reporting system
- Developing a comprehensive incident tracking system
To view the full report, visit here.
Media contact:
Andrew Sprague
Department of Education and Early Years
asgsprague@gov.pe.ca