The Professional Conduct Unit is a department of the Ministry of Education that accepts reports on ANYONE who is a certificate holder. Under the School Act that means (teacher, school counsellor, vice principal, principal, director of instructor, assistant superintendent, superintendent – EXCEPT the Secretary-Treasurer).
Good to Know Info:
- Parents can absolutely file complaints; it doesn’t need to just come from the district.
- The TRB will want you to meet with the superintendent before you file the complaint. (I have filed anyway due to complex reasons). But, this can also be a way for you to meet with the Superintendent if you wish. However, each and every complaint will be processed the same, whether you complete this step or not.
- ALL complaints will be accepted for processing. All will be read.
- The TRB never contacts the school. This is between the staff and their union will be involved. If you want the school to know you submitted a complaint, you will need to tell them.
- The person you are complaining about will receive the complaint within 7 business days after you submit it.
- Once you submit a complaint, you cannot withdraw it later. Even if you change your mind, the process cannot be interrupted. You can write in that you would like it withdrawn and that will be considered with the review.
- The TRB intake officer may tell you, you need to know the exact name on the certificate holder in order to file a complaint. Not true. As long as you know the person’s name (the name they use in their position) and the district they are in, you can file a complaint and they will match them up in their own internal database. (Districts will tell you they cannot give you the name on the certificate due to privacy reasons. You can file anyways)
- When you file the complaint, it is easy to assume that once you have filed all of your evidence, and you send in the form, you cannot send in more evidence if you come across it at a later date. You CAN submit further information later. However, they prefer that you submit it all once at the beginning. The Commissioner has 60 business days to decide if they are going to see action on your complaint or not. I don’t know when the exact cutoff date is, (DO ASK), but you can submit further info and it should be considered. As of July 2024, complaints are taking one year to process.
- After you submit your complaint you should get an official letter 3-5 business days after. This will come with a password for you to access.
- You have the option of being interviewed and it will be recorded. This gives you an added opportunity to add any information and clarify. The Commissioner will listen to your recording. You can submit an FOI to get a copy of the recording if you wish.
- If you are not happy with the results and you feel that their response is incorrect, the BC Supreme Court is not your only route. You can file a complaint with Ombudsperson and they will review it to see if they will investigate it. Taking it the BC Supreme Court has financial risks attached to it. It will not only cost you thousands of dollars to do this, but if you lose the respondents could as the court to force you to pay a portion or all of their legal costs. Please consult a lawyer.
- The only way to bring issues to the Commissioner is to file a complaint against someone. If multiple people are involved and you don’t want to officially file a complaint against everyone, you can file a complaint on the one person most responsible, and attach all of the information regarding the situation to them. The Commissioner will look at everything and could decide to launch other investigations on other people based on the information given to them. Bringing issues forward without filing an official complaint is not an option…I asked.
Good to Know – Public Consent Resolutions
- This suspension could be a very useful advocacy tool. Teacher was suspended for not following the IEP and Safety Plan.
- This teacher in the past was disciplined for not following a students safety plan. (See Matter 2)
- https://teacherregulation.gov.bc.ca/documents/FormsandPublications/ProfConduct/DisciplineOutcomes/WONG_CRA_20201217.pdf
- Here is another case that is interesting. The student had a “vulnerable learning profile” and she didn’t create a positive learning environment. https://teacherregulation.gov.bc.ca/documents/FormsandPublications/ProfConduct/DisciplineOutcomes/FRASER_CRA_20230626.pdf
- This is another example to take into consideration when you file for emotional safety, diversity or lack of inclusion. This example was a conflict of Teacher Standards #1. https://teacherregulation.gov.bc.ca/documents/FormsandPublications/ProfConduct/DisciplineOutcomes/RUSSELL_CRA_20240624.pdf
- Here is an example of an LSS teacher, not updating a students IEP and forcing them to stay in at recess causing a physical injury. https://teacherregulation.gov.bc.ca/documents/FormsandPublications/ProfConduct/DisciplineOutcomes/SCHWARZ_CRA_20240925.pdf
- This one is about a principal thinking its a good idea to duct tape a child to a chair to help them focus on their work. https://www.speakingupbc.com/2025/01/26/new-consent-resolution-from-the-professional-conduct-unit-trb-ministry-of-educaiton/
This was on the list of things that they had done:
During the 2021-2022 school year, the following events occurred while Schwarz was employed as a teacher in a learning support program at School A, working with a small group of upper elementary school students (“Class A”):
a. Schwarz failed to properly follow procedures for students’ individual education plans
(“IEPs”):
i. IEPs must be reviewed annually to reflect individualized goals, adaptations, modifications, services and measures for tracking progress. Teachers must offer parents an opportunity to consult about their child’s IEP.
ii. Schwarz failed to plan appropriately for the fall 2021 IEP deadlines and only updated the students’ pictures and changed the name of the responsible teacher to her own name, before submitting the IEPs to the School principal. Schwarz did not make changes to the substance of her students’ IEPs and did not appropriately consult with parents regarding the IEPs.
- There is a time-sensitive constraint to this process. I called the intake officer multiple times before I decided to file my complaint and asked as many questions as I needed before I was ready to file. They are going to encourage you to resolve your issues with the school and the TRB is a last resort. If you feel that it needs to be reported, even if the school has “resolved” it. You can still report it anyways.
- When you fill out the form, they give you a box to describe the issue. You can use up more space. Just put “see attachment” and you can have more space. Many issues cannot be fully explained in that tiny box. Don’t let them limit the information you provide.
- If you want to remain anonymous, you might want consider having your PAC or DPAC file on your behalf.
- If you experience any retaliation for filing a complaint, you can file for the conduct of the retaliation. If this is a concern for you, another parent had a good idea that you can write on the form you submit that if you experience retaliation you will file another complaint. As the teacher will be reading the form you submit.
- https://globalnews.ca/news/6130949/vancouver-private-school-teacher-reprimanded/amp/?fbclid=IwAR2s2bv0BorzLioEXTZZgWvnCLs072ZTKXm4gqqQpp-fRTt60RbFJ-iEA20
*** NOTE: If you are unsatisfied with the result and feel that the Professional Conduct Unit was not a fair process, you can file a complaint with Ombudsperson and they will review it. I do encourage you to file a complaint with Ombudsperson, even if chances are… it could lead to nowhere. WHY? Because if they get enough complaints, they could end up doing a systemic review. However, if they don’t hear from anyone, then from their point of view, everything is hunky-dory. We have to keep filing complaints when we are dissatisfied with the process to keep these issues present in the minds of people who could potentially do something about it. ***Ombudsperson has started an exclusion investigation due to parents filing complaints.
Also note: it is common for the district to move staff around when they have issues with them. Even if the teacher has been removed from your child’s class, it just means they have been put back on the TOC list and will end up somewhere else. When you submit a complaint it stays on their file, so if in the future another parent complains about that teacher, the first complaint will be taken into consideration.
What if they Lie?
Question to the TRB – How does one proceed if a certificate holder lied or withheld information to create a false impression or mislead the Commissioner during the TRB process?
Answer from the TRB – “You are entitled to file a new complaint about any matter that was not part of the allegations set out in your original complaints. A complaint alleging that a certificate holder lied or mislead the Commissioner should articulate what the certificate holder lied about, when the certificate holder lied, and how you know it was a lie. Similarly, it should set out what information was withheld by the certificate holder and how you know that this information was purposefully withheld.”
Answer from the Ministry of Education – “You ask about teacher conduct during a professional conduct investigation, within the framework of the Teachers Act. My colleagues in the Ministry of Education’s Professional Conduct Unit indicate the responsibilities of certificate holders are set out in the Professional Standards established by the BC Teachers Council. Standard 2 requires teachers to act ethically and honestly. The Teachers Act sets out investigative processes and powers of the Commissioner, and the issue of whether a certificate holder has acted ethically or honestly during an investigation is a matter for the Commissioner to review, in the context of the standards. If the Commissioner believes a teacher has acted dishonestly or unethically during an investigation, the Commissioner can initiate a separate investigation into that matter. The Commissioner can receive complaints about a teacher’s ethical conduct during an investigation from any person and will review and address such complaints.”
You can file a complaint with the Ombudsperson BC citing unfair process. The TRB doesn’t have a fair process for parents and this was outlined in this Human Rights Case . You will want to explain to Ombudsperson that it’s like they are committing perjury. The TRB may try and slip out of addressing the issue and just say they can’t re-assess a closed case. BUT, you need to say NO – I am not asking you to re-assess the issue I am asking you to assess the lying. That is different. Someone can commit murder in the pool house, but they commit perjury in court. You want the commissioner to not assess the “murder” but the perjury. They may try and be sneaky with you. Be clear. You are filing a complaint for the lying.
Submitting FOI Requests
You can submit an FOI (Freedom of Information) request after you have received your decision letters to gain access to what they submitted. There is just no guarantee that it wont be heavily redacted. (In my case, all information was withheld under S.22) I got nothing. You could then file a complaint with OICP and an adjudicator could make a decision on whether they can be ordered to hand over the documents.
Links
There is A LOT of info on the TRB website, so you will need to set aside quite a bit of time to really click on all of the links and follow the maze of info.
Here is the link for the standards certificate holders need to follow.
Here are the Commissioner’s Rules, they must follow.
To see the statistics of how many complaints get through and those that don’t, click below.
For those who would like to submit their decision letter to the BC Supreme Court for a Judicial review, you will have 60 days to do so. For information on the process see link below.
https://supremecourtbc.ca/sites/default/files/web/Judicial-Review.pdf
