Bill 38 amends The Public Schools Act to broaden the legal definition of bullying, require school codes of conduct to address artificial intelligence, change how schools describe disciplinary responses, and impose explicit qualifications and notification duties for superintendents. It removes staff from the scope of student codes of conduct, requires schools to specify interventions and appeal processes, and recognizes AI-assisted expression as a possible medium for harmful conduct.
The bill also amends The Manitoba School Boards Association Act to allow Indigenous educational organizations and certain other organizations to join the association, to designate representatives (up to nine per organization), and to require a designated representative on the association’s board when Indigenous educational organizations are members. Part 2 comes into force by proclamation; the rest on royal assent.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill expands the statutory definition of bullying to include conduct that creates a negative or unsafe environment for groups and expressly covers expression created with or without AI assistance; it requires codes of conduct to address AI and to set out interventions and appeals. It also sets mandatory qualifications and notice requirements for superintendents and opens Manitoba School Boards Association membership to Indigenous educational organizations and other qualifying entities that may designate representatives.
Who It Affects
Public school divisions and school boards, school administrators (especially superintendents), students and school governance staff, and the Manitoba School Boards Association and any Indigenous educational organizations or third-party school-support organizations seeking membership.
Why It Matters
The changes create enforceable expectations for how schools address harassment and new media (including AI), standardize superintendent hiring and oversight, and alter provincial school-governance representation by bringing external Indigenous organizations into the MSBA governance ecosystem—potentially shifting advocacy, resources and decision-making at the provincial level.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill rewrites how Manitoba law treats bullying and the media through which it can occur. It removes limits that tied bullying to intent and explicitly covers conduct that creates a harmful environment for groups or classes protected under The Human Rights Code.
Importantly, the statute now says bullying can be expressed in any medium — and explicitly mentions expression produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence — so codes of conduct must account for that possibility.
Codes of conduct must now do more than list prohibited behaviour: they must identify specific interventions that will result from non-compliance and explain the appeal process. The bill deletes references to staff from the parts of the Act that previously applied the code to both students and staff; the statute therefore continues to apply to students but not to staff.
The language used to describe responses is reframed from labeling acts “unacceptable” to stating that certain acts “will result in an intervention,” which formalizes a consequences-first approach and requires boards to set out remedial steps.On governance, the bill makes superintendent appointments a statutory obligation with defined minimum qualifications: a valid Canadian teaching certificate, substantive classroom experience (including curriculum delivery, evaluation and student supports), and administrative experience managing staff and resources. School boards must notify the minister within ten days of an appointment and must give the superintendent an opportunity to provide hiring recommendations when the board retains the power to make hires.
The chief superintendent of the northern school division is expressly covered by these sections; area superintendents are not.Finally, the Manitoba School Boards Association Act is amended to broaden membership. Indigenous educational organizations and organizations that provide governance, administrative or educational support to Manitoba schools may apply for association membership; the executive can approve applicants if they meet by-law criteria, pay fees and—if not Indigenous—are non-profits that publicly disclose finances.
Approved organizations may designate up to nine representatives to participate in the association, and the association’s board must include a director who is a designated representative when Indigenous educational organizations are members. Part 2’s provisions take effect by proclamation, allowing staged implementation.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The Act defines bullying to include conduct that creates a negative or unsafe environment for groups or classes protected by The Human Rights Code, not just individuals.
The law treats any form of expression as potentially bullying — explicitly including material produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
A school board must appoint a superintendent who holds a valid Canadian teaching certificate, has classroom and administrative experience, and the board must notify the minister within 10 days of appointment.
School codes of conduct must list, in as much detail as possible, the interventions that will follow non-compliance and the process to appeal those interventions; the statutory code no longer applies to staff.
The Manitoba School Boards Association can accept Indigenous educational organizations and other qualifying organizations as members; approved organizations may designate up to nine representatives and trigger representation on the association’s board.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Bullying definition expanded and AI explicitly recognized
The bill alters the definition of bullying to cover conduct that creates a negative or unsafe environment for groups or classes protected under The Human Rights Code, not only individuals. It also revises the medium-based clause to say bullying can occur through any form of expression and inserts an express reference to material created with the assistance of artificial intelligence. Practically, this broadens the range of actionable conduct and signals that schools must consider emergent technologies when assessing incidents.
Code of conduct: interventions, AI and scope limited to students
The code-of-conduct provisions are reworked: the statute replaces the word “unacceptable” with language that doing specific things “will result in an intervention,” and requires the code to describe interventions and appeals in as much detail as possible. The list of covered communication technologies is updated to include artificial intelligence alongside social media and digital messaging. At the same time, references that previously applied the code to staff are struck out so the statutory code applies to students only — shifting how disciplinary authority and expectations are framed.
Statutory superintendent appointment, qualifications and duties
The Act now obliges boards to appoint a superintendent, set remuneration and define duties. It specifies minimum qualifications: a valid Canadian teaching certificate, substantive teaching experience (curriculum delivery, evaluation, student supports) and relevant administrative experience. The superintendent’s duties are listed (policy implementation, administering programming, supervising staff except where the board directs, and acting as liaison to the minister). The chief superintendent of the northern division is covered; area superintendents are not.
Superintendent input on hiring and technical cleanup
If the board keeps hiring power rather than delegating it to the superintendent, the board must give the superintendent an opportunity to provide hiring recommendations before filling vacancies. This creates a formal consultative role for the superintendent in staffing decisions. The bill also corrects a French wording (surveillance → supervision) and makes a consequential amendment to The Education Administration Act removing “and staff” where previously used.
MSBA membership opens to Indigenous educational organizations and others
The Manitoba School Boards Association Act gains new definitions (designated representative; Indigenous educational organization) and a new admission route: Indigenous educational organizations and organizations that provide governance, administrative or educational support to Manitoba schools may apply for MSBA membership. The executive can approve applicants that meet by-law criteria, pay fees and, if not Indigenous, are non-profits that publicly disclose finances. Approved organizations may designate representatives (up to nine) to participate.
Designated representatives fold into association governance
Trustee references throughout the Act are adjusted so that designated representatives are captured in procedural provisions; when the association has Indigenous educational organization members, the executive must include a director who is a designated representative. The Act also allows organizations to change or revoke their designated representatives by written notice, formalizing rotation and replacement in the association’s membership structure.
Commencement: staged implementation for Part 2
The bill sets a default commencement on royal assent for most provisions but postpones Part 2 (the MSBA changes) to a day fixed by proclamation. That gives the government the option to phase in association-membership changes after preparatory steps such as by-law changes or stakeholder consultations.
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Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Students in protected groups: The broadened bullying definition and AI-specific language give schools an explicit statutory basis to address group-targeted harms and harms propagated using new technologies.
- Indigenous educational organizations: The amendments allow Indigenous authorities that operate schools in Manitoba to join the MSBA, gain representation, and participate directly in provincial governance and advocacy structures.
- Superintendents and prospective superintendents: Clear statutory qualifications and an explicit consultative role on hiring strengthen the office’s formal authority and clarify responsibilities, reducing ambiguity about the role’s scope and expectations.
Who Bears the Cost
- School boards and administrators: Boards must update codes of conduct, specify interventions and appeal processes in greater detail, incorporate AI policy, and comply with formal hiring-notice and consultative procedures—each requiring staff time, legal review and possibly external expertise.
- Smaller or resource-constrained school divisions: Meeting new documentation, consultation and qualification standards (and defending intervention decisions that reference AI) will demand administrative resources that smaller divisions may lack.
- Manitoba School Boards Association: Expanding membership to include non-traditional members and designated representatives will increase administrative complexity, require by-law changes, and may shift resource allocation and representative dynamics within the association.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is balancing adaptability to new harms (including AI-enabled conduct) and clearer governance against the risk of legal and operational ambiguity: broad, technology‑neutral definitions and expanded memberships give actors tools and voices, but they force schools, boards and the association to define standards, proof, and procedures in the absence of detailed statutory criteria—shifting controversy from whether to act to how to act fairly and consistently.
AI and 'any form of expression' are deliberately broad terms. That breadth gives schools flexibility to respond to new technologies and formats, but it also creates implementation ambiguity: boards will need to define what constitutes AI-assisted expression, how to prove it, and what evidentiary standard to use in disciplinary processes.
Expect disputes over whether particular content was AI-assisted and about the degree to which intent matters when harm is created by automated or hybrid human–machine outputs.
Removing staff from the statutory scope of the code of conduct narrows the Act’s reach and shifts responsibility for staff conduct into employment and collective‑bargaining channels. That reduces statutory uniformity but avoids overlapping disciplinary regimes; it may also create gaps where student–staff interactions cause harm but fall outside the student-focused code, forcing reliance on separate policies or litigation.
On the MSBA side, admitting Indigenous educational organizations and other entities expands representation but presents governance trade-offs. The association will need fair, transparent criteria and complaint-resolution processes to prevent competing interests from paralyzing consensus.
The proclamation-based commencement for Part 2 gives the province flexibility to stage implementation, but it also permits a delay that could leave applicants and schools in limbo while by-laws and administrative processes are revised.
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