Katie Hyslop

Katie Hyslop reports on how education, youth policy and municipal decisions shape the lives of marginalized young people, with a consistent social justice lens on who is most affected and who is left out.

Education and Youth Through a Social Justice Lens

Hyslop is the youth and education reporter at The Tyee, covering education and youth issues with a focus on the social justice dimensions of schooling and growing up. Their beat spans the B.C. education system from early childhood development through post-secondary, tracking how funding, legislation and labour relations impact access to public education.

Recent work includes coverage of how AI chatbots are being introduced into B.C. classrooms, reflecting an interest in how new technologies intersect with pedagogy, oversight and equity for students. Hyslop’s reporting often follows the path from policy announcement to classroom experience, examining teacher bargaining, education funding and anti-racism education as lived realities for students and staff rather than abstract debates.

In audio editions, they have reported on a watchdog’s urgent recommendations to improve supports for children with disabilities, underscoring a continual focus on how systems serve kids who need the most help.

Child Welfare, Poverty and Housing

A significant portion of Hyslop’s work examines child welfare and poverty, particularly the experiences of youth in and leaving the foster care system. They have produced multi-part series on the “invisible crisis” in Indigenous child welfare and the realities for young people who become homeless after aging out of care, combining data-driven reporting with intimate accounts from those directly affected.

This coverage links the child welfare system to broader strategies to end poverty, regularly highlighting how income insecurity, policy gaps and structural discrimination compound risks for kids and youth.

Hyslop also takes on the housing beat when it intersects with youth and education, reporting on how housing policy and affordability shape students’ and families’ ability to participate fully in school and community life. The depth and consistency of this work has been recognized with the Champion of Child and Youth Rights Award from a provincial child and youth advocacy coalition, signalling a long-standing commitment to documenting and challenging systemic harms faced by young people.

Indigenous Education and Child Welfare

Indigenous education and child welfare are recurring subjects in Hyslop’s reporting, approached through on-the-ground visits to communities, schools and post-secondary institutions. In an Indigenous education series for The Tyee’s solutions-focused arm, Hyslop travelled to Indigenous communities and urban centres, reporting from classrooms, universities and even remote lodges to understand how Indigenous students and educators navigate systems built without them in mind.

These pieces address the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in the foster care system and explore efforts by communities and advocates to change policy and practice.

Hyslop’s work in this area looks beyond single incidents to the structural factors - colonial history, funding models, jurisdictional disputes - that keep inequities in place, while still centring stories of resilience and community-led solutions. Indigenous education is treated not as a niche topic but as central to any honest account of child welfare and schooling in the province.

Human Rights, Municipal Politics and Mega-Events

Alongside education and youth, Hyslop reports on municipal politics and how major events transform urban life, always from the perspective of residents whose rights are most precarious. Their coverage of Vancouver’s 2026 FIFA World Cup human rights action plan scrutinizes how the city intends to protect people experiencing homelessness and poverty, and those marginalized for drug use, mental health issues or survival sex work.

The piece details gaps identified by advocates, including limited shelter expansions, ongoing enforcement of camping bans and unclear processes for handling human rights complaints routed through the city’s 311 system and FIFA host committee.

Hyslop’s analysis of increased policing and the reliance on existing complaint mechanisms shows a concern with both the formal promises of human rights plans and the informal practices that determine whether vulnerable residents are actually protected. In a podcast episode on what the World Cup leaves behind, they trace how large-scale spending on the tournament affects workers and which residents benefit versus those pushed further to the margins, drawing on earlier experience covering the impact of the Winter Olympics. Event bios and panels highlight that Hyslop’s municipal politics reporting focuses on crowded, complex local elections and party dynamics, with particular attention to how income, disability, race, gender and sexuality shape whose interests are represented.

Cross-Platform and Collaborative Reporting

Hyslop’s work extends beyond text articles into audio and cross-outlet collaborations, reinforcing the same core concerns across formats. Their stories have appeared in outlets such as Megaphone, the Vancouver Sun and Yes! magazine, and they have contributed to CBC Radio programs including On The Coast, Daybreak North and The Current, widening the audience for education and youth coverage. Within The Tyee’s audio offerings, Hyslop frequently narrates and expands on their reporting, making complex policy issues - such as rights for disabled children or the legacies of mega-events - accessible without losing nuance.

Across these platforms, what stands out is not a single topic but a consistent approach: sustained, detailed reporting on how institutions and governments treat children, youth and marginalized residents, and what that means for their daily lives.