Ontario ditches controversial daycare rule changes

Ontario will field-test new daycare rules, after dropping earlier plan that would have wiped out spaces and hiked fees.

Thestar.com
May 9, 2016
By Laurie Monseebraaten

Child care advocates are relieved Ontario will allow daycares to maintain existing infant, toddler and pre-school rooms in new regulations posted Monday.

And they welcome the education ministry’s plan to field-test a new option before imposing rules that could threaten centre viability, program quality and parent fees.

But they are worried the province still hasn’t produced an overall vision for the future of child care in Ontario.

“I’m all for having a research project and evaluating things,” said Carolyn Ferns of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care.

“However, we need to get past the tweaking and start to deal with child care more seriously and much more broadly,” she said. “The regulations don’t address the issues of access, funding and affordability.”

Education Minister Liz Sandals said the province has begun preliminary discussions with Ottawa on a national early learning and child care framework.

“Our new regulations mark another important milestone in the transformation of our child care and early years programs, as we continue to build a child care system that is high quality, seamless and meets the needs of parents and children,” she said in a statement.

The new regulations will allow centres that want more flexibility to field-test two new age groups: One for children from birth to age 2 and another for those between the ages of 2 and 5.

Currently, babies under age 18 months and toddlers to age 2-1/2 must be cared for in separate rooms.

Under the new pilot project, to be launched in September 2017, participating daycares will be required to work closely with the ministry to evaluate program viability and quality, government officials said.

A broad cross-section of academic and municipal partners, along with daycare operators will help the province design and test the new option.

“We are ... pleased to support the ministry in identifying potential challenges and developing recommendations,” said Francesca Dobbin, director of family programs and services at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Studies in Education.

Patricia Chorney Rubin, director of early childhood education at George Brown College, which operates 10 child care centres in Toronto, said the pilot is aimed at reducing transitions for young children. Under the current regulations, children who enter daycare as babies move through three separate rooms before entering junior kindergarten. The new option would limit those transitions to two.

“A staged approach to implementing the new regulations will contribute to community confidence and allow the ministry and service providers to adjust along the way,” Chorney said in a statement.

Sandals has said changes are needed to reflect the introduction of year-long maternity leaves in 2000 and full-day kindergarten in 2010.

But she came under attack in March for an earlier proposal that would have put some babies, toddlers and preschoolers in larger groups at younger ages and with fewer adults.

A city of Toronto report showed the proposal would have eliminated more than 2,000 desperately needed infant and toddler spots in the city at a time when the city is spending millions of tax dollars to create more of the high-demand spots. It also would have sent parent fees - already among the highest in the country - through the roof.

“I’m very happy that they listened to all the feedback they got from across the province,” said Elaine Baxter-Trahair, the city’s general manager of children’s services. “It’s a very good news story and we’re happy to work with them on piloting the alternative optional ratios.”

Under the pilot, rooms for children from birth to age 2 would be capped at 12 kids and staff-child ratios would range from 1:3 to 1:4, depending on the ages of the children.

In the older age group, which would be limited to 24 children, the staff-child ratio would be 1:8.
Centres that choose the new option would have to boost the number of fully-trained early childhood educators from one per room to two, according to the new regulations.

In addition to new rules for age groups, group sizes and staff-child ratios, the government also posted updated regulations for various other aspects of licensed child care including before- and after-school programs for 6- to12-year-olds, sleep monitoring and playground safety. The new rules take effect on a range of dates beginning July 1.