The Future of Child Care

The latest buzz in the world of child care is that the Region of Peel is ready to close all 12 of its Learn Play Care centers.

While this news is hard to digest, especially for the families who attend these centers, it certainly does not come as a surprise to Early Childhood Educators who understand the dynamics of the field.

Why is this happening?

Child care is a business like any other, and part of this business is making ratios work. Ratios are determined by the Day Nurseries Act and regulate the maximum number of children allowed in any one classroom and the number of educators required to meet the ratio. The current ratios are:

Infants (6 weeks-18 months)-1:3, maximum 10 children
Toddlers (18 months-30 months)-1:5, maximum 15 children
Preschoolers (30 months-48 months-1:8, maximum 24 children
J/K (4 year olds)- 1:10, maximum 20 children
S/K (5 year olds)-1:12, maximum 24 children

The older age groups require less staff per child whereas the younger groups require more staff. Child care centers rely on the older groups to offset the costs of the younger age groupings.

With full-day learning being implemented all across Ontario, child care centers are losing their older age groups and thus finding it difficult to keep their businesses open.

The Region of Peel centers were probably the least thought of as likely candidates to face closures, but it makes sense.

By closing these centers the funding can be used for the full-day kindergarten programs that are proving more costly than governments can afford.

It can encourage families to go to new centers that are also suffering through the the loss of kindergarten children, and perhaps help keep them from facing similar closures.

Unfortunately, it also means that Early Childhood Educators have less opportunity for fair paying jobs, and families relying on subsidies in Peel will have a harder time finding centers that accept subsidy because of new guidelines for child care centers in peel; any for-profit child care center can no longer accept subsidized children unless they were approved before the change.

What does the future look like?

Full-day kindergarten was part of the Charles Pasqual Report which is a document outlining recommendations by Pasqual on how to create a universal child care for all. Other suggestions in the report were to extend maternity leave to 2 years and send children to public schools at age 2. So the child care of the future looks non-existent.

Some would argue that this plan sounds perfect. But there would be so many areas affected including: businesses that will have staff off work for 2 years instead of 1year, families having 2 years off at a lower percentage than the current 55%, and taxpayers paying more to afford all these extra children in schools.

Not to mention the children who will be placed in environments where teachers are not allowed to assist with washroom routines. This means that a child who has an accident must change themselves or the parent will need to be called in to take care of the child because the teacher cannot provide care.

My views

I believe that Early Childhood Educators are the best qualified people to care for young children. I believe that young children do not belong in the public school system, and instead need to be in a building that follows different Ministry guidelines that leaves the care in child care.

I feel that parents are excited for the idea of saving money on child care without fully understanding what they are giving up with Full-day learning. Here are a few examples:

-Hugs
-Washroom routine
-Rest time routine (naps)
-Encouragement to eat lunch/snacks
-Individualized accommodations for cultural preferences and needs
-A more controlled environment for those with food allergies
-Smaller ratios
-More stimulating outdoor environments to encourage physical development


What I ask of you

Please do not believe everything advocates tell you. Question their goals, plans, and ways they see their ideal child care operate in the real world. I have. And I have noticed that most have no real answers. The future of our children needs clear answers and a solid plan to implement quality care.

The main idea advocates want to pass on to you is that quality care is only found in non-profit centers and should be free for all families.

The only reason non-profit centers are of higher quality is because the government only gives them adequate funding. But a non-profit center means that the person who starts up the business cannot make a living at all. That could be why there aren't enough child care spaces. What's wrong with entrepreneurs making a living while providing quality care? Perhaps the real issue to advocate for is fair funding to all centers. Perhaps if we did that we wouldn't have such a crisis today.