How daycare expulsions can devastate a family
EXPULSION FROM DAYCARE CAN DEVASTATE A FAMILY, WITH LITTLE WARNING OR RECOURSE
Ali Manavi and Naghmeh Heshmati felt like they had hit the jackpot. Three years after putting their son’s name on a waiting list for childcare in downtown Vancouver — they signed up almost as soon as he was born — the couple learned last fall they had finally landed a spot.
But now they are scrambling to find another placement for him after their daycare abruptly ended its contract with the family. On two occasions over the past year, their son had accused staff of hitting him, prompting outside investigations that turned up no wrongdoing but left staff feeling “anxious” and “vulnerable,” the parents were told.
After being summoned to the daycare on the afternoon of July 23, Heshmati said, the CEO of the non-profit that operates it handed her a termination letter. She then found her now four-year-old son standing next to his cubbyhole with his belongings already packed up. According to Heshmati, he wasn’t allowed to say goodbye to his classmates.
“It was very insulting to me,” she recalled.
The frequency with which Canadian daycares expel children is hard to establish; none of the provinces keeps data on the issue. But when the National Post canvassed parents who belong to a large Vancouver-based Facebook group devoted to childcare, several immediately responded with stories of how their lives had been upended when their child was expelled, typically due to behavioural issues or special needs, and how they were offered little or no support after they were given the boot.
Canadian parents — especially those in urban centres — already face stiff competition for limited spots at licensed daycares and rising childcare costs that are outpacing inflation. The Canadian Child Care Federation reports that, as of 2012, there were only enough regulated and licensed daycare spots to accommodate 22.5 per cent of Canadian children aged 0 to 5 years.
A report last December by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that wait lists for childcare tend to be “almost universal” in big cities. In some cities, parents even have to pay fees just to be put on a waiting list, though the trend is on the decline. Experts say calculating the length of waiting lists in Canada is difficult as parents often put children on waiting lists at several centres, which can inflate the length of the waitlist for any one centre.
TO EXPEL MY CHILD, IT WAS THE EASIEST SOLUTION FOR THEM.
According to the CCPA report, the median monthly fees to care for toddlers and infants ranged from $1,354 to $1,758 in Toronto, $1,292 to $1,360 in Vancouver and $1,050 to 1,250 in Calgary. (In Montreal, where the province provides operational grants to providers, the fees were much cheaper at $168 per month for infants and toddlers.) If a family suddenly loses a daycare spot, finding a new arrangement can be an expensive scramble.
With such strain on the system, one expert in child and family policy at UBC says there is a need for greater data gathering and regulation.
“I think you’ve uncovered an important issue that’s been ignored for too long,” said Edward Kruk, a professor of social work.
“Governments definitely have an obligation to ensure that there are adequate regulations with respect to children’s rights in daycare settings, including those pertaining to expulsion. There will be extreme circumstances where expulsion is warranted, but limits should be clearly articulated in legislation and policy.”
Manavi and Heshmati say they were blindsided when the Vancouver Society of Children’s Centres, a nonprofit that operates a number of daycares in downtown Vancouver, including their Yaletown neighbourhood, decided to withdraw services for their son last month. (The Post agreed not to name any children in this story).
According to the society’s policy manual, services can be terminated for several reasons, including if the child is severely disruptive or physically threatening to others. If a decision is made to expel the child, “every attempt will be made” to give families 45 days notice, the manual says. However, the letter addressed to Manavi and Heshmati on July 23 said the termination was effective that day.
When Manavi sought to clarify why his son was being expelled he received an email from the society’s CEO, Bernice Scholten, stating that “the relationship and interactions with staff have become increasingly difficult” and staff felt they were “unable to provide a safe and supportive environment” for their son.
“Staff feel stressed, anxious and vulnerable and the cumulative impact is troubling and not sustainable,” she wrote.
Manavi said the explanation is insufficient and that the society could’ve done more to work with the family. “Every time we went to get him, everybody was happy with him,” he said.
“It’s very frustrating. They have a duty to talk to us.”
Manavi said he and his wife are now trying to get their son registered in a daycare across town that costs hundreds of dollars more each month. Meanwhile, their son asks why he can’t play with his friends at his old daycare.
“When we passed his school, he said, ‘Daddy, can I go play with (my friend)?” Manavi said. “It makes me very sad.”
Scholten declined the Post’s request for comment, citing privacy reasons, as did the society’s board chair, Jaime Lux. They would not say how often expulsions occur at their daycares.
Over the past week several other parents reached out to the Post to recount similar experiences at other daycare centres.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s so frustrating how widespread it is. And the public doesn’t know about it,” said Vancouver mother Tanya Reid, who belongs to a Facebook group for parents of children with special needs.
In 2015, Reid’s son, then four years old, was enrolled at a YMCA daycare in downtown Vancouver. One day, she said, staff told her there had been an incident involving paint smearing, and that her son was becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
The family agreed to work on getting him evaluated by professionals to see if he might require additional support, she said.
But about two weeks later, Reid said she received an urgent call to come get her son. He had hit a worker in the head with a ball and banged another child’s head against a door. Reid said staff told her services were being withdrawn immediately and that her son wouldn’t be allowed back without one-on-one support.
Reid said staff provided no assistance to transition her son into another facility.
“To expel my child, it was the easiest solution for them. They didn’t have the best interest of my child,” she said.
Reid said the family eventually found a daycare that provided much more support for her son, who was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder.
Kelly Walker, a spokeswoman for the YMCA of Greater Vancouver, said in an email she could not speak to the specific case for privacy reasons. In general, withdrawal of care is “only done in circumstances where it is urgently required,” such as when a child poses a threat to others, she said. While staff always attempt to work with families using outside professional help, “in some cases resolution is not possible.”
“We are responsible for the safety of all children in our care and sometimes to protect them we must make the tough decision to withdraw care,” she said.
Vancouver mother Blythe Morrow said she placed her two-year-old daughter in a licensed home-based daycare at the start of the year. Three months in, she said, she was notified by the daycare provider that she would have to find alternative arrangements as her daughter was disruptive during nap time.
While Morrow said she was grateful she was given a two-month buffer, she wishes the provider had mentioned these issues to her when they were happening so that she could have worked to resolve them.
The reality is, “it’s like a sellers’ market” out there, she said. “If you don’t like a kid, you don’t have to worry. You can pick and choose.”
Representatives of the daycare industry insist that expulsions do not happen often. When they do, it could be because parents are delinquent in paying their fees, daycare policies have been violated or the child is being violent towards staff or other children.
“Tough decisions sometimes have to be made,” said Greg Humphreys, a board member of the Association of Day Care Operators of On- tario.
But when such measures are taken, they’re not taken lightly and typically come after daycare operators have exhausted all options and communicated extensively with families, said Don Giesbrecht, CEO of the Canadian Child Care Federation, a professional association of early childhood educators.
“Nobody wants to see a family lose their economic well-being because a child can’t be cared for,” he said.
Following a landmark study in 2005 by Yale University that found preschoolage children — especially boys of colour — were being expelled at three times the rate of K-12 students, several American states adopted laws restricting expulsions or suspensions in early childhood programs.
In 2016, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education issued a joint policy statement urging states to eliminate or severely curtail pre-school expulsions and suspensions, citing research that such measures could hinder children’s development and lead to delays in identifying and addressing underlying disabilities or mental health issues.
Martha Friendly, executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit in Toronto, says greater public oversight of childcare is needed in Canada and lawmakers should consider making early childhood care an entitlement so that parents aren’t left scrambling if their child is expelled.
Friendly said she’s received a number of calls over the years from distraught parents whose children have been expelled from daycare. It can be a real hardship on families, she said. “They may never find another place.”
Right now, there is no legal duty of care owed by social institutions to parents and their young children in Canada, Kruk said.
“Daycare expulsion seems to be an issue that affects far too many children and parents … and lack of government regulation on the matter is a big part of the problem,” he said.
“The reason for the lack of attention is lack of political will in regard to government and other social institutions recognizing that they have a fundamental responsibility to support parents in raising their children.”