Some before- and after-school programs expand hours
The provincial government announced Friday it will allow certain before- and after-school programs to operate beyond the current three-hour limit in an effort to give parents more “choice, flexibility and affordability” in their child-care options.
“For many working families these programs are affordable. They’re flexible options that provide quality care for their children when they need it most,” said Education Minister Stephen Lecce, who made the announcement with Flamborough-Glanbrook MPP Donna Skelly.
The changes, which take effect March 8, will initially only apply to programs run by the YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, municipalities or First Nations, and the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres, and they will be limited to 5,000 total spaces across the province.
The change was welcomed by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada and the YMCA, but opposed by some child-care advocates who argue that the reason the cap on recreation programs was imposed in the first place was to prevent a two-tier system for child care, with lessregulated recreation programs offering poorer quality care — albeit at a lower cost — than licensed child care.
“Recreation programs are not required to operate under the same stringent licensing criteria as child-care programs, and have lower qualification requirements for staff,” reads the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care’s submission to the Ministry of Education, which solicited feedback on a number of proposed changes to childcare regulations last fall. “There would be a clear quality difference between the programs as well as putting at risk non-profit child-care providers who will find it hard to ‘compete’ against more cheaply operated recreation programs.”
The coalition conducted a survey of more than 2,000 earlychildhood educators and parents and found that 48 per cent opposed the change and 31 per cent were unsure about it.
Lecce said that allowing some before- and after-school programs to expand their hours makes sense in a labour market that no longer conforms to a 9-to-5 work day. For parents who work long or “less traditional” hours “this flexibility is actually important,” he said. “It will allow thousands of parents to get access to a more affordable type of program.”
The amendment is part of a much broader set of proposed changes to the Child Care and Early Years Act put forward by the ministry in the fall, including controversial changes to age groupings, staff-to-child ratios and qualification requirements.
Those more substantial proposals, which have been met with strong opposition from parents, early-childhood educators and municipalities, are still being reviewed, Lecce said.