Solutions: How the Ontario Government can Rescue and Ensure the Viability and Quality of the Province’s Child Care System

 

In the not-for-profit child care world, we are committed to working with schools and community partners to provide the best care and early learning for children. Ontario needs a strong, healthy and sustainable child care sector to provide high-quality care for children and their families. We recognize that more work needs to be done in Ontario to support children and families to access affordable quality early learning and child care. Working together with local and provincial partners, Today’s Family can help Ontario build a strong, integrated child care system for families.

As a member of the Quality Early Learning Network (along with 18 other multi-site, multi-service not for profit organizations),  we see the urgent need for the development of a child care stabilization and transition plan that ensures the availability of a sustainable, high quality and affordable child care system for all families. Stable, quality child care in Ontario is increasingly vulnerable, leaving thousands of children and working families at risk. Removing four- and five-year-olds from the child care system leaves only toddlers and infants, whose care is far more expensive because they require a higher early childhood educator-to-child ratio.

The Quality Early Learning Network has released  SOLUTIONS :How the Ontario Government can rescue and ensure the viability and quality of the province’s child care system. Child Care is an essential part of an early learning and care agenda. It is a vital service for thousands of families in Ontario and an important contributing support to our economy. Child Care faces an unprecedented ‘crisis’ – we do not use this term lightly as indeed we are facing a dramatic reduction of child care services in Ontario. This open paper outlines the crisis, but more importantly, starts a dialogue toward solutions.

Please share  SOLUTIONS :How the Ontario Government can rescue and ensure the viability and quality of the province’s child care system.We welcome your feeback at: QELNNetwork@gmail.com .