[URBAN NOTE] "Ontario tweaks controversial daycare regulations"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Laurie Monsebraaten looks at one effort to try to solve issues of shortages of affordable childcare in Ontario.

Ontario’s education ministry is tweaking daycare regulations amid outrage that an earlier proposal would have wiped out 2,000 desperately needed infant and toddler spaces in Toronto and sent parent fees through the roof.

The new regulations, posted Monday and set to take effect in Sept. 2017, will allow daycares to maintain existing infant, toddler and pre-school age groups and staff-child ratios.

But centres that require more flexibility will have the option of applying 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. A third “family” age group would allow smaller centres to care for up to 15 children of different ages.

Currently, babies under age 18 months and toddlers to age 2 ½ must be cared for in separate rooms.

The new option, which would allow centres to use existing space to accommodate the changes, would be treated as a pilot project. Participating daycares would be required to work closely with the ministry to evaluate program viability and quality, government officials said.