Resources > Issues That Matter: Policy Commentaties
Issues That Matter: Policy Commentaries
Recommendations for the Future Administration of the EDI in Ontario (pdf) ~ New!
February 2013
Excerpt: "The Ontario Government has undertaken a review of the administration of the Early Development Instrument (EDI), including how data are collected, analyzed and reported. An external consulting firm, Malatest & Associates, conducted the review with a final report due in December 2012. The purpose of this paper is not to inform the consultant’s work but to use the occasion of a review to broaden the discussion about the EDI. Our interest lies in maximizing its benefits. Only by understanding the critical underlying principles of the EDI can we then address the issue of its administration."
Work Progresses on Ontario’s Early Years Puzzle (pdf) ~ New!
January 2013
Excerpt: "The task of creating coherence out of the province’s early years services took a step forward on January 23, 2013 with the release of the Ontario Early Years Policy Framework. It’s not the kind of document that gets media attention or stirs attention deep in the sector. The framework is about governance and while that isn’t as exciting as money or legislative change it is an essential forerunner if the latter are to be accomplished effectively."
- See also: Ontario Early Years Policy Framework and Letter from Ontario Education Minister Laurel Broten
Waterloo’s Story: Implementing a Comprehensive Vision for Seamless Care (pdf)
November 2012
Excerpt: "Ontario’s implementation of the bold vision for school board operated seamless child care across Ontario that was described in, With Our Best Future In Mind , has hit a few road blocks. After a great deal of lobbying, some general election politicking, and resulting legislative changes, today, most school boards in Ontario have reverted to the status quo in terms of how before and after school programs are delivered. In the majority of school boards before and after care programs are delivered by a third-party agency resulting in access to service that ranges from comprehensive to skeletal. The exception to this pattern exists in Waterloo, Ontario."
Modernizing Child Care in Ontario - Responses
The following are responses to the Government of Ontario's Modernizing Child Care in Ontario: Sharing Conversations, Strengthening Partnerships, Working Together discussion paper.
Modernizing the Early Years: Submission to the Government of Ontario in Response to Modernizing Child Care in Ontario (pdf)
September 2012
Excerpt: "The Atkinson Centre’s response to the Province of Ontario’s discussion paper, Modernizing Child Care in Ontario, draws on extensive evidence documenting the elements that support quality and accessible service delivery. It is informed by consultations with members of the Atkinson Task Force, an alliance of early childhood program operators, professional organizations, parents and educators."
Modernizing Child Care - Questions to Answer: More to Ask (pdf)
July 2012
Excerpt: "Modernizing child care in Ontario is longer on questions than answers. Perhaps that’s wise for a sector that feels it is not sufficiently consulted. If viewed as a conversation starter, it provides an opportunity to build a consensus around much needed changes to early childhood service delivery. What follows is an initial response to the document..."
- Response from Peter Tabuns, Education Critic, Ontario NDP (pdf)
- Response from the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (pdf)
- Response from the City of Toronto (pdf)
- Response from the Child Development Institute (pdf)
- Response from Andrew Fleck Child Care Services (pdf)
- Response from Petr Varmuza and Laura Coulman (pdf)
- Response from CUPE 4400 (pdf)
Pain and Gain for Early Learning in Ontario Budget 2012 (pdf)
March 2012
Excerpt: "Ontario Budget 2012 makes no overt changes to early learning. Full day kindergarten moves forward as planned to embrace all children by 2014. Its unique educator team remains intact. The Government should be commended for rejecting the narrow mindedness of Drummond’s recommendations. The back-story however has some twists. A $75-million reduction in education capital grants will crash into the need to build or refurbish classrooms in schools where there is no space for the remaining influx of 100,000 children during the final phase of the rollout. Most early childhood educators in kindergarten classrooms do not yet work under a collective agreement. Public sector wage controls leaves them, and new all ECE entrants, immobilized at the starting gate...."
Proposed Changes to the ASD Diagnosis: A Review of Implications for Early Childhood Programs (pdf)
March 2012
Excerpt: "A new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is currently in development to replace the existing DSMV-IV. One of the changes proposed is in the diagnostic criteria for autism and related conditions.... The risk with the change in the definition of ASD is that some families will no longer be recognized as having rights associated with disability categories. All Ontarians have the right to accommodation on the basis of disability and a diagnosis allows parents to more readily claim these rights. As an example, one of the most common reasons for children to be asked to leave an ECE setting is because of their behaviours. If a child has a diagnosis of autism, the parents can use this diagnosis as leverage to get supports rather than being excluded from the service."
Did we Elect McGuinty or Drummond? (pdf)
February 2012
Excerpt: "In 2007 the newly re-elected Premier Dalton McGuinty asked former deputy minister Charles Pascal to look into the best way to implement full day kindergarten for all Ontario four-and five-year-olds. Fast forward five years and another appointee, this time former banker Don Drummond, is being asked what to eliminate from the budget to ensure Ontario stays on track to eradicate a $16-billion deficit. Top Liberals are being ruthless signaling the provincial budget will proceed with previously announced corporate tax breaks while requiring ministries to cut up to 30 per cent of their costs. 'Bear the pain for future gain' is the current mantra but there won’t be much pain sharing. Program cuts tend to disproportionately affect the vulnerable while tax increases are shared across the economic strata. Finding cheaper ways of delivering full time kindergarten, or eliminating it altogether have been floated in the media. As Pascal told CBC radio, "There are two kinds of policy making—smart and dumb. And cutting full day kindergarten is definitely dumb.""
Corporate Big-Box Child Care, Coming to An Apartment Building Near You (pdf)
February 2012
Excerpt: "While the company’s website suggests that Edleun centres are focused on improving the quality of the early childhood system, research consistently shows that for-profit programs provide lower quality child care. The rationale for using for-profit operators is typically to reduce the onus on government, legitimized as being more innovative and cost effective. Research suggests however that non-profit or publicly owned programs are consistently found to provide higher quality services (Cleveland, 2008, Penn, 2010). The Australian experience demonstrates how a corporate child care monopoly can hold government ransom with regard to oversight, reduced regulations, and increasing parental fees."
In Response to Consultations on the Full-Day Early Learning-Kindergarten Program (pdf)
January 2012
Excerpt: "The Full-Day Early Learning-Kindergarten Program (Draft 2010) has been in draft form for the first two years of implementation of the Full Day Kindergarten program, during which time the Ministry of Education has been accepting informal feedback. This response is written as part of the formal two-part review process being conducted by the Ministry.... This critical phase of reviewing and revising the Full-Day Early Learning-Kindergarten Program provides a valuable opportunity to reflect on the document’s strengths and areas for improvement."
OpEd:Not on the Backs of Children
Source: Toronto Star, July 29, 2011
Excerpt: "The children of Toronto had nothing to do with this city’s budget woes but they could end up paying a steep price."
Kerry McCuaig is the Atkinson Policy Fellow at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. For more on this issue, see the commentary by Rick Blickstead of the Wellesley Institute.
City of Toronto Core Service Review (pdf)
July 2011
Excerpt: "I would like to address three issues before you today. 1. The elimination of child care subsidies; 2. The privatization of city operated child care centres; 3. The elimination of quality controls. From an economic perspective public spending on child care is not consumption. In the barest of economic terms it is an investment. Child care delivers multiple benefits to the children and families who use it, but it also plays a multifaceted role in regional economies; as an economic sector in its own right with facilities, employees and consumption from other sectors; as labour force support to working parents; and for the long-term economic impact it has on the next generation of workers. "
In Response to "All-Day Classes: Too Much, Too Soon" (pdf)
June 2011
Excerpt: "The recent news stories in the Windsor Star based on a small scale study by Rachel Heydon, challenging the value and experience of children in full day kindergarten is built on spotty reports from a pilot study in two Ontario classrooms suggesting that the new Full Day Kindergarten program may harm children based on too much academics and too little play. Although recent news stories have acknowledged that a study of two classrooms doesn’t give us a clear picture, some journalists truly believe further study will prove the researchers right."
- See also "All-Day Classes: Too Much, Too Soon" and Prof. Rachel Heydon's editorial about her research
Children with Special Educational Needs in Early Childhood (pdf)
June 2011
Excerpt: "All children need supports to achieve their optimal development. All young children need parenting, peer interaction, and educational opportunities in order to develop social skills, language, physical and cognitive competence. For many children with disabilities, this also includes early intervention strategies that might come from medical and clinical intervention, therapeutic interventions and/or family supports that increase resilience where there are risk factors for children and their families..."
Effects of Full-Day K on Rural Child Care (pdf)
April 2011
Excerpt: "The Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program implementation will have a differentiated impact across the province, particularly in rural communities, where the instability of child care services may result in rural children and families bearing a heavier burden of change compared to their urban peers..."
Response to Bill 173, Amendments to the Education Act (pdf)
April 2011
Excerpt: "There are three points I would like to share with the committee today which I hope will influence the committee’s proposal to amend the Education Act to allow third party operators to deliver extended day programs. First, the findings from the Toronto First Duty Program demonstrate the critical value in a seamless approach to early learning and family support..."
Experiences of Internationally Educated ECEs (pdf)
April 2011
Excerpt: "In 2006, The Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario (AECEO) launched The Access to Early Childhood Education Program (also referred to as the Bridging Program) in collaboration with the Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office and the School of Early Childhood at George Brown College.... Since the program commenced in 2006, just over 100 individuals with international education credentials have completed the equivalency program..."
March Break Looks Bleak for Ontario ECEs (pdf)
March 2011
Excerpt: "The issue of whether early childhood educators are deemed to be full-time early education professionals like teachers, or whether they are treated as ten-month contract positions is still to be resolved. According to Service Canada (2011), if early childhood educators are considered full-time salaried teaching staff, they will not qualify for employment insurance. However..."
Response to the Ontario Best Start Child & Family Centre Consultation (pdf)
December 2010
Excerpt: "If there was one thing the government could do right now for children and families in Ontario, what could that be? ....We have an opportunity to build a foundation for services for children and their families – but that means making a radical move toward something different and innovative. It means moving away from the rhetoric of business as usual, working within the silos that fit like an old sweater but are starting to smell a little mouldy."