Transitioning to Ontario’s New Child Care Funding Formula and Funding Framework
Source: Ontario Ministry of Education, December 18, 2012

Excerpt: "The purpose of this memorandum is to provide Consolidated Municipal Service Managers (CMSMs) and District Social Services Administration Boards (DSSABs) with information about Ontario’s new funding formula and funding framework for child care, which will take effect in 2013. By funding formula, we mean the method of allocating provincial funds for child care among CMSMs/DSSABs. By funding framework we mean the rules associated with how those funds may be spent, reporting requirements for expenditures and service levels, and the tracking of results achieved. This is an exciting time for child care but we also recognize this is a time of transition..."

• Memo> 
• Technical paper>

Ontario Government Tweaks Child Care Funding Formula
Source: Toronto Star, December 19, 2012

Excerpt: "Queen’s Park is reforming the way it distributes child care money to municipalities and giving them more control over how they spend it. In an announcement Tuesday, Education Minister Laurel Broten said provincial child care funding will be based more closely on need rather than on demographic data that is as much as 20 years out of date. The new funding formula will be derived from a variety of indicators including child population, child poverty levels, cost of living, welfare caseloads and education levels, she said. Indicators will be updated regularly. A $50 million mitigation fund will ensure no municipality will receive less money as a result of the changes, she added."

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Gender Pay Gap Widens Sharply After Motherhood

Source: Wall Street Journal blog, December 17, 2012

Excerpt: "Women earn less than men for doing the same job, particularly after they have had children, and the high cost of child care deters many women from working more, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. In a report on gender equality, the Paris-based think-tank said that in many countries, employment rates among women have held up better than among men since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. But it warned that future cuts in public sector employment are likely to hit women to a greater degree than men, since they account for 60% of government employees."

A Smart Investment: Skilled Early Childhood Workforce
Source: Huffington Post, December 17, 2012

Excerpt: "The child care industry is a large employer with almost two million workers in the United States. Furthermore, relative to many other industries, child care providers tend to buy services and materials from local businesses, and child care workers tend to spend their earnings locally. However, for these near- and long-term economic benefits from investments in early childhood development to pay for themselves, they must be of high quality. This quality is contingent on the skills and experience of the program directors, teachers, classroom aides, home visitors, and other staff who deliver services to children and families."

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The Skyrocketing Cost of Raising Kids
Source: Financial Post, December 15, 2012

Excerpt: ""Canada has become a country in which it is far harder to raise a family," says University of British Columbia professor Paul Kershaw, who writes often about the plight of today’s young families. "The country’s economy has doubled in size since the mid-1970s, yet the new reality for parents with preschool children is a decline in the standard of living." But why? There are more two-income families, with women, as Mr. Kershaw points out, bringing in 53% more income than they did 35 years ago. Is it really that much more expensive to raise kids now than it was then? Or is it, as imperious Boomers like to assume, because the latest crop of parents are too busy indulging their own and their children’s materialistic whims?"

Closing the Gender Gap: Act Now
Source: OECD, December 17, 2012

Description: "Gender gaps are pervasive in all walks of economic life and imply large losses in terms of foregone productivity and living standards to the individuals concerned and the economy. This new OECD report focuses on how best to close these gender gaps under four broad headings: 1) Gender equality, social norms and public policies; and gender equality in 2) education; 3) employment and 4) entrepreneurship.

Key policy messages are as follows: ... Good and affordable childcare is a key factor for better gender equality in employment. But change also has to happen at home as the bulk of housework and caring is left to women in many countries. Policy can support such change, for example, through parental leave policies that explicitly include fathers..."

Encyclopedia on ECD: Preschool Programs

Source: Centre of Excellence in Early Childhood Development, December 14, 2012

> Preschool programs for children in disadvantaged families
(rev) Lawrence J. Schweinhart

> Preschool programs: Effective curricula
 (2nd ed) Sharon Lynn Kagan & Kristie Kauerz

> Preschool and learning-related skills (new) Paul Leseman

> Preschool programs for the general population (new) Edward Melhuish & Jacqueline Barnes

> Preschool programs: effective curriculum. Comments on Melhuish and Barnes, Kagan and Kauerz, Schweinhart, and Leseman
(rev) Jane Bertrand


• Link>
• See also: Synthesis: How important is it? - Edward Melhuish

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Overcoming Poverty Together: La Boussole Centre for Early Childhood and Family Named Success Story
Source: Overcoming Poverty Together: Community Inclusion Networks Success stories, Vol. 1 number 1 December 2012

Excerpt: "The Centre for Early Childhood and Family La Boussole, in Richibucto, offers a complete range of services to families with children 0 to 5 years who live in the Greater Richibucto area. La Boussole relies on the participation of several partners such as VON’s Healthy Baby and Me, the program First Steps, the Family Resource Center of Kent, Public Health, the program “Talk to Me”, and many others. They offer activities for children accompanied by an adult as well as training and information sessions to parents and guardians..."

Play & Parenting Newsletter
Source: Family Resource Programs Newsletter, December 2012

Description: This edition includes new Parent Resource Sheet, 'Anger in the Family,' information on the FRP 2013 conference 'Family Well-being' and updates on FRP Canada projects and resources.

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People for Education: Bill 115
Source: People for Education, December 2012

> Once contracts are imposed all “strike action” will be against the law, including working to rule. BUT withdrawing extra curricular and other strictly voluntary activities is not considered strike action – so students in many schools may continue to go without things like sports, arts programs and clubs, and that could last as long as three years.

> The unions have mounted a court challenge to the new law, but this could take as long as five years to make its way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

For more information:

• P4E's Bill 115 webpage>
• The Agenda on TVO (video), with Annie Kidder (P4E), Michael Barrett (Ontario Public School Boards’ Association), Hirad Zafari (Ontario Student Trustees’ Association) and Adam Radwanksi (Globe and Mail)

Pinterst: Why Invest in Pre-K?
Source: NIEER, December 2012

Description: "As many of you know, pre-K advocates aren’t all teachers and educational researchers-- preschool education has wide support from other areas including the business community, economists, military leaders, and more. Lately, some high-profile supporters have been making waves in the media with their advocacy for preschool. These include: volunteers for the NAACP lobbying at state and local levels for improved pre-K services in addition to other educational reforms; TD Bank’s chief economist speaking on the economic benefits of pre-K investments; and a retired Air Force Lt. General writing an op-ed about early education’s importance. But while big names tend to make a bigger splash, everyone’s support helps to improve pre-K access and quality. To that end, NIEER introduced a collaborative Pinterest board filled with resources to help advocates make the case for supporting preschool education."

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Grandparents as Child Care Providers: Factors to Consider When Designing Child Care Policies
Source: Economic Premise (World Bank), December 2012

Excerpt: "Formal child care services can expand women's economic opportunities and promote equity through early childhood development. However, academics and policy makers often overlook the role of relatives as child care providers. This note discusses how grandparent-provided child care can be factored into child care policies in the context of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.... The focus of this note is on the opportunity cost of relatives -- particularly grandparents -- who care for children. Not just governments spend on child care programs -- grandparents spend considerable time caring for grandchildren.... The Netherlands and the United Kingdom are experimenting with policies that formally support grandparent-provided child care"

Early Growth of Mexican–American Children: Lagging in Preliteracy Skills but not Social Development

Source: Maternal and Child Health Journal, November 2012

Abstract: "Latino toddlers fall behind White peers at 24 months of age in oral language and interactive skills with their mothers in English or Spanish. But Latino children enter kindergarten with social skills that rival White peers, despite social-class disparities. We ask whether cognitive trajectories widen during the 24–48 month period, how these patterns differ for Latinos, especially Mexican–Americans, and whether similar gaps in social-emotional growth appear. We analyzed growth patterns for a nationally representative birth sample (n = 4,690) drawn in 2001..."

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A Number is Never Just a Number: In Search of Child Care
Source: rabble.ca, December 3, 2012

Excerpt: "1970 - Year the Royal Commission on the Status of Women first recommended a national child-care program. Thirty-five years later, the short-lived Paul Martin Liberal government began the process to implement that recommendation. 3 - Number of hours between Stephen Harper's first swearing-in as Prime Minister of Canada in 2006 and his cancellation of the Liberals' nascent national child-care program."

Constructing Measures of Northern Children's Identity Through Dialogue
Source: Pimatisiwin: A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health, Winter 2012

Abstract: "The many relationships and experiences in a child’s early years exert an influence that may last a lifetime. A picture of child development is more complete with a perspective on the child’s sense of identity. Child development can be described, measured, or put in context. It can be looked at in a quantitative fashion, through tests and numbers, and it can be narrated through a story. Ongoing dialogue within the Northwest Territories led to the construction and refinement of relevant and measurable indicators of young children’s sense of identity as reflected in their northern and Aboriginal cultures and contexts. A sense of belonging, with relational connections to self, family, culture, community, and place contribute to the construction of northern children’s identities. This article describes the emergence of those constructs and the relationship-based processes that gradually led to the construction of the Sense of Identity (SI) questionnaire."

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Ontario's Labour Dispute - What's Going to Happen Next?
Source: People for Education, December 3, 2012

Excerpt: "How did we get here? Across the province, contracts for teachers & support staff expired on August 31st.  The province – saddled with an approximately $15 billion annual deficit – proposed freezing salaries for two years and mandating that teachers, support staff, principals and vice-principals take up to 3 unpaid days off."

PEI Early Learning Framework: Relationships, Environments, Experiences
Source: Government of PEI, November 28, 2012

Excerpt: "The Prince Edward Island Early Learning Framework is specifically designed to provide consistency in methodological approaches and structure to the scope of learning in Early Years Centres. The Framework is also designed to allow and encourage Early Childhood Educators to design learning environments for children that are relevant to their communities, respectful of PEI’s different cultures and languages, and that are appropriate for children with a wide range of abilities. Successful implementation of the curriculum framework will require – in addition to appropriate resources and physical environments – the involvement of early childhood educators with a strong foundation in early childhood education and development, and strong pedagogical leadership from directors of Early Years Centres."

• News release

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Larry Schweinhart: The Return on Investment in High-Quality Preschool
Source: Ted Talks (YouTube), October 22, 2012

Description: "Larry Schweinhart is an early childhood program researcher and speaker for policy makers, educators, and advocates throughout the US and around the world. He has served as president of the HighScope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan, since 2003. He has conducted research there since 1975 and chaired its research division from 1989 to 2003."

Toward A Provincial Framework for Early Learning and Care in Alberta
Source: Muttart Foundation, October, 2012

Description: “The Muttart Foundation, Success By 6 and Calgary Upstart commissioned a series of discussion papers to generate stakeholder discussion on the key features and characteristics of a possible provincial framework for early learning and care in Alberta. These papers will form the basis for seven provincial stakeholder forums (fall 2012) to be held in Edmonton, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, Calgary, Lethbridge, Fort McMurray and Medicine Hat.”

• Project Overview and Summary
• Integrating Child Care and Early Education
• Putting the Pieces Together: Integrative Elements

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