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Stress Is Killing Gender Equality in Canada
Source: The Tyee, February 26, 2013
Excerpt: "Without paid parental leave, affordable childcare, and salaries high enough to keep families out of debt, Coontz says the work/life balance of Americans, especially women, is bringing their stress levels to a breaking point. But Canadians shouldn't be smug. We have paid parental leave, but once those 12 months are up dual-earning families are back to working an average of 77 hours per week compared to America's 82.5, and paying more for childcare than they would putting their kids through university. As a result parents, especially women, are overworked trying to take care of their families while working more than ever before just to pay the bills. If equality for women isn't stalled in Canada, it's certainly slowed to a crawl."
MB: Parents Find Many Daycares Not Using Province’s Online Registry for Child Care Spots
Source: CTV News Winnipeg, February 25, 2013 (text and video)
Excerpt: "The province launched an online registry in 2011 to help parents place their kids in child care, but some parents said they’ve found out that many daycares aren’t using the registry. The province, meanwhile, says the system is working.... "Being on the online registry isn’t the be-all-end-all," said Pat Wege from the Manitoba Child Care Association. The association said several daycares it surveyed stated they aren’t using the registry because they still have wait lists from before the online program launched. "Many of the child care programs have paper registries that they have had for years and they're going to those first," said Wege."
Clyde Hertzman, 59, Showed How Environment Trumps Genetics in a Child’s Development
Source: Globe and Mail, February 24, 2013
Excerpt: "The power of evidence to drive change formed the bedrock of a long, remarkable, groundbreaking career, one that ended suddenly on Feb. 8, when Dr. Hertzman died at the home of friends in London, England, of an apparent heart attack. He was six weeks shy of his 60th birthday. His death prompted an outpouring of accolades from shocked colleagues who revered him, renowned researchers who marvelled at his work and organizations that embraced his conclusions. Passionate, relentless in the pursuit of truth, boundlessly energetic and possessing a brilliant, incisive mind, Dr. Hertzman dramatically altered the way Canada and increasingly the world thinks about the importance of early childhood."
Radio Interview: TDSB Hiring Practices
Source: Metro Morning, CBC, February 21, 2013 (runs 8:27)
Description: "Matt Galloway spoke with Ainsworth Morgan, he teaches at Lord Dufferin Junior and Senior Public School in Regent Park, and with Brian Rieper, he teaches at Owen Public School in North York."
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NS: Daycares Not Always Up To Standard
Source: Chronicle Herald, February 20, 2012
Excerpt: "Daycares in Nova Scotia navigate a minefield of provincial rules that include everything from cleaning toys on a regular basis to writing down how often each infant gets a diaper change.While some of the hundreds of regulations may seem arcane or finicky, others are crucial safety precautions. Information obtained by the The Chronicle Herald shows that some of the most frequent violations of the rules include those requiring child abuse registry and criminal record checks for staff or others who are in contact with children."
NB: UNB Launches Feasibility Study Into an Early Childhood Bachelor of Education Degree for Atlantic Canadians Via an Online Model of Delivery
Source: University of New Brunswick
Excerpt: "The Faculty of Education at the University of New Brunswick has partnered with the Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Foundation and the Jimmy Pratt Family Foundation to conduct a feasibility study into an online B.Ed. degree in early childhood education. UNB hopes the study will provide the foundational information to create a pathway for students to complete existing early childhood education diploma/certificate programs at the college level and then transfer into a UNB program and complete their education while continuing to work in their communities. The study will explore opportunities to collaborate with colleges and universities in the Atlantic provinces so as to ensure a comprehensive program that is accessible to practitioners."
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At Toronto's Mount Sinai, Parents Get a Crash Course in Caring for Their Preemie
Source: Globe and Mail, February 17, 2013
Excerpt: "At first glance, it could look like the moms in Mount Sinai Hospital’s Level II nursery are just visiting their premature babies, wearing their street clothes and winter boots. But many of them will be spending about 12 hours here, grilling the doctors on rounds, attending meetings with medical and developmental experts and being the primary caregivers for their infants. It’s all part of a program started at the Toronto hospital in 2011, called the Family Integrated Care Program."
ON: School Boards Urged to Find Low-Cost Options for Full-Day K
Source: Toronto Star, February 21, 2013
Excerpt: "School boards have been told to find low-cost options to make room for full-day kindergarten in a bid to save on construction costs for the final years of its rollout, the Star has learned. While the province has pledged $1.4 billion to renovate and put additions on schools for the full-day program, it’s not nearly enough to cover the needs of every school requiring extra space, so many boards are looking at changing boundaries or busing kids elsewhere. Some have even considered off-site space to house the program for the province’s 4- and 5-year-olds, which was rolled out in September 2010 and is expected to be fully in place by 2014."
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The Way Forward: 2013 Ontario Speech From the Throne
Source: Government of Ontario, February 19, 2013
"... your government will continue to prioritize education and inclusion. It will keep building a comprehensive early learning and care system, including the successful extension of full-day kindergarten and child care. It will show its respect for teachers, support staff, principals and school boards...."
Quebec Weighs Moratorium on Private Daycare Spaces
Source: Montreal Gazette, February 19, 2013
Excerpt: "Faced with the addition in January of 1,200 new spaces to an already underutilized network of private daycares, Family Minister Nicole Léger has suggested she might impose a moratorium on unsubsidized spaces. Léger’s press attaché, Bruno-Guy Cyr, said Tuesday that the minister was looking at a moratorium among “a number of scenarios.” Cyr said the minister wants to resolve a situation where strong growth in private daycare has led to thousands of vacant daycare spaces and complaints from private operators that they can’t make a living. No date has been set for an announcement. The Parti Québécois government blames the previous Liberal government for setting up a system whereby private operators seeking a licence could not be turned down as long as they met governmental rules and norms for operating a daycare centre."
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National Strategy for Early Years Required
Source: Telegraph-Journal, February 18, 2013
Excerpt: Philanthropist Margaret McCain is calling on the federal government to create a national early childhood development strategy for a public system that will give children a better life start. "It's absolutely necessary," she said, in an interview. Through the Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Foundation, McCain and her late husband have donated millions to early childhood education in Canada and the subject continues to be one of her great passions. On Friday, she visited the Early Learning Centre in Saint John, one of the early childhood development sites in the province that has benefited from her generosity and expertise. The centre, located at St. John the Baptist-King Edward School in the city's south end, is a facility where preschool-age children attend early childhood programming. It's in its fourth year of operation. McCain would like to see this type of facility used as a model for others across the province and the country. "We want to change outcomes for New Brunswick and to benefit New Brunswick, it has to happen throughout the province," she said."
Hertzman's Work for Children Will Carry Forward
Source: The Tyee, February 18, 2013
Excerpt: "But despite the sudden nature of his death, faculty and staff weren't completely unprepared for work without Dr. Hertzman. Schroeder says the director had already started talking about moving on to other work and there were plans to start looking internationally for another director.... In addition to the EDI research, Dr. Hertzman was working on a number of different projects before he passed that HELP plans to continue. These include working with other universities to map EDI results for the entire country, more work on epigenetics, the study of how experiences can physically change children's genes, and developing a tool to monitor countries' compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Dr. Hertzman was also making use of the 1958 National Child Development Study, an ongoing population health study that follows the lives of 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week in 1958. Hertzman, who was interested in how early childhood development affects adult life, was in England to continue this research when he passed away."
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Time for BC to invest in $10 a Day Child Care
Source: Vancouver Sun, February 18, 2013
Excerpt: "Last week’s Throne Speech promised to address B.C.’s child-care system, which is failing families, workers, and businesses. Minor tweaks to the existing system will simply perpetuate the current systems’ failures. It’s time for politicians to commit to a universal, accessible and publicly funded $10/day child-care system. Young B.C. families are squeezed between unaffordable housing and exorbitant child care. In Vancouver, fees average $14,000 a year for a two-year-old, but can reach as high as $23,000. Long waitlists grow daily, while licensed child-care spaces are available for only one in every five children. Meanwhile, low wages for early childhood educators (ECEs) create recruitment and retention problems, and half of all trained ECEs are not working in the sector."
BC: Affordable Child Care Promised in Tuesday Budget, But $10-A-Day System Ruled Out
Source: Times Colonist, February 16, 2013
Excerpt: "The B.C. government is promising more affordable child care for parents in Tuesday’s budget, but has ruled out following Quebec’s model of a universal cap on daily fees. The government’s throne speech said it would “improve access and affordability of child care.” But the province can’t afford to implement a Quebec-style model costing less than $10 a day for child care, said Premier Christy Clark.... “Universal childcare is estimated to cost upward of $1.5 billion and $2 billion a year, and realistically, within the economic environment we’re in, it’s not achievable for us at this time,” said Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux. Instead, the government is looking at what it can do within the context of early childhood learning and its StrongStart program, which provides certain free services for kids up to five years old to prepare them for kindergarten."
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ON: New Minister of Education Announced
Source: People for Education, February 12, 2013
Excerpt: "Liz Sandals, Ontario’s new Minister of Education, has wide ranging experience in education. She has been a teacher, a school board trustee, the president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Education Minister. As Parliamentary Secretary, she handled consultations on education funding and safe schools and participated in provincial contract negotiations...."
US: White House Gives Outline of Early-Childhood Ed. Expansion Plan
Source: Education Week, February 14, 2013
Excerpt: "President Barack Obama used his State of the Union speech to make a big splash on early-childhood education, calling for expanding access to preschool programs to just about every child in the country. But he gave almost no details on the plan in his Tuesday address, including how Congress would pay for it in a tight budget year. While the financing mechanism still remains somewhat cloudy, the White House put forward additional details this morning about just how the effort would work. Much of the funding would appear to come from states, through a partnership arrangement with the federal government. But the administration also wants to beef up other services for very young children and babies, including home visits from social workers and nurses, although it doesn't say just how much that expansion would cost."
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NL: St. John's Businesswoman Calls for Full-Day Kindergarten
Source: CBC News, February 13, 2013
Excerpt: "A prominent St. John's business owner is putting the pressure on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to bring in full-day kindergarten. Cathy Bennett, the owner/operator of nine St. John's-area McDonald's restaurants, used a speech on Tuesday to the St. John's Board of Trade to call for full-day junior and senior kindergarten. "Overall, research findings favour full-day kindergarten over the half-day program that we have now," said Bennett."
US: Few States Look to Extend Preschool to All 4-Year-Olds
Source: New York Times, February 13, 2013
Excerpt: "President Obama’s call in his State of the Union address to "make high-quality preschool available to every single child in America" rallied advocates across the country who have long argued that inequity in education begins at a very young age. Details of the president’s proposal are expected to be unveiled on Thursday when Mr. Obama visits a Head Start program in Decatur, Ga., but he indicated in his speech that the federal government would work with states to supplement preschool efforts. While supporters herald the plan as a way to help level the playing field for children who do not have the advantages of daily bedtime stories, music lessons and counting games at home, critics argue that providing universal preschool could result in federal money being squandered on ineffective programs."
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Playing Favourites Hurts All Siblings, Study Finds
Source: Toronto Star, February 12, 2013
Excerpt: "All children in a family suffer when parents favour one sibling, says a new study that warns of the impact this can have on kids’ mental health. “We always thought that the disfavoured child was the only one” affected, but “that’s not the case — it’s the dynamic that’s occurring in the whole family, and raising the mental health problems for all the children,” said study co-author Jennifer Jenkins, the Atkinson Chair of Early Childhood Development and Education at the University of Toronto. The results suggest that because of the favouritism, siblings can suffer aggression, difficulties with relationships, anxiety and attention deficits, says the study of almost 400 Toronto and Hamilton families published in the journal Child Development."
How Parents Who Play Favorites Hurt the Entire Family
Source: Time Magazine, February 12, 2013
Excerpt: "Parents try to be fair, but children pick up on subtle differences in the way they are treated. In a study appearing in the journal Child Development, researchers led by Jennifer Jenkins, a professor of human development and applied psychology at the University of Toronto, report on the wide-ranging effects that playing favorites, known as differential parenting, can have on not just individual siblings but also on the behavior and mental health of all family members."
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Treating Your Kids Differently Affects the Whole Family: Canadian Study
Source: Global News, February 12, 2013
Excerpt: "Your son may be on the mischievous side, skipping class and ignoring curfews while his sister is on the honour roll and helps with chores around the house. But a new Canadian study urges parents to avoid treating their kids differently – doing so affects the entire family’s household dynamic, their research suggests. Acting differently around siblings negatively affects not only the child on the receiving end of negative attention but their siblings, too, according to lead researcher Dr. Jennifer Jenkins..."
Birth, Feeding Choices Affect a Baby's Gut Bacteria: Study
Source: Toronto Star, February 11, 2013
Excerpt: "A new Canadian study has found that babies born by cesarean section or formula fed have a distinctly different makeup of bacteria inside their guts — something that could have consequences for the baby’s health or immune system development. Researchers from Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario have published the first North American study looking at healthy babies and how decisions around their delivery and diet impact the gut “microbiome” — the invisible constellation of bacteria, viruses and fungi that performs a vital role in keeping people healthy."
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Quebec Announces New Daycare Spaces
Source: CBC, February 7, 2013
Excerpt: "The Parti Québécois government unveiled how it will distribute 15,000 new $7-a-day daycare spaces across the province. Quebec Families Minister Nicole Léger said every region of the province will get new spaces, including more than 2,000 in Montreal. Another 2,000 will be reserved for the province's underprivileged neighborhoods. And 300 spaces will be set-aside for aboriginal communities, said Léger. Almost 85 per cent of new spaces will go to non-profit government run CPE daycares, which Léger said offer more consistency across the system. "We made a choice to favour social equality," she said. But some private operators say the PQ is making a mistake."
Men Stand Out as Daycare Workers
Source: Toronto Star, February 7, 2013
Excerpt: "ECE workers are found in myriad environments — independent programs such as St. Alban’s, and in the kindergartens of school boards across the province. Local stats give a clear picture of the imbalance. Of the 559 permanent, temporary and casual ECEs working at the Toronto District School Board, 541 are female and 18 are male. The Toronto Catholic District School Board has 196 permanent ECEs, with only four being guys. But it’s certainly not that men aren’t wanted..."
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The Debate Over For-Profit Child Care Heats Up
Source: Macleans, February 7, 2013
Excerpt: "In debates over how to provide care—whether in hospitals, seniors’ residences or daycare centres—clashes along the border between not-for-profit and for-profit services are particularly ferocious. For free-market types, it’s axiomatic that injecting competition into the system should boost choice and, as a result, quality and efficiency. For social democrats, it’s equally self-evident that profit-seeking providers are more likely to sacrifice standards, especially by hiring fewer and less-qualified staff, than the not-for-profits. From deep inside the latter camp comes the Toronto-based Childcare Resource and Research Unit’s new report flagging, with some alarm, the rise of for-profit daycare..."
Children Learn Best When They Use Their Imagination
Source: The Guardian (UK), February 5, 2013
Excerpt: "Imaginative inquiry is based on a well-researched pedagogy with a long history of practical application in the classroom. Teachers use it in many different ways, some as a single lesson, others as a year-long project incorporating wide ares of the curriculum. It is a flexible approach that most teachers find, once the context is established, is easy to plan and resource. However, getting a project started can involve a substantial amount of detailed planning which can be difficult and time consuming. For this reason we have written up a number of popular contexts into step-by-step by guides to get teachers started."
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Designated Early Childhood Educator Survey
Source: Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care
Description: "We have been asked by the Ministry of Education to develop a series of webinars that will support ECEs working in publically funded full day kindergarten classes (DECEs). If you are working as a Designated Early Childhood Educator (DECE), we would like your feedback about proposed webinar topics that are of interest to you. This survey is intended to help determine the most relevant topics for the webinars. Please tell us what those areas of support are and help us to respond to your needs by taking this short survey."
Carleton Heights Child Care Centre Meets Andrew Fleck Child Care Services
Source: Andrew Fleck Child Care Services, February 2013
Description: "On November 1, 2012 Andrew Fleck Child Care Services (AFCCS) welcomed Carleton Heights Child Care Centre (CHCCC) as one of our group sites.
Years earlier, in contemplation of the implementation of full day Kindergarten, the Board of CHCCC, started the proactive step of reviewing their structure, capacity and viability with the overarching goal of maintaining capacity in a system of licensed, non-profit child care for their local community. After a thorough and thoughtful process, which included public consultation, coaching and networking across the broader child care community, the Board of CHCCC recognized that their goals were going to best be accomplished by amalgamating with a larger agency.
The Board of Andrew Fleck Child Care Services recognizes the importance of maintaining early learning and care capacity in the non-profit sector particularly during this time of transition due to the implementation of Full Day Kindergarten. They recognize that this includes, where appropriate, providing support, acting as a resource and possibly amalgamating existing programs with AFCCS.
We captured, on video, the excitement of the CHCCC Board, staff and families to be joining with another agency."
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US: Obama Plans for Child Care
Source: Child Care Exchange, February 7, 2013 test
Excerpt: "Two recent articles in the Huffington Post (on 01/18/2013 and 02/01/2013) reveal that the Obama administration is planning a major push to expand early childhood services in his second administration in a manner that is certain to stir wide controversy. Although details released in the Huffington Post articles are sketchy and certainly not the final word, here are some ideas being floated in advance of Obama's State of the Union address"
US: White House Allies Produce Preschool-For-All Plan
Source: Business Week, February 7, 2013
Excerpt: "Days before President Barack Obama outlines his agenda for the coming year, a think tank with close ties to the White House is outlining a plan that would provide preschool for all children within five years..."
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Seven Years and $15b Gone: Nothing to Show for the Universal Child Care Benefit
Source: Child Care Advocacy Assocation of Canada, February 6, 2013
Excerpt: " Seven years ago today, Stephen Harper’s first act as Prime Minister—just three hours after taking office—was to cut Canada’s first national child care program. This program would have created more high quality regulated child care, made child care more affordable for families across the country and been a first step to a real system. The Prime Minster Harper replaced the program with the Universal Child Care Benefit, a $100 /month cheque for children under age 6. Since then, $15b has been spent on the UCCB while families across Canada struggle to find affordable high quality child care...."
For-Profit Daycare Growing in Canada, Report Shows
Source: Toronto Star, February 5, 2013
Excerpt: "For-profit daycare continues to expand at a time when few new child care spaces are opening across the country, according to the latest national survey of early childhood care and education. More than 28 per cent of all child care spaces in Canada were run by for-profit operators in 2010, up from 20 per cent in 2004, says the report by the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, being released Wednesday — the 7th anniversary of the Harper government’s move to tear up a $5 billion national child care plan move to tear up a $5 billion national child care plan. The trend, which accelerated between 2008 and 2010, is a concern because volumes of international research show for-profit child care tends to be poorer quality than public and non-profit programs, said the report's author Martha Friendly."
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Canada Border Services Agency Discriminated Against Employee When it Refused to Accommodate Employee’s Child-Care Request, Court Rules
Source: Toronto Star, Feb 4, 2013
Excerpt: "In a landmark decision that may help thousands of Canadian parents juggling work and child care, the Federal Court says employers must try to accommodate employees with family obligations. The ruling, released late last week, upholds a 2010 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision against the Canada Border Services Agency that found the federal agency discriminated against a former Toronto airport customs inspector when it denied her request for regular hours so she could make child-care arrangements."
'Fraser Mustard Academy’ Proposed Name for All-Kindergarten School Coming to Toronto
Source: Toronto Star, January 31, 2013
Excerpt: "A committee has recommended "Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy," which will go forward for trustee approval after the Toronto District School Board resolves some outstanding issues regarding the school with the Ministry of Education, say board sources. "That would be an outstanding gesture," said Charles Pascal, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education who advised the province on full-day kindergarten. "The largest kindergarten programming in North America deserves a big name, and no one in early childhood is bigger.""
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