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On February 8, 2012, Kerry McCuaig, Atkinson Fellow Early Childhood Policy presented on the Early Years Study 3: Making Decisions, Taking Action at a Human Development and Applied Psychology Colloquium. The Early Years Study 3 documents the social, economic and scientific rationale for increased investments in early childhood education. It also introduces the Early Childhood Education Index to monitor the funding, policy, access and quality of early education programming.

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."

On January 11, 2012, the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development announced a plan "to reorganize school districts; increase parents’ involvement on district education councils; and to pay chairs and members of these councils."

Excerpt: We estimate that in 2008 universal access to low-fee childcare in Quebec induced nearly 70,000 more mothers to hold jobs than if no such program had existed - an increase of 3.8% in women employment. By our calculation, Quebec's domestic income (GDP) was higher by about 1.7% ($5 billion) as a result. We run a simulation of the impact of the childcare program on government own-source revenues and family transfers. We find that the tax-transfer return the federal and Quebec governments get from the program significantly exceeds its costs."

Statistics Canada predicts that the Aboriginal identity population in Canada could be between 1.7 million and 2.2 million by 2031 "representing between 4.0% and 5.3% of the total population. The average annual growth rate of the Aboriginal identity population as a whole during this period would be between 1.1% and 2.2%, compared with 1.0% for the non-Aboriginal population. In 2006, an estimated 1.3 million people reported an Aboriginal identity. These populations accounted for 3.9% of the Canadian population. Among them, 785,000 were North American Indians, 404,000 were Métis and 53,000 were Inuit..."

Educational Childcare Services-Audit objectives: Obtain the assurance that the Ministère de la Famille et des Aînés: Had taken measures to set up a quality network of educational childcare services, in accordance with the Educational Childcare Act and sound management rules and practices; Evaluates its performance and makes adequate accountability reports on the quality of educational childcare services.

Alberta has launched Our Children, Our Future: Getting it Right Public Consultations on the Education Act. The government will hold forums in seven communities on education legislation.

Lots of studies show us that the early years are crucial for how we manage as adults. We have an election coming up tomorrow. We encourage you to think about research findings about our children’s development. Please cast your vote thinking about what matters for our children.

The report on full day early learning, envisioned family-friendly schools where, “…hours after the last bell has rung the school is still buzzing. Parents come and go, picking up children who have participated in extended programming. There are recreational, arts, and social activities and homework clubs for the children, and a concurrent parenting program is running.”

A film that documents a full day of learning and play for children in Waterloo.

The symposium on Collaborative Practice in Action brought together 200 educators from across Ontario to share their knowledge with practitioners, researchers, government staff and school board officials. The symposium provided an opportunity to share examples of best practice and consider challenges that need to be addressed.

Kimberly Bezaire of George Brown College and Rachel Langford of Ryerson University summarized the key points of the day, in the presentation, "Voices from the Schools:School Teams Share their Experiences."

Healthy Child Manitoba Office has released its 2010/11 Annual Report. "This report reflects the continued commitment of government and community partners in the Healthy Child Manitoba Strategy to facilitate child-centered public policy..."