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May 8, 2012

Partnership to Explore Integration of Early Childhood Learning Programs

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador "has entered into a partnership with the Margaret & Wallace McCain Family Foundation and the Jimmy Pratt Foundation to study innovative ways in which to integrate early childhood learning programs in Newfoundland and Labrador with a view to enabling the smoothest possible transition to school."
April 18, 2012

Budget 2012 Invests $2 Million in Family Child Care

The Department of Child, Youth and Family Services announced "$2 million for the second year of the Family Child Care Initiative.... This two-year pilot project is making great strides in the development of regulated child care spaces throughout the province with an emphasis on spaces for infants up to 24 months of age."
April 5, 2012

Province Provides New Funding to Child-care Centres for 900 Spaces

The Government of Manitoba announces "new funding to child-care centres for 900 spaces, new capital and operational funding for child-care centres and homes, and improved subsidies for those most in need, Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard announced today…. Now in its fourth year, Family Choices, Manitoba’s five-year early learning and child-care initiative, is providing new funding for 6,500 quality child-care spaces by the end of 2013."
March 31, 2012

Pain and Gain for Early Learning in Ontario Budget 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...."
March 31, 2012

Proposed Changes to the ASD Diagnosis: A Review of Implications for Early Childhood Programs

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."
March 20, 2012

Summer Institute 2011

Focused on changes for early learning professionals and the importance of relationships between families, practitioners, and organizations.
March 16, 2012

Measuring Quality Symposium

Measuring and monitoring quality in early childhood and care programs can help to inform research, policy development, and program practice.