From the Child Care Resource and Research Unit this week:

Building a strong and equal partnership between childcare and early childhood education in Canada

Split early childhood education and childcare systems (ECEC) have historically been a common phenomenon, but today many countries are moving towards more coherent approaches to ECEC. Canada, however, has continued to maintain a divided ECEC situation. Reviewing Canada’s ECEC in 2004, the OECD suggested that greater integration of kindergarten and childcare would bring real advantages. In 2007, Ontario, Canada’s largest province, began to develop integrated “full-day early learning” for all four and five year olds. In the initial phase, several key challenges have emerged: first, merging the public kindergarten system with market-driven childcare; second, financing the new program; third, maintaining stability in user-pay childcare as four and five year olds move to the new program; fourth, determining staffing models, bridging differences between kindergarten and childcare staff; and fifth, managing the phase-in. How Ontario meets these challenges will have major implications for the future of ECEC programs across Canada.

This article is published in the International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education (KICCE). KICCE is a Korean national research institute established with an integrative and systematic approach to policy research on early childhood care and education.

Be ready for success: A 10 year early childhood strategy for New Brunswick

In the first year, several new investments will be made as part of Early Childhood Strategy Action Plan, 2008-2009, including:

• an increase in child-care subsidies for low-income parents;
• increased funding to support the recruitment and retention of specialized personnel who provide services to preschool children with autism spectrum disorders;
• increased funding for integrated daycare and early intervention services for at-risk preschool children;
• enhanced day-care support for families leaving social assistance for paid employment, or making the transition to work;
• hiring eight new community-based early learning specialists to provide guidance and support to regulated child-care facilities, preschool programs, family resource centres and parents with young children;
• new funding for family resource centres working with at-risk children and families to expand outreach services and increase parenting programs and services;
• increased funding to support special-needs children who require a support worker while attending a child-care facility;
• an increase in wages for regulated child-care staff to build on previous wage enhancements;
• implementation of an early childhood development community mapping model to provide government and communities with information to identify needs, to service gaps, and to assess the effectiveness of programs and services; and
• build on the existing public awareness campaign on the benefits of quality child-care and early learning experiences for preschool children.

In addition, a $13.7-million Early Learning and Child Care Trust Fund has been established to provide training for child-care workers, develop and implement a new early learning and child-care curriculum, and provide financial incentives for the creation of new child-care spaces in the province.

A new early learning and child-care curriculum will also be implemented in all regulated child-care facilities in New Brunswick by September 2009. The French and English experience-based curriculum was developed by the University of New Brunswick and the Université de Moncton.