The P.E.I. Advisory Council on the Status of Women released a critical assessment Thursday of government’s handling of changes to the early childhood sector, calling the tight transition timelines a source of undue stress for those affected.
The province announced sweeping changes to P.E.I.’s early learning system last month as its plan for the future of early childhood development on P.E.I. The centrepiece of the massive changes is a transition of current daycares into provincial Early Years Centres. These centres will charge regulated fees and will offer a standardized provincial curriculum.
But centres have only until July 1 to decide whether to become one of these larger provincial centres or remain as private operators. If they don’t decide by the province’s deadline, centres may not benefit from funds government has earmarked for transitional support.
The P.E.I. Advisory Council on the Status of Women released its Equality Report Card Interim Trends Report on Thursday. While it praises the province’s decision to bring kindergarten into the public system and the boosted investments and dedicated strategy for the early learning sector, the council is concerned about the way in which changes to the sector have been handled.
“At this point, many questions remain about how the early childhood sector will manage the substantial transitions it faces,” the report states.
“Children, parents and educators remain in states of insecurity and have little time to plan. Crucial questions remain to be answered about the viability of some — especially rural — childcare centres and about supports for children whose parents are still unable to afford access to childcare services.”
The short deadlines for transition and confusion about the process have resulted in “too much preventable stress for everyone involved” and government should have anticipated these challenges, the council’s report states.
Council chair Isabelle Christian said her members have been hearing from parents, childcare workers and operators who are confused about the changes and worried about the future of childcare in the province.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty, which I think is normal with change but could be helped a lot with a better communication strategy,” Christian said.
“They could have made the transition easier for people in the way that they communicated the changes and better supports for people during that change. In my reading I haven’t seen a lot of pieces of that in place. They could be there but we’d really like (government) to be more reassuring and make them highly visible.”
This year’s interim report doesn’t attach grades to the issues addressed, but does identify actions government could take over the next year to improve its equality grades.
The first and most pressing need is for more support for the early childhood sector, the council’s report states.
“Children, parents, educators and childcare centre owner/operators need to see government leadership so that truly positive outcomes from government’s historic investment in the early learning sector can be realized.”
The advisory council usually releases a report card assessing government’s progress toward women’s equality goals every year. Last year, council decided to wait two years before issuing its next report card in order to give government more time to implement real change. The next full report card will be released next June.
Search Results for: Child care
Study: high quality childcare can yield long-term academic benefits – Wellness – TIME.com
These latest findings from the Early Child Care Research Network — a federally funded research project into American childcare that was launched in 1991 — expand on those from an earlier study that examined the impact of childcare quality on 4½-year-olds about to enter kindergarten. As lead author Deborah Lowe Vandell, chairwoman of the department of education at the UC Irvine told the Journal:
"The effects didn't fade away… Lots of things change after [age] four and a half. We would have expected [the effects] went away."
The early benefit seen by age 4½ seems to persist through adolescence, the researchers found. Yet, in addition to tracking long-term academic benefits of high-quality care, the study also revealed that children who spent time in childcare were more slightly likely to engage in impulsive or risky behavior than those who did not attend childcare outside of the home. As the Los Angeles Times explains:
"In terms of risk-taking, the link to time spent in day care was more marginal: Ten more hours a week in day care prompted the average teen to answer one out of 30 questions with an admission of more risky behavior."
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