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Ontario parents anxious to know about conditions inside their children's daycare can now access provincial inspection results on the Internet &em; among the first such public disclosures of child-care quality records in Canada.
While child-care experts hailed the initiative as a promising first step, they say much more detailed information &em; such as specifics on serious occurrences and staff training levels &em; is needed to help parents make informed choices about who to entrust with the care of their children.
Prompted by a recent Star investigation into troubling incidents in Ontario daycares, the provincial Ministry of Children and Youth Services will launch a public website today detailing safety concerns discovered by provincial inspectors.
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The new website contains information on each of the province's 4,486 licensed child-care centres, including whether it operates with restrictions on its licence, a list of any specific terms and conditions and whether it holds a so-called "provisional" licence, indicating the centre is not meeting minimum provincial standards.
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Ontario now joins Manitoba in publishing child-care licensing information online.
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While child-care experts welcome increased public scrutiny around daycare quality, they say the province should go further in helping parents make informed decisions about where they place their children.
In Florida, for example, parents are able to view actual online inspection reports for each daycare centre detailing every finding of non-compliance in plain language.
"When I walked into the facility, I observed nine school-age children playing in the room with no adult supervision," reads one recent Florida inspection report. "A toxic substance was accessible to children."
That level of detail is not available on the Ontario site, which summarizes ministry reports. For example, a Toronto child-care centre with a provisional licence is told to develop an allergy policy without detailing what led to the order.
The site also fails to include other information that would be useful to parents trying to make an informed choice, such as staff training levels.
The City of Toronto's Children's Services department is planning to launch its own website by the end of the year that will take daycare disclosure a step further, assigning grades between 1 and 4 for performance on such issues as health and safety, staff and child interactions, learning and physical environment.
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Andrea Calver, a director with the Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare, an advocacy group representing not-for-profit daycares in the province, says that while added transparency from the province is useful, a key piece of information is missing &em; whether the centre is for-profit or not-for-profit.
Research has shown that while there are excellent for-profit centres, not-for-profit child care tends to produce a higher overall level of care.
- reprinted from the Toronto Star