Excerpts
Finding care for students both before and after school can leave parents juggling a number of issues like finding space, drives and coping with the cost.
The province has been floating the idea of a pilot program for universal before- and after-school care for a number of years, but getting it off the ground hasn't been easy.
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A consultant's report released by the provincial government last year outlined some of the steps to having universally affordable and accessible before- and after-school care across the Island.
It recommends that the program be offered in every K-6 school on the Island, or in modular units on school properties. It said a price of $10 a day is possible, but it would take government funding.
The report said finding physical locations for the centres, the funding to keep them open and the staff to work inside them would be some of the road blocks.
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Successful program in Manitoba
Manitoba has successfully implemented a similar program, offering school-age children care for $10 a day as of December 2024.
Jodie Kehl, executive director of the Manitoba Child Care Association, said that province has 14,000 spaces operating 260 days a year, including during breaks in the summer, winter and spring.
A frequent roadblock to such programs is finding space, Kehl said, pointing to Manitoba's Public Schools Act that stipulates any new school build or expansion include a child-care facility.
"Children don't stop being children after age five or six, and so families still require care for their school-aged child," Kehl said.
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"One of the fundamental shifts that happened in the pandemic was there's this realization that everyone relies on someone who relies on child care," she said.
"If a family did not need child care but needed to access the services of a health-care professional who did need child care, it then also became their issue."