Excerpts

The parents of more than 1,000 children have been told to find alternate childcare plans for September, due to a shortage of available extended day child-care spaces at Ottawa’s public-school board.

The Ottawa Carleton District School Board is offering 5,280 spaces in the Extended Day Program for returning and new students at 68 licensed programs in schools for the upcoming school year, but there are 1,005 children on the waiting list.

Parents on the waitlist received an email last Friday saying their child will not be offered a space in the extended day program for the first day of classes.

...

Pernari says the board is taking proactive steps to recruit and retrain early childhood educators, including increasing wages for part-time positions and conducting “ongoing recruitment efforts throughout the year.”

“The low turnover in our programs also contributes to the limited number of openings. Children are eligible to remain in the program from junior kindergarten through the end of Grade 6, which means existing spaces rarely become available,” Pernari said.

...