resources pages (6)
Inclusion of young children with disabilities in regulated child care in Canada. A snapshot: Research, policy and practice
Occasional paper no. 27 from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit establishes a baseline for considering issues and progress on inclusion of children with disabilities in regulated child care programs in Canada. (Halfton, Shani & Friendly, Martha, Childcare Resource and Research Unit, 10 Jul 2013)
Disability and inclusion: Changing attitudes-changing policy
This chapter appears in Beyond Child’s Play: Caring for and educating young children in Canada Our Schools/ Our Selves, Spring 2009 (vol. 18, no. 3, #95) published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Ottawa. It explores how attitudes on the subject of inclusion often shape policy response. (Mayer, Debra, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 1 Jun 2009)
Inclusive Early Childhood Service System (IECSS)
The Inclusive Early Childhood Service System (IECSS) project in partnership with the County of Wellington, District of Timiskaming, City of Hamilton and City of Toronto aims to understand perspectives of families regarding disability in early childhood in a variety of community settings.
SpeciaLink: The National Centre for Early Childhood Inclusion
SpeciaLink is a virtual resource and research centre with a team of advocated who identify and respond to opportunity and threat to inclusion quality and funding. They are committed to action research that informs policy to improve practice. Their goal is to expand opportunities for inclusive practices for children with special needs living in the community.
Canadian Association for Community Living
The Canadian Association for Community Living is a family based association dedicated to promoting inclusion and equality for all Canadians. Promotion includes, sharing information, fostering leadership for inclusion, engaging with community leaders and policy makers and supporting innovation and research.
Quality by Design
The Child Care Resource and Research Unit's Quality by Design Project was intended to promote and inform discussion, debate and knowledge about quality in early learning and child care (ELCC). It produced a number of documents including:
- Quality by design: What do we know about quality in early learning and child care, and what do we think? A literature review
This paper reviews the literature on ideas, research, policy and practice vis‐à‐vis quality in early learning and child care. The literature reviewed is concerned both with individual program levels and the system, or policy, level. (Beach, Jane; Doherty, Gillian & Friendly, Martha, Childcare Resource and Research Unit, 2006)
Quality in early learning and child care services: Papers from the European Commission Childcare Network
This publication consists of three papers that were produced in the 1990s as part of the work of the European Commission's Childcare Network. Within the context of the Childcare Network's decade long work on child care, these papers were developed within the specific task given to the Network of "establish[ing] criteria for the definition of quality in childcare services." (European Commission Childcare Network, Reprinted with permission by the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, Oct 2014)
Quality ECEC for all. Why we can't afford not to invest in it.
This article makes the argument that the substantial evidence for the benefits of early childhood education for economic, educational and social reasons pertain only if it is high quality. It goes on to discuss five criteria of high quality for all: availability, affordability, accessibility, usefulness and comprehensibility. (Vandenbroeck, Michel. Our Schools/Ourselves. Erika Shaker (ed). Special issue, Summer, 2015, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)
Developing and supporting a high quality workforce in Canada: What are the barrier to change?
This article makes the case that Government inaction in the area of child care human resources is inconsistent with stated objectives for high quality early childhood education and child care. It focuses on three contributing barriers to action: 1) a child care market model; 2) the devaluation of caring work and; 3) increasing professional expectations without sufficient workforce advocacy. These three factors are linked by the gendered nature of the child care workforce, which is predominately female. Addressing these three contributing factors is, therefore, a matter of gender justice. (Halfon, Shani & Langford, Rachel. Our Schools/Ourselves. Erika Shaker (ed). Special issue, Summer, 2015, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)
From child care market to child care system.
This article explains what if means to say that Canadian child care follows a market model and goes on to describe how the market model affects every aspect of child care including quality. It concludes with an analysis of how moving to a child care system away from a market would be consistent with a vision of high quality child care for all. (Beach, Jane & Ferns, Carolyn. Our Schools/Ourselves. Erika Shaker (ed). Special issue, Summer, 2015, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)
Quality matters in early childhood education and care: Sweden
This report is from the Quality Matters in ECEC: Country Policy Profiles project. This profile features Sweden and examines Policy lever 2 - Designing and implementing curriculum and standards. (Taguma, Miho; Litjens, Ineke & Makowiecki, Kelly, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1 Mar 2013)
The quality gap: A study of nonprofit and commercial child care centres in Canada
This report from the University of Toronto finds that non-profit child care centres outscore their commercial counterparts in all aspects of early learning and care quality. (Cleveland, Gordon & Krashinsky, Michael, University of Toronto, 10 Jan 2005)
Background paper on unregulated child care for the Home child care: More than a home project
This paper offers an overview of the current landscape of unregulated child care in Ontario and other Canadian jurisdictions, identifying important issues in home child care through a review of the research literature, and summarizing key recommendations that have emerged from the academic and policy literature. (Ferns, Carolyn & Friendly, Martha, Childcare Resource and Research Unit, 24 Jun 2015)
BRIEFing Note: What research says about quality in for-profit, non-profit and public child care
BRIEFing Note from CRRU reviews the literature on quality in for-profit, non-profit and public child care. (Childcare Resource and Research Unit, 16 Nov 2011)
About Canada: Childcare
This book covers a range of topics and issues in Canadian child care. Questions covered include: Why doesn’t Canada have an ECEC system, even though other countries do? What is missing in Canada’s ECEC landscape and why? and Is ECEC primarily a public good, a private family responsibility, or an opportunity for profit-making? The authors argue that Canada requires an integrated system of services, stating that the absence of universal public funding is detrimental to the future of the country’s families, women, and children. (Friendly, Martha & Prentice, Susan, 1 Sept 2009)
Early childhood education and care in Canada 2014
This report is the 10th compilation of Canada-wide data on child care and related early childhood programs published by the Childcare Resource and Research Unit. It considers child care space provision, budget allocations, and service delivery information in the 2012-2014 period, comparing these to previous years. It also provides detailed provincial/territorial descriptive information on kindergarten and child care programs. (Friendly, Martha; Grady, Bethany; Macdonald, Lyndsay & Forer, Barry, Childcare Resource and Research Unit, 31 Dec 2015)
The state of early childhood education and care in Canada 2012
This report provides a snapshot of Canadian ECEC in 2012. It uses consistent data regularly collected by CRRU as a base and integrates other pertinent data and outlines key trends, patterns and policy shifts in Canadian ECEC's organization and governance. (Ferns, Carolyn & Friendly, Martha, Moving Childcare Forward, 20 Jun 2014)
Canada’s history of the never-was national child care program
This edition of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit series, Know thy History: Looking back on child care, considers the three major attempts by federal governments to develop a national child care strategy for Canada. (Childcare Research and Resource Unit, 8 Feb 2012)
Child care in Canada by 2020: A vision and a way forward
This background paper was published for Canada’s 4th national child care policy conference, ChildCare2020. It considers what federal leadership and dedicated, accountable investment in a child care system could accomplish by 2020. (Various, ChildCare 2020, 3 Nov 2014) Also available in French: Les services de garde au Canada en 2020: Une vision et une march à suivre.
'Childcare' business or profession?
This resource includes a report and conference presentations from the 2014 Start Strong conference. The report, written by professors Helen Penn and Eva Lloyd from the International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare, at the University of East London concludes that, "much greater levels of direct public investment are needed to ensure high quality early year care and education for all children". (Start Strong conference, 3 Dec 2014)
Beyond baby steps: Planning for a national child care system
This article published in Policy Options considers the importance of the federal governments role in designing a national child care plan. Authors present what the current system is lacking and ways to improve it. They conclude that "by moving beyond baby steps to planning a national child care system, the Trudeau government can help lead the development of a child care system that works for all of us." (Prentice, Susan; White, Linda & Friendly, Martha, Policy Options, 19 Jul 2016)
Moving beyond baby steps: Building a child care plan for today's families
This issue of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives publication Our Schools / Our Selves takes stock of where things were in the child care debates in the lead-up to the 2015 federal election. Researchers, activists and analysts provide a thoughtful, nuanced, accessible overview of key child care issues. (Various, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 1 Sep 2015)
Policy issues in indigenous early childhood education and care 2015
This CRRU Issue File is intended to promote discussion about Indigenous child care and early childhood education in Canada. It is organized into online documents and a list of useful resources including organizations, websites and other information. It builds on an earlier online CRRU Issue File titled Aboriginal Early Learning and Child Care: Policy Issues, compiled in 2011. (Childcare Resource and Research Unit, 3 June 2015)
Child care can't wait till the cows come home: Rural child care in the Canadian context
This paper provides a current overview of the state of rural child care in order to stimulate and inform discussion aimed at improving it. Sections include a scan of provincial/territorial approaches and initiatives pertinent to rural child care as well as a brief summary of the situation of rural child care beyond our borders among a nunber of other sections.
This report provides an up-to-date report on the state of child care for families working non-standard hours in Canada. It includes practical information about what seems to “work” and what does not seem to work for families as they access and use child care services.
The need to improve Canadian child care
This article published in Canadian Family magazine discusses Canada's 'patchwork' child care system and highlights the need for a universal plan. (Johnson, Tim, Canadian Family, 1 Oct 2007)
They go up so fast: 2015 child care fees in Canadian cities
This report reveals the most and least expensive cities for child care in Canada. It examines median unsubsidized child care fees in Canada's 27 biggest cities for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The study finds Canada's child care systems can vary dramatically from province to province and city to city, but two things hold true in nearly all places: child care is expensive and regulated spaces are hard to find. (Klinger, Thea & Macdonald, David, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 10 Dec 2015)
Childcare Resource and Research Unit
The Childcare Resource and Research Unit is an early childhood education and child care (ECEC) policy research institute with a mandate to further ECEC policy and programs in Canada. Its website includes a searchable database with thousands of news articles, reports, papers and videos.
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) is a non-profit organization promoting publicly funded child care in Canada by advocating through public education and political action. The CCAAC’s goal is for inclusive, affordable, non-profit, quality child care in Canada to become a progressive family policy that will provide a range of services to children and families.
Elements of a high quality early learning and child care system
This paper describes eight linked elements that, taken into account together, form the basis for the creation of a system of early learning and child care where high quality is the norm rather than the exception. (Friendly, Martha & Beach, Jane, Childcare Resource and Research Unit, 2005)
A vision for universal childcare [VIDEO]
This video provides a visual representation of the above mentioned vision for child care. It provides an answer to the question: What could childcare look like in 2020, if our federal and provincial governments actually invested in a universal and affordable system?(PSAC & AFPC, 13 Nov 2014)
Les services de garde universels : une vision [VIDEO]
Cette vidéo fournit une représentation visuelle de la vision mentionnée ci-dessus pour la garde d'enfants . Il fournit une réponse à la question: Qu'est-ce que pourrait ressembler à la garde d'enfants en 2020 , si nos gouvernements fédéral et provincial effectivement investi dans un système universel et abordable (PSAC & AFPC, 13 Nov 2014)
BRIEFing Note: Fact or fiction? Seven persistent myths about child care
BRIEFing Note from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit identifies seven common myths about child care and provides responses for each based on what we know from research, policy and practice. (Childcare Resource and Research Unit, 5 Nov 2014)
UNICEF Innocenti Report Card 8 compares early childhood education and care in wealthy countries; Canada ranks at the bottom of 25 countries, meeting only one of ten key benchmarks. (Innocenti Report Card, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, 11 Dec 2008)
How do they do it in Sweden? [VIDEO]
This Early Years series video uncovers the successful Swedish approach to education in Motala. It outlines Sweden's attitude to teaching one to six year olds which is incredibly relaxed. There's little formal learning and play is paramount. (Teachers TV, n.d.)
Night nurseries: Sweden's round-the-clock childcare [VIDEO]
This video from BBC considers the elements of Sweden’s public child care system. This includes night nurseries which offer parents working flexible or unconventional hours overnight and weekend services. (Savage, Maddy, BBC News, 19 Mar 2013)
How do I become more involved in the child care community? What can I do to advocate for quality child care in my community?
Child Care Action Toolkit
Your-voice-makes-a-difference-for-child-care.pdf
La Garde D’enfants Pour Que La Situation Change Dans Votre Collectivité : Exprimez-vous!
National groups
- Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC)
- The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) is a non-profit organization promoting publicly funded child care in Canada by advocating through public education and political action. The CCAAC’s goal is for inclusive, affordable, non-profit, quality child care in Canada to become a progressive family policy that will provide a range of services to children and families.
- Canadian Child Care Federation
- The Canadian Child Care Federation is a bilingual, member-based, non-profit organization that provides parents, educators and policy makers with capacity building, networking, collaborations and partnerships to support the overall well-being and development of children.
Provincial/Territorial groups
Below you will find the child care and early childhood associations and advocacy organizations in each province/territory. Please visit their websites for information on how you can become more involved with child care in your community.
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NL |
Association of Early Childhood Educators Newfoundland and Labrador |
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PE |
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NS |
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NB |
Early Childhood Care & Education New Brunswick (ECENB-SEPENB) |
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QC |
l’Association québécoise des centres de la petite enfance (AQCPE) |
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ON |
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MB |
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SK |
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AB |
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BC |
Early Childhood Educators of BC (ECEBC) West Coast Child Care Resource Centre |
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NT |
No child care specific organizations at this time |
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NU |
No child care specific organizations at this time |
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YK |
The readings and websites in this section provide further information on a range of topics. They are meant to broaden and deepen knowledge on a variety of other aspects of child care.