The provincial government is committed to $10 per day childcare, a model CUPE strongly supports and advocates for. The federal government is committing significant resources supporting childcare for kids aged 0-5, but what’s missing is new spaces for school-aged kids.
CUPE BC began our childcare campaign advocating for the Seamless Day model of early learning childcare, and that advocacy has resulted in more than 20 pilot projects currently underway in schools around the province. (Here’s more about the work we’ve been doing.)
The federal government recently announced a significant investment in childcare for kids aged 0-5, and that’s good news, but it doesn’t do anything for one of the most critical childcare shortages—spaces for school-aged kids (ages 5-12). People all over B.C. struggle to find affordable quality childcare for before and after school—and even if they can afford it, they often have to go to great lengths to get their kids to and from care.
Wouldn’t it be great if before and after school childcare was available at the school? Doesn’t that just make sense?
The most efficient and cost-effective way to get quality, accessible and universal school-aged childcare up and running quickly is to create spaces in public schools.
We have the facilities already—there’s almost no need for capital expenditures or construction.
We have the trained staff available—qualified Education Assistants already are in place, and most don’t currently receive full-time hours.
For parents, it couldn’t be more efficient—drop your kids at school in the morning and pick them up at the end of the day. No more running to multiple locations or juggling competing schedules.
And for kids this means high quality care with more stability and fewer transitions through their day – this is especially important for some children with special needs for whom these transitions can be very difficult.
Here’s how you can help
We’re asking supporters of our vision of public childcare to visit PublicChildcareNow.ca and take 20 seconds to send an email to your local School Trustees asking them to advocate for their district to get on board.
We’ve already made significant progress toward building a public childcare system. Let’s keep the momentum going, and together we can make public childcare for school-aged kids a reality in B.C. schools.
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