Frustrations with extended care registration persist despite promise by school boards

A Kitchener parent tells CTV’s Heather Senoran about the problems she faced when registering for extended childcare programs.

Despite promises that this year would be different, some parents said they had trouble registering their children for before and after school childcare programs.

In 2024, technical problems plagued the system used for the Waterloo Region District School Board and Waterloo Catholic District School Board’s extended care programs.

The boards said earlier this year that changes had been made to avoid those past problems, including staggering registration dates by school.

However, Ashley Todorowski, a parent in Kitchener, said her issues began as soon as she tried to register her 8-year-old son in fulltime before and after school care with the Waterloo Catholic District School Board.

“Once I tried to get to the registration page, the page wouldn’t load for me. I tried about three times, and then I had to leave for work,” Todorowski said.

When she finally got on, she said she only got after school childcare but that option doesn’t provide her with enough support as a single parent working fulltime.

“I can’t really work around the fact that the school starts at 9:15 a.m., but my work starts at 8 a.m. It’s really unfortunate because I don’t have anybody else in the household that can assist me in any way,” she said.

Todorowski feels the system needs to change.

“There are so many parents suffering and stressed out, and the childcare that is promoted as accessible should be accessible,” she said.

Changes to the registration process

The Catholic board said they’ve made big strides since last year’s fiasco, when parents from both boards registered all at once with OneList. There was a technical glitch, impacting the roughly 7,000 families who fought for available spots.

“[It] ended up overwhelming the system and it did cause some system crashes,” Lema Salaymeh, spokesperson for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, said. “In order to avoid having a similar situation happen this year, we wanted to stagger it alphabetically.”

Schools were sorted alphabetically, and registration began for the first batch on Monday and continues until Friday.

Salaymeh said, as of Wednesday afternoon, over 500 students had been enrolled and 10 programs had already reached max capacity.

“While sometimes there is a demand for the program and the space, there might not be the staffing. We are juggling a lot of different factors before we can expand the program,” Salaymeh said.

OneHSN, the company that manages the registration system for the Extended Day Program for both school boards, told CTV News they remain committed to supporting all families.

“The system has remained stable throughout, and the staggered school-by-school approach has helped to ensure a smooth experience for families. Minor issues were addressed quickly,” Darryl Buck, CEO of OneHSN, said in a statement.

As of last year, parents were required to re-enroll their children each year, even if their child was previously in a program.

“By allowing it to reset every year, we give everyone a chance to access extended day programing,” Salaymeh said.

What about the waitlist?

The Catholic board said anyone who didn’t get the spot they wanted can still join a waitlist. According to Salaymeh, the waitlist is continuously being updated and people are often removed from the list.

“As of right now, there’s 121 people on the waitlist, but until we finish registration this week, they won’t be able to let everyone know until the dust settles,” said Salaymeh.

The board also noted that after registration ends it will be looking at making more room for more families.

“We’re going to be reevaluating and assessing our capacity to see if there is an opportunity to expand the program,” she said.

There were also some parents who registered for any school they could, trying to cheat their way into a spot. The school board encourages parents to avoid doing that and to wait for their school’s specific registration day.