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. “Unfortunately, due to the Canada-wide shortage of early childhood educators, and despite our ongoing efforts to recruit and hire additional personnel, we have been unable to secure sufficient staff to admit your child into the program for the beginning of the new school year,” the letter said. “Our legislated staff:student ratios do not allow us to offer spaces to any more children at this time.” Parents are urged to make alternative childcare arrangements at least for the month of September while a child remains on the waiting list. “Please know that we continue to actively seek additional staff in the hopes of being able to offer your child a space in the program later in the school year,” says the letter. “We anticipate that many families will want an approximate timeline of when a space will become available. As this is based on staffing recruitment, each location will vary. We will connect with you directly when a space becomes available.” Laura Beath says this will be her family’s third school year without extended day program support. “I’ve worked part-time to be able to drop him off at school when school starts, instead of earlier. It also means I’ve had to cut my days short, means I have to be on site picking him up between 2:45 and 3:00, five days a week. It’s meant that we’ve had to pay privately for after school care,” she told CTV News Ottawa on Friday. “We’re hopeful that he’ll get in this year. But it is a program that runs up until Grade 6, I believe. So, if no one else leaves the program this year, we may be waiting until he starts a second grade to get in.” A spokesperson for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board tells CTV News Ottawa the board has agreements with 30 licensed childcare agencies to offer before and after school programs. “We understand the frustration and disappointment that families on the waitlist for our Extended Day Program (EDP) are experiencing,” spokesperson Diane Pernari said. “This situation creates a significant challenge for parents, and the EDP team is working to address this.” 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. “We appreciate the understanding of our families and want to assure them that we will contact them directly as soon as a space becomes available.” Trustee and former OCDSB chair Lyra Evans tells CTV News Ottawa the lack of spaces is a combination of funding and work environment issues. “We have a significant number of people who go through college, spend a couple of years getting their EDP certification, who join the field, who find that they are burning out, that they’re seeing too many of their colleagues unable to fulfill the basic things going on, and they end up leaving the field,” Evans said. The board notes the City of Ottawa offers before and after school programs at some community centres and sports complexes. CTV News Ottawa would like to speak with parents on the waitlist for the OCDSB Extended Day Program. Please email ottawaweb@bellmedia.ca. With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Natalie van Rooy
