What Others Are Asking

Affordability is a key benefit of seamless childcare. In fact, this approach is part of the BC Coalition of Child Care Advocates’ $10/Day Plan to make child care more accessible and affordable. The charges would vary by school district, but because seamless childcare is delivered in existing public school spaces using existing, qualified school staff, it is more affordable to deliver, with savings passed on to parents.

Seamless childcare extends the regular school day to integrate before- and after-school care within the public school system. Under this model, childcare is provided by existing school staff, commonly an Education Assistant or Early Childhood Educator depending on the age of the kids in each respective cohort. These staff work directly for the school, are overseen by local school administrators, with programs ultimately accountable to the elected trustees who governed school districts.

It would look something like this: You drop off your child at their local public school in the morning for before-school care. There they are greeted by a school support worker like an Education Assistant or Early Childhood Educator who runs their before school program. When the bell rings to start the school day, kids transition into their classroom for the normal school day. When the school day ends, kids move seamlessly into the after-school program, run by a different school support worker. You pick up your child after work.

One of the best things about seamless childcare is that the quality of care is excellent. This model offers advantages that can only come from adding childcare to the public school day. These include:

• Secure and reliable care—Public schools provide secure and reliable service that families can count on.
• Qualified staff—Programs will be run by existing education support staff like Education Assistants or Early Childhood Educators, who are well trained, familiar with the kids already, and able to help reinforce daytime learning.
• Accommodating diverse abilities—Existing school staff and facilities are best positioned to accommodate students with disabilities.
• Oversight and Accountability—Public childcare delivered in schools will be highly accountable to parents as it is overseen by existing school administrators, themselves responsible to elected school trustees.

The current BC government has made significant strides in delivering more affordable and accessible childcare spaces since 2018. Yet, there are still not nearly enough spaces to meet the demand, and too many families continue to face long waitlists and high fees. For childcare workers, most jobs are precarious, with few benefits and no access to a pension.

Seamless childcare would add thousands of new spaces without the need to building new facilities or recruit new childcare workers. This model provides the childcare communities need, without taking any resources away from the BC government’s ongoing efforts to increase community childcare spaces.

Absolutely not. Nearly all childcare in BC, including centres operating on school grounds, are provided by for-profit or not-for-profit providers — there is no public option operating alongside the private model. Adding seamless childcare would quickly open thousands of badly-needed child care spaces without taking resources or staff from community care options.

Under BC’s current model, parents have few choices, and often have to take whatever space comes up. With seamless childcare, parents will be able to choose between public, seamless childcare in schools, or one of the existing community for-profit or not-for-profit options.

Seamless childcare is a catch-all term for childcare integrated into the school day, and the Seamless Day model is one form of integrated childcare, specifically for kids in kindergarten and grade 1. Under the Seamless Day, the educators providing the before- and after-school care are Early Childhood Educators (due to the age of the kids), who move into the classroom during the school day, and aid the teacher in delivering the curriculum. Other forms of integrated/seamless childcare for older kids may be delivered by Early Childhood Educators or other education support staff who are from the same school, but not necessarily the same classroom.

While there are some seamless pilots and programs around BC, these are small in number. The more common example are programs provided by external contract operator. Contract providers are not integrated into the school, their programs are not accountable to the school district, their staff are often poorly compensated and turnover frequently, and they are commonly too small to meet demand. Generally these programs are simply community non-profit or for-profit childcare, that happens to exist on school grounds.

Seamless childcare is better in almost every respect: integration into existing school programming, oversight by existing school and district administrators, ability to accommodate kids with diverse abilities, better and more consistent care from existing school staff kids already know.

Seamless childcare has been introduced as a pilot program in a few schools in BC, where it is getting rave reviews from parents. We believe it should be expanded to schools in communities across the province. This could be done quickly, since the classrooms and educators are already in place in public schools. The best thing you could do to help make this a reality right now is to join our campaign.