III. Benchmarks focused on equitable access

The OECD recommended Canada “continue efforts to expand access while promoting greater equity”.* Equitable access is more associated with entitlement programs such as kindergarten. However, kindergarten does not address parents’ need for child care. Equity is but one more of the benefits of organizing ECE to meet the educational needs of children, at the same time as facilitating their parents’ workforce participation. Barriers to ECE participation are many: economic, geographical, cultural, language, hours of service, etc. One area where all jurisdictions have made an effort is to target resources to enable programs to include children with special needs.

Benchmark 8: Full-day kindergarten offered

Kindergarten is the sole early education program that is universally available across Canada. Full-day kindergarten for 5-year-olds has become the norm across Canada; it is now offered by 7 out 13 jurisdictions and is set to roll out in Newfoundland in 2016. Full-day kindergarten also reflects the duration threshold, which research indicates is more likely to improve academic and social outcomes for children (Reynolds, 2011).

Benchmark 9: Fifty percent of 2 to 4 year olds regularly attend an ECE program

This benchmark focuses on 2 to 4 year olds, the group for which there is high unmet demand for ECE. Five year olds were excluded since the majority already attend kindergarten. Infants are a less likely group to participate in ECE programs because of extended parental leave. Determining the accurate enrolment of children in ECE programs is challenging. Schools tend to report enrolment numbers. Child care maintains a record of spaces, which may be used by more than one child, while other programs report capacity.

The number of 2 to 4 year olds attending ECE programs was estimated using government reports on school offered prekindergarten programs including parent/child programs in British Columbia and Ontario, child care, nursery school and Aboriginal Head Start  availability. These were supplemented with by a custom tabulation from the Survey of Young Canadians (SYC). Care was taken not to double count children attending prekindergarten who also attend child care.

UNICEF’s benchmark is set at 80 percent of 4 year olds regularly attending an ECE program and 25 percent of children under 3-year-old. Fifty percent of 2 to 4 year olds represents a reasonable and achievable benchmark for Canada (Figure 3.2).

Figure 3.2

Benchmark 10: Funding is conditional on including children with special needs

The threshold for this benchmark is provincial/territorial policy that requires programs to give equal consideration to the enrollment of children with special needs as a policy direction or condition of funding. Funding as an incentive without policy directions does not provide parents with recourse if their child is excluded from participation.

*Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Directorate for Education. (2004). Early childhood care and education policy: Canada country note. Paris, FR: OECD Secretariat. p. 8.

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