Child Care Bottleneck a Hot Voter Issue: Wait lists are long but empty classrooms stay off limits for care. Stressed parents are fuming.
By Charles Campbell [a contributing editor to The Tyee. His daughter attends Lord Selkirk elementary and Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House's out-of-school care program.]
November 14, 2008

Child care and education haven't always played well together. Territorial bureaucracies, language that separates "early childhood education" from the more prosaic "daycare," and different ideas about parental versus social responsibility all contribute to the problem…

In Vancouver, where the shortage of before- and after-school care spaces is chronic, parents' and service providers' frustration with the divisions were on full display on Nov. 5 when nine school board candidates faced the public….

The province's early childhood education initiatives were barely discussed. Instead, candidates were repeatedly pressed about the need working families had for "out-of-school" care for children in kindergarten and early grades. Lord Selkirk Elementary parent Ronda Field gave up full-time employment last summer because she couldn't find the supplemental care her daughter Katie needed to enter kindergarten. Only then did her daughter get a spot.

…. Field went straight at an issue that confuses and frustrates many parents -- the school board's refusal to allow empty classrooms to be used for child care. Would the candidates overturn the school board's ban?

VSB policy FNC*-R-2 has long explicitly prevented such use of classrooms. They might be needed for teaching in the future, notwithstanding the continuing decline in enrolment and a space surplus recently pegged by the district at 10,000 seats.

Many schools have huge waiting lists for "out-of-school care." The problem is particularly acute for those with children in "half-day" kindergarten, which actually runs for a little more than two-and-a-half hours. As school approached in August, Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House, one of the patchwork of about 40 agencies that provide the service in Vancouver, had a waiting list of 55 children for Lord Selkirk Elementary.

On the West Side, Henry Hudson's care agency had a waitlist of 45, with 13 seeking kindercare.

Child care system? 'There isn't one'

How many working families in Vancouver are without care for young school-age children?

Pam Best of the Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre doesn't know. "That begs a system. But there isn't one," she said in August.

A few media reports in August about the shortage of such care, which began with one by this author in the Georgia Straight, revealed working families struggling with the challenge -- by taking part-time or evening jobs, bringing children to work, flying grandparents in from Europe, hiring online au pairs, or putting their children in private school, where after-school care is usually guaranteed.

Since then, a small group of parents from Lord Selkirk have tried to take their concerns to the VSB staff and trustees. There are empty classes and other facilities at Lord Selkirk that Cedar Cottage would staff with the school board's permission. But their requests to appear before trustee Committee II: Planning and Facilities have twice been rebuffed. Mark Dale, the VSB manager responsible for facilities, sent one parent an e-mail on Oct. 28 stating that the staff and trustees would not meet with them. "We are reviewing the associated policies and procedures at the senior district level," he wrote. "The findings of this review will be reported out through the standing committee and to the board in the future."

Mission clear, methods murky

…. "Presumably any [school's Parent Advisory Committee] could come forward and request use of surplus space," he wrote. "I support changing the policy to reflect the new situation and communicate the right message to the public -- schools are available and encouraging community use." In an interview, Denike said creating new space for out-of-school care only in the pilot schools is "totally inequitable."

…. Michael Watkins, a parent at the meeting from Douglas Elementary, one of those four schools, was unimpressed. In remarks to the candidates and a chat with The Tyee, he decried the province's "cookie cutter" capital planning process, slammed the short time frame for revised plans, and expressed deep frustration with the VSB as well. ….

Denike also backtracked on his assertion that any school's parents could come forward to ask for surplus classroom space. At the meeting, he said recent initiatives simply open the door to that possibility.

His colleague, NPA vice-chair Carol Gibson, has a different view. …. she told The Tyee the ban on the use of classroom space has not been removed, and should not be removed "at the present time" because the school board might need the space for expanded kindergarten.

The Tyee tried to speak to the ministry's Keith Miller and the VSB's Mark Dale to get a better sense of when parents in Vancouver might expect complex policy revisions to work their way through the system. Neither was willing to talk, and both referred The Tyee to public relations staff.

The school board's David Weir said when the Neighbourhoods of Learning pilot was announced, the ministry implemented a moratorium on the disposition of schools and asked districts to "protect excess space." The ministry spokesperson, who asked that she not be identified, replied to some very specific e-mailed questions with this generality: "The Ministry of Education wants school districts to broaden their consultation with parents, and with education and community partners, so they can come up with new ways to use surplus school space."

This is how the system looks to young families trying to find their way.

Families "moving out" of city for child care

Carol Gibson, at least, was prepared to defend her unpopular position on the phone. She said the possible introduction of full-day kindergarten for five-year-olds and optional kindergarten for three- and four-year-olds simply prevents the district from addressing any need for out-of-school care, adding that the need is difficult to assess.

She acknowledged, however, that "people are moving out of Vancouver to other districts where they can find child care for their kids." Like Denike, she politely pointed a finger at the province, saying that as a result of the VSB's ongoing and contentious facilities review "the province is beginning to get it."

Gibson defended the VSB, noting that it allows out-of-school care operators to use space in many Vancouver schools. It's true that basements and cafeterias are fair game, and almost all elementary schools have some kind of out-of-school program, even though many of them can't meet the demand.

And while the province doesn't provide much operating money for out-of-school care -- just $1.40 per day for those who use the service for four hours or less -- it does fund much of the cost of converting school spaces to meet provincial health licensing requirements. Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid told The Tyee the province will fund those improvements even if the space cannot be guaranteed long-term.

However, many school districts -- Kelowna, North Vancouver and West Vancouver among them -- are more aggressive than Vancouver in meeting families' child care needs. In Victoria, the board has long allowed out-of-school care agencies and even daycares to use classroom space. "It's as simple," Victoria superintendent John Gaiptman told the Straight, "as listening to what the public is asking for."

BC Liberals scrapped NDP initiative

The province, too, once had a promising strategy to deal with the out-of-school care challenge. NDP leader Carole James, who was a Victoria trustee for 11 years and served five terms as president of the BC School Trustees Association, developed that strategy as director of child care policy under the NDP government from 1999 to 2001. The first component was a comprehensive $7-a-day provincial out-of-school care program, which was in its first stage of implementation prior to the 2001 election. "To me, schools are just the natural place for that."

Although the BC Liberals promised to maintain the out-of-school component of the child care plan, the party reneged once it took power.

Money is always an issue where child care is concerned. Any comprehensive plan involves billions of dollars. Today, James acknowledges that federal funding was central to the NDP's ambitions. Of course, the Conservatives reversed the child care initiatives of the federal Liberals. But where schools and child care cross paths, James is disinclined to give the BC Liberals much of a break.

"In every direction they've taken, they've left child care out of the equation," James told The Tyee. She said the Strong Start early learning initiative the province has established for preschool children in many schools is only available for parents who can come with their children and only during the day. She argued that when the Liberals took power the province changed school district funding to emphasize per pupil costs and "set back the ability of boards to open their doors." She said provincial policies requiring boards to recover costs from third parties also constrain school districts.

…. The lack of follow-through and attention to detail also concerns other observers of the province's current early learning initiatives. Child care advocates responding to the government's proposals spelled out the importance of recognizing that child care and early learning are not separate. The best examples of child care in BC are a perfect model for the optional kindergarten for three- and four-year-olds that the government is considering.

…..The consultation paper also reflects an international trend toward talking about child care and early childhood education as investments in children and drivers of economic growth rather than as social services. James isn't bothered by that. "It doesn't matter what the terms are if it helps people understand the role it plays, if it helps broaden the basis of support."

Economy could sideswipe latest effort

However, child care advocates worry that the needs of working families and their own under-funded service won't be properly attended to with an initiative that's touted as a form of education. For example, one thorny issue is the gross disparity in wages between teachers and child care workers, the luckiest of which make about $15 an hour. When the Straight asked Education Minister Shirley Bond how the province's early childhood education initiative might address the issue of wage disparity, she said "That's not part of my mandate."

Still, the consultation paper provides an encouraging foundation, and many child care advocates are hopeful. The government received 2,600 submissions in response to its call for public input. The question now is whether the province will incorporate that input and move quickly and deftly to act. Plummeting provincial revenue might sideswipe the province's ambitions.

Does Carol Gibson think the initiative might be scrapped because of the looming challenges to the economy? "I doubt it." Does Carole James? "I'm not sure." Will the government confirm that the report it solicited will be released in December? Susan Kennedy, the executive director overseeing the project, did not respond to a couple of Tyee inquiries on the matter.

For working parents who are hoping for some action, whether they're professionals who want to keep their day jobs or working poor hoping for a child care system they can afford, the silence is certainly cause for concern. "We've had good economic times in the province for the last seven years," James observes. "Gordon Campbell has squandered the good times." She argued the government has consistently used "the challenge of meeting child care needs as an excuse."

For parents frustrated with the Vancouver school board's inaction, that observation definitely rings a bell….

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