AECEO Submission on Class Size Consultation Feb 22 2019

The AECEO fully supports the two educator model and current class sizes in Full Day Kindergarten (FDK).

An extensive body of empirical evidence documents the learning benefits of the two-educator (RECE and OCT), play-based FDK curriculum model for children’s learning. The unique and complimentary training of RECEs and OCTs working in partnership lends itself to rich educational and developmental learning opportunities for children at a critical point in their young lives. Ontario has been, and continues to be, a leader in early learning since it acted on the innovative recommendations of the commissioned report, With Our Best Future in Mind: Implementing Early Learning in Ontario, completed in 2009.

We are only now beginning to realize the benefits of Ontario’s existing FDK program for children and families. While we recognize the roll-out of a program of this size and nature would have challenges, all current evidence suggests Ontario’s unique, two educator model, play-based FDK program is significantly benefiting Ontario’s children and families.

The AECEO acknowledges that improvements are always possible in the early childhood education system – and we emphasize that government change to policy and process should be based on the highest quality research evidence, careful analyses of empirical data, and through comprehensive consultation.

We urgently call on the government to reconsider any changes it may propose to the FDK program in Ontario without reviewing the research evidence and engaging in a formal, transparent and systematized consultation with stakeholders including parents and educators.

It is imperative that Full Day Kindergarten, with the RECE-OCT educator team and a class size hard cap of twenty-six, remain universally accessible to all of Ontario’s children.

AECEO response to Bill 66: Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act

The AECEO is deeply concerned by the regulation changes to the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014, the Education Act, and the Employment Standards Act, 2000, proposed in Bill 66. These changes will lead Ontario in the wrong direction, one that compromises the quality of care and education for young children and does not contribute to purposeful system building.

RECEs benefit when they are well supported and can attend to and engage with the children in their care purposefully and meaningfully. In turn, children and families benefit from higher quality programs when RECEs are well supported and well compensated. From this perspective, we believe the government must reconsider their approach and take on their responsibility of funding and supporting early years services and RECEs.

We urge the government to withdraw Bill 66 and to engage in a full public consultation process on all of its provisions with respect to the Early Childhood Education and Care system in Ontario.

AECEO Submission to the Regulatory Registry Consultation: Proposed Regulatory Amendments under the Child Care & Early Years Act, 2014 & Education Act

We are concerned by some of the regulatory changes to the Child Care & Early Years Act, 2014 and the Education Act recently proposed by the provincial government that will directly impact Early Childhood Educators. We have therefore participated in the government’s Regulatory Consultations regarding those changes and submitted our response on May 17^th.

AECEO Submission to the Ministry of Education, Child Care and Early Years Act 5-year Review

The AECEOs submission to the 5-year review on the CCEYA was an opportunity to raise the voice of ECEs and address specific areas of concern identified by the profession. We asked AECEO members what opportunities and barriers they are experiencing in practice when thinking about pedagogy, culturally relevant practice and inclusion, and what they would recommend.

AECEO Submission to Ontario Fall 2020 Budget Consultations

Our child care market system was not working before the pandemic, and it is not working now. This
market system relies on full enrolment, underpaid educators, and exorbitant parent/family fees. Many
child care programs struggle to remain operational, many have yet to reopen, and some are already
closing their doors. At the same time, many RECEs and child care workers are leaving the sector due to
increased risk and responsibility without appropriate pay and working conditions. The COVID-19
pandemic has also thrown families and their finances into disarray. Many families, predominantly
women, are being forced to make impossible decisions about balancing work and their children’s care
needs. This will not improve without intervention.

AECEO Submission to Ontario 2021 Pre-Budget Consultation

Our recommendations:

• Invest an initial $375 million to develop and implement a province-wide Wage Grid for RECEs
  and child care staff, as a first step to implementing “Growing Together: Ontario’s Early Years
  and Child Care Workforce Strategy.” A $25 minimum wage is required to immediately protect
  and respect the early childhood workforce and address recruitment and retention issues.
• Immediately reverse $49 million in planned cuts to child care.
• Increase general operating funding by $500 million to stabilize the child care sector.
• Allocate funding to lower class sizes, ensure paid preparation time and collaborative planning
  time for the Kindergarten Team, and ensure a healthy and safe work environment.
• Allocate $600 million to begin a transition to operational funding that supports low fees or no
  fees for families.
• Fund 7 permanent paid sick days and additional 14 paid sick days during public health
  emergencies.

AECEO 2022 Ontario Pre-Budget Submission to the Standing Committee

Our recommendations:

• Immediately sign on to the federal child care plan. If Ontario fails to sign before March 31st we risk losing the first year of funding – over $1 Billion in federal funds.
• Adopt and implement the child care community’s Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario, which sets out our vision and a shared path forward for Ontario child care.
• Invest an initial $375 million to develop and implement a province-wide Wage Grid for RECEs and child care staff/providers. A $25 minimum wage is required to immediately protect and respect the early childhood workforce and address recruitment and retention issues.
• Immediately reverse the 5% administrative funding cut to child care.
• Increase general operating funding by $500 million to stabilize the child care sector.
• Reverse cuts to the education budget and allocate funding to lower class sizes, increase wages, ensure paid preparation time and collaborative planning time for the Kindergarten Team, and ensure a healthy and safe work environment.
• Fund 7 permanent paid sick days and additional 14 paid sick days during public healt

AECEO Sexual Abuse Prevention Program Statement

One of the AECEO’s goals is to build the collective voice of Early Childhood Educators who we trust to work creatively, collaboratively and responsively with children, families, and communities. In doing this work, we understand educators, children, families, and communities as inevitably dependent and inextricably interdependent whereby responsive care relations are the foundation of good practice and quality care environments. While our mandate has evolved over time, one focus of our organization today is to critically engage with sociopolitical forces that undermine the work, value, and experiences of ECEs (and allied professionals) and advocate for change at the program, system and public policy-level. We embrace our work as political, recognizing our responsibility to identify and challenge the chronic undervaluing of (highly gendered) ECEs. But we also know we have much to learn. In the past few years, we have prioritized efforts to think with an anti-racist/anti-oppressive lens through ongoing engagement with Black, Indigenous and newcomer educators, communities, children, and families. We are also working to establish stronger relationships with LGBTQIA2S communities to ensure we support gender and sexual minority educators, children, and families. We are thinking with these communities in voicing our concerns about the mandated SAPP.

At the intersection of safety, ethics, mental health, and well-being: Disrupting the status quo, regulatory approach in Ontario

Who are we and how are we evolving as an organization?

One of the AECEO’s goals is to build the collective voice of Early Childhood Educators, who we trust to work creatively, collaboratively, and responsively with children, families, and communities. In doing this work, we understand educators, children, families, and communities as inevitably dependent and inextricably interdependent whereby responsive care relations are the foundation of good practice and quality care environments. While our mandate has evolved over time, one focus of our organization today is to critically engage with sociopolitical forces that undermine the work, value, and experiences of ECEs (and allied professionals) and advocate for change at the program, system, and public policy-level. We embrace our work as political, recognizing our responsibility to identify and challenge the chronic undervaluing of ECEs. But we also know we have much to learn. In the past few years, we have prioritized efforts to think with an anti-racist/anti-oppressive lens through ongoing engagement with Black, Indigenous, racialized, and newcomer educators, communities, children, and families. We are also working to establish stronger relationships with LGBTQIA2S communities to ensure we support gender and sexual minority educators, children, and families.

Why this statement?

This statement addresses two concerns. The first is the need to disclose certain mental or physical conditions or disorders on the College of Early Childhood Educator’s renewal form, and the second is the recent partnership between the CECE and People Connect, an online mental health self-assessment tool aimed at ECE’s mental health.