The Way Forward for Early Childhood Educators in Ontario

In this video series originally made for social media, AECEO placement student Ahla Zafar interviewed people occupying various roles within the Early Childhood Education (ECE) field to discuss the issues they are facing. Building on the valuable insights from the interviews, Ahla then explores the work being done by the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) to address the challenges identified in the interviews.

A Universal Child Care System with Decent Work at its Core Must be the Goal of Ontario’s Review of the Child Care and Early Years Act

It is a critical time for early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Ontario. Across the sector educators, operators, families, and allies are calling for change. The mandated 5-year review of the Child Care and Early Years Act (CCEYA) must be an opportunity to ensure that we do not go backwards, or further entrench a fragmented, market approach to vital ECEC programs.

Charte pour un travail decent dans le secteur de l’education a la petite enfance de l’Ontario: Document a l’appui

As an early childhood sector employer/organization we are signing this charter to confirm our commitment to advancing policy reforms needed to improve working conditions for all. We recognize the principles of decent work as integral to achieving quality programs and services for children and their families.

As leaders in our communities we will champion practices that promote and sustain decent work, and will join with our community partners, sector networks, associations, policymakers and funders to generate collective actions that expand decent working conditions.

Ontario Early Childhood Sector Decent Work Charter Supporting Document: Making Decent Work – ENG

As an early childhood sector employer/organization we are signing this charter to confirm our commitment to advancing policy reforms needed to improve working conditions for all. We recognize the principles of decent work as integral to achieving quality programs and services for children and their families.

As leaders in our communities we will champion practices that promote and sustain decent work, and will join with our community partners, sector networks, associations, policymakers and funders to generate collective actions that expand decent working conditions.

Good Fight Prize

On Wednesday, November 26th, the Child Care Workers are Worth More! campaign won Atkinson Foundation‘s 2025 Good Fight Prize, a $50,000 award recognizing “fearless campaigns for decent work”. The Worth MORE! campaign, a partnership between the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO), the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC), and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario, was launched in response to the $18/hour wage floor for RECEs outlined in the first Canada-Ontario Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) agreement, signed in March 2022.

With a clear message –  Early Childhood Educators and Child Care Workers are Worth MORE! – our campaign helped communities across the province come together to organize events, rallies, webinars, social media actions, petitions, and meetings with MPPs. Together, we successfully advocated to increase the wage floor to $23.86/hour, while continuing to advance our calls for a proper wage grid, benefits, pension plans, and better working conditions, not just for RECEs but for everyone who makes ELCC possible.

By leaning into what ECEs and child care workers know best: building relationships through collaboration, play, and joy, the Worth MORE! campaign intentionally treated ECEs’ talents that are often overlooked and undervalued as important skills in political advocacy. This did not go unnoticed by the Good Fight Prize jury, who shared the campaign stood out for its “perseverance, creativity and breadth of organizing.”

The Worth MORE! campaign was just the beginning. We know there’s still a long way to go to achieve our vision for early learning and child care in Ontario. The prize money will go towards launching a new campaign in 2026. A huge THANK YOU to all of our members, community partners, supporters, and allies who took part in this campaign and made it so successful! We are honoured to fight the good fight alongside all of you every day.

Transforming Work in Ontario’s Early Years and Child Care Sector

Workforce Strategy Recommendations Presented to the Ministry of Education November 30, 2017.

Our vision is for all of Ontario’s children and families to have access to quality affordable early years and child care programs where registered early childhood educators (RECEs) and staff are well supported with professional pay and decent work. This vision is founded on the assumption that early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a public good and a human right, not a commodity.

The following policy recommendations focus on advancing the early childhood profession as one of the key supports in expanding access to early years and child care programs in Ontario while also enhancing quality. The Task Force acknowledges that RECEs work in a wide variety of programs that support young children and families, with this in mind we endeavoured to develop recommendations with a broad sector lens. The recommendations aim to inform the Ministry of Education’s workforce strategy that was announced in Ontario’s Renewed Early Years and Child Care Policy Framework.

 Summary of Recommendations

1. Develop a new base funding approach to early years and child care programs in Ontario that will ensure quality, affordability and access. A new system of base funding will include substantial increases to operational funding to keep services affordable while ensuring professional compensation, good working conditions and supports for registered early childhood educators (RECEs) and early years staff.
2. Implement a provincial wage scale with a $25/hr minimum for RECEs and a benefit package, including paid sick and personal leave days, for registered early childhood educators. The wage scale must inform base funding, while recognizing the level of education and years of experience for RECEs and staff in accordance with pay equity principles. In the interim, maintain and immediately extend the Wage Enhancement Grant/Home Child Care Enhancement grant to establish a minimum wage of $25/hr for all RECEs.
3. Develop and implement an Early Childhood Workforce Learning Framework which will enable such quality-related staff supports as paid time for professional learning and expanded opportunities for acquiring and upgrading qualifications.
4. Create practitioner roles and identify educational requirements alongside a career ladder that will strengthen program quality while formally recognizing the value of credentials and experience. This initiative will support the recruitment and retention of registered early childhood educators and provide a greater incentive to make ECEC a life-long career.
5. Change the positions of full-time Designated Early Childhood Educators working in the publicly-funded school systems to year-round and salaried status with compensation commensurate with other full time educators in the public education systems.
6. Commission an external review of the Full-Day Kindergarten educator team and classroom conditions to inform future planning and development.

Ontario Early Years Decent Work Charter

The Ontario Early Childhood Sector Decent Work Charter has been developed by the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) Decent Work Taskforce as one of the components to mobilizing a collective effort to achieve greater recognition and improved compensation and working conditions for those employed in the sector.

Introducing a Logo for the AECEO Guiding Committee on Truth and Reconciliation

The AECEO Guiding Committee on Truth and Reconciliation contributes an article in each issue of our publication, the eceLINK. 

Please note that the Truth and Reconciliation Guiding Committee submissions and articles are not related to our eceLINK peer reviewed section – submissions are not peer reviewed/evaluated. Submissions will be very lightly edited prior to publication.

Who We Are: Voices of Indigenous Early Childhood Educators

The AECEO Guiding Committee on Truth and Reconciliation contributes an article in each issue of our publication, the eceLINK. 

Please note that the Truth and Reconciliation Guiding Committee submissions and articles are not related to our eceLINK peer reviewed section – submissions are not peer reviewed/evaluated. Submissions will be very lightly edited prior to publication.