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.

AECEO Submission to Ontario 2023 Budget Consultations

Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs) work in a diverse range of early years settings in Ontario, bringing their knowledge and unique skill set to their pedagogical, caring work with young children, their families and our communities. However, Ontario’s qualified and experienced workforce are leaving the sector, and graduates of ECE post-secondary programs are not entering the profession due to poor pay and lack of decent working conditions. The 2023 Provincial Budget provides an opportunity to build and support a child care and early years system that cares for children, families and the workforce.

Letter to the College of ECE in regard to fees

Please see letter from the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, in partnership with the AECEO, sent to the College of Early Childhood Educators on February 23, 2023.

AECEO Submission to House of Commons Standing Committee on Bill C-35, An Act respecting early learning and child care in Canada

Written Submission to: 

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities regarding Bill C 35, An Act respecting early learning and child care in Canada.

From: Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario, submitted March 17 2023

AECEO Statement on Child Protection and the role of ECEs in Ontario

The AECEO has shared a statement on Child Protection and the role of ECEs. The statement discusses a previous publication, A
Child In Need of Protection and relevant current information regarding BIPOC children in care. The statement also includes resources related to the idea of ‘cultural safety’, suggestions for further reading with books that embrace a critical lens in child protection work, and links to organizations working in this area in Ontario. Finally, the statement includes three points of refection, with questions to guide educators and allied professionals in their thinking.