After years of pressure from parents scrambling to find care for their children before and after the bell rings, the Toronto District School Board is considering a plan to run extended-day programs starting in September.The TDSB has been relying on school-based child care and recreation programs to provide after-hours care for children from kindergarten to Grade 6.But a staff report, to be debated by a board committee Wednesday, says many child-care programs are unable to meet demand because they don’t have enough space and can’t find enough early-childhood educators willing to work split shifts. About 23 per cent of schools offer no before- and after-school care, the report adds.Toronto mother Dawn Barclay is among scores of parents in the city’s child-care-challenged east end who have been unable to find after-hours care for their kindergarten-age children because school programs are full. “I hope this will help me,” said Barclay, who moved into the area last spring unaware of the child-care crunch.“When I called the centre at my school to get on the wait list, they just laughed. And there is no room in any of the community daycares in my area,” she said.As a single parent, Barclay can’t afford care without a subsidy, so she is relying on a friend on maternity leave to look after her 4-year-old daughter Layla after school. But it’s not an option beyond June.“I am grateful for my friend,” she said. “All I want to do is work, but I can’t do that without care for my daughter.”To address the need, TDSB staff are recommending a fee-based “extended-day program” for children age 4 to 12, to be offered in classrooms from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and staffed by full-time early-childhood educators employed by the board.If approved by the full board in February, the TDSB would introduce programs in schools without before- and after-school care and in those where daycares are unable t ...
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