ATHABASCA/BARRHEAD/WESTLOCK – As more information is available, daycare and day home providers are becoming increasingly excited about the new $10/day program.
Programming will start in January, but the exact date is not known according to Alberta Children’s Services minister Rebecca Schulz in a letter to child care operators as a follow-up to a Nov. 15 letter.
“I am optimistic we will be ready to being rolling out new operating grants for facility-based child care programs for kids, kindergarten-aged and younger as well as new subsidy rates and thresholds for parents by mid-January 2022,” Schulz said.
Westlock Child Care Society executive director Christine Villeneuve said the savings could be substantial. As an example, an infant attending a childcare program full time at a base rate of $1,000 per month would not pay more than $365 monthly.
“Subsidized families would also qualify for an additional $266 off,” she said. “That family could pay around $99 a month.”
Also starting in the spring, Children’s Services will be making licensed childcare more accessible by creating 10,000 non-profit/home-based spaced and up to 2,500 spaced in either existing private and non-profit programs or programs under development with the final goal being 42,500 spaces over five years.
“They're trying to ensure there is parent choice in services, because choice is important. So, if you want to access affordability through the Federal Child Care plan, it just must be with a licensed program,” said Villeneuve. “Either a licensed family day home with registered family day home educators, or in licensed facility-based care; a daycare and or preschool.”
New this year as well, family day home educators now qualify for education funds, another thing Villeneuve is excited for.
“In September, the government released a new kind of grant called a Release Time Grant and what that does is it provides operators and educators with a little bit of money to attend post-secondary or a conference,” she said. “Now it also extends to family day home educators, which is awesome because they've been excluded for years, and preschools now also have the ability to access this funding which is new to them as well.”
And if educators are doing post-secondary education, they will receive up to $800 per course for up to two courses a year – moving from one level to the next usually takes 10 courses and educators are typically working while studying.
“Do they want to take a full-time course load? I did it. It's hard to do but it's manageable, doable,” Villaneuve said. “If you have support from your own family, or as long as you have your own supports.”
Letters were sent out from the Minister through the providers with some information and asking for feedback and all information can be found on the Alberta.ca website under Child Care Deal.
