British Columbia. Legislative Assembly. Community Care Facility Act, Chapter 57, 1988; Child Care Regulation 319/89 as amended to O.C. 1476/89.

British Columbia. Legislative Assembly. BC Benefits (Child Care) Act, Chapter 26, 1997; BC Benefits Child Care Regulation 74/97.

British Columbia. Legislative Assembly. British Columbia, Benefits (Appeal) Act. 1996; BC Benefits (Appeal) Regulation. 1996.

REGULATED CHILD CARE

Group day care centres    Group care for no more than 13 hours/day up to 5 days/week for children 30 months to 5 years of age.

Preschools (formerly licensed as nursery schools)    Group care for no more than 4 hours/day for no more than 20 children 30 months to 6 years of age.

Out-of-school care    Care outside school hours, including school vacations, for children 5-12 years of age for not more than 13 hours/day. Out-of-school care may be provided in family child care homes or group day care centres.

Family child care    Care in a private home for no more than seven children. Of these there can be no more than five preschool age children, three children under 3 years of age and one child under 1 year of age. Children 12 years or older who are related to the caregiver are not included in this definition.

Emergency care    Care for no more than 72 hours/month. Groups may be no larger than 12 for children under 3 years and no larger than 25 for older children.

Child minding    Care for up to 3 hours/day, no more than 2 days/week for children 18 months to 12 years. Maximum of 16 children where any child is under 3 years and a maximum of 20 children if all are 3 years or older.

Ski hill or resort care    Occasional child care is provided in resort locations to children who are at least 18 months and under 6 years old, for no more than 40 hours/month, and no more than 8 hours/day.

The Medical Health Officer may authorize a license to extend the maximum number of hours of care as long as there is no health or safety risk to children.

OTHER

Thirty-four Child Care Resource and Referral Programs provide information, support, and training to child care providers with an emphasis on family day care. They may include equipment and toy lending, workshops, networking, home visits, and caregiver registries.

B.C. funds and licenses on-reserve child care. There are 24 First Nations communities that have licensed child care facilities and 20 more in the development phase.

Child care centres run by Band and Tribal Councils became eligible to apply for provincial grants as of October 1994.

The First Nations/Inuit Child Care Initiative has created 678 new child care spaces as of January 1999.

Malaspina University College and the First Nations Education Centre in Vancouver have developed a training program for First Nations early childhood educators, in partnership with the Cowichan Community.