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Early morning and late afternoon childcare will not be offered as part of the all-day Kindergarten program set to begin this fall at area elementary schools.
The all-day Kindergarten learning program will be offered at Castleton and Colborne public schools this fall, along with St. Anthony's Elementary School and Ganaraska Trail Public School in Port Hope and Grant Sine Public School in Cobourg; however, the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board (KPRDSB) said it has no intentions of offering wrap-around day care service to schools in its board.
Staff in schools across the board say there has not been enough interest from participating families to even begin considering offering the wrap-around day care service, said KPRDSB board chairwoman Diane Lloyd.
According to the board, it is not cost effective to offer wrap-around day care service with the all-day learning program. Simply put - it would cost too much.
"We would need at least 20 students at each location to make it break even," said Ms. Lloyd.
If the wrap-around day care service was offered, the board would be required to operate it on a cost-recovery basis, which the board had set at $29.75 per student per day, she said.
It is estimated only 15 per cent of the province's Early Learning Centres will be offering the before-and-after school care for students enrolled in the all-day kindergarten program.
According to Ms. Lloyd, although wrap-around day care service is not offered now, in five years when the all-day learning program is offered throughout the province, it is expected the KPRDSB will offer wrap-around day care services at that time.
Considering details of the wrap-around day care service were only made available recently, it has some parents worried about their child care plans for the fall.
"Most parents, if they haven't got something (in terms of day care) for next (school) year, are starting to panic," said Ms. Lloyd.
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- reprinted from the Northumberland News