May is Child Care Month, and an appropriate time to review the $10 a Day Plan from the Coalition of Child Care Advocates (CCCABC).Their Factsheet #1: For BC Parents (November 2011) is now available in English, Chinese, Filipino, Punjabi, Spanish and Vietnamese. Access the translations here.

On the same page, in English only so far, are:

• Factsheet #2:It Makes Good Dollars and Sense (December 2011)
• Factsheet #3:By the Numbers (December 2011)
• Factsheet #4:$10 a Day Child Care:A Key to Ending Family Poverty (October 2012)
• Factsheet #5:Child Care:Good for BC Business (January 2014)

The key points of the $10 a Day Child Care Plan proposals include:

• Affordable Parent Fees: The Plan proposes a new public investment that would bring parent fees down to $10 a day for a full-time program, and $7 a day for a part-time program. Programs would be free for families with annual incomes under $40,000. And, with this increased public funding, the education levels and wages of early childhood educators and family childcare providers would go up.
• The Right to Participate: Under a proposed new Early Care and Learning Act, every BC child under the age of 5 would have the right to participate in a high quality early care and learning program. Every child from 6 to 12 years of age would have the right to participate in a high quality before and after school care program. Children with extra support needs would be fully included as will children facing economic, social or other barriers. Parents would have the right to be actively involved in the programs they choose for their children.
• A New Home in the Ministry of Education: The Plan proposes that all early care and learning programs would be the responsibility of the Ministry of Education. This does not mean that children would start school before the age of 5. Rather, the Plan proposes publicly funded, high quality, universally accessible programs that would be designed to meet the particular needs of families and young children before they start school.
• Early Years Centres Networks: The Plan proposes a new name, Early Years Centres (EYC), for programs that offer full-time (daycare) and part-time (preschool) programs for children before they start Kindergarten. EYCs would be in centre and family home settings, staffed by well-educated early childhood educators. They would offer play-based programs that would give the child a strong foundation. The EYCs in a community would work together as a network—offering parents a full range of choices.

Download the factsheet.