Home Daycare with Multiple Providers

Hi All, first post here! Seems like a pretty cool community.

We live in Mississauga, ON and we are thinking of opening a home daycare out of our house. More specifically, we are three friends who would like to group together and offer daycare services out of one of our homes. We have a couple questions to which we couldn't find answers.

1. Are home daycares allowed to have more than one provider? If we have 3 providers working together full time, does the number of kids we're allowed to care for also increase?

2. If the answer above is no, is there any way to make it work? If we become licensed does it change anything?

3. If a home daycare has a single provider and that person is sick or on vacation, how is that handled with the kids and parents?

Thanks all!

Number of providers does not change the number of kids you can have. 5 kids max (your kids count under 6 yrs old). There has been talk that 2:providers can take on 10 kids if they are with an agency. It is doubtful any agency will take this on.

Private home daycares cannot be licensed.

Different providers have different rules re: illness. Parent do not pay if I am sick and I close for the day.

Unfortunately, you're going to be disappointed. While this may seem like a great idea, the daycare laws in Ontario (both the old Day Nurseries Act and the new laws that are now in effect) specify that home daycare only allows 5 daycare children PER PREMISES, no matter how many adults are present. So you cannot have 3 providers and 5 children each, you could still only have 5 at one time.

There is no such thing as being individually licensed in Ontario. Home childcare providers can either be (legally) private, or "unlicensed," which is the term the gov't likes to use, or they can be contracted by a licensed agency to work under their umbrella. These providers and the provincial government like to refer to these providers as "licensed," even though they themselves do not hold a license, their agencies do, and agencies are not the same across the board. Some are for-profit, some are not, some are, by all accounts, wonderful in the support and resources that they give to providers and some are horrible and cut corners in order to put more profit in their own pockets.

Registering with an agency would not really benefit you in the situation you are suggesting - under the new laws, private providers are allowed 5 daycare children at one time, under age 13, with no more than 2 under 2, and counting the provider's own children under age 6. Providers working for an agency CAN be allowed 6 instead of 5 daycare children at one time, and all the other rules above are the same. However, it is up to the individual agencies whether or not to allow their providers that 6th child, and most agencies either aren't planning on allowing it, from what we have heard, or will require a certain amount of square footage and possible other specifics before that 6th child will be allowed. There is also the problem of insurance - most agencies still make their providers find their own insurance, and very few insurance companies are willing to insure 5 daycare children; I have never heard of one agreeing to insure 6.

You could technically look into the possibility of becoming a commercial daycare center, but this requires you to jump through a TON of hoops. Square footage per child, a residence zoned for commercial use, the director of the center being a registered ECE, industrial-grade kitchen facilities, etc. From your post, this doesn't appear to be what you are thinking of.

Regarding your last question, I myself have never closed for personal sick days, but if I had to, I would simply give my clients as much notice as possible and close for the day. I HAVE closed for similar reasons - when my son was hospitalized with pneumonia, when we had to attend a funeral, etc. If I have an appointment, I try my best to arrange that my husband's work schedule allows for him to be home during that time to cover me. He is in my contract as my back-up provider, and all my clients have signed off on this. One of the risks parents take when using home daycare is that emergencies do come up and sometimes their provider isn't going to be available. I always emphasize that my clients MUST have back-up care (grandparents, other family) for those few instances where I am forced to close, and I do my absolute BEST to not close, because of course I don't charge for those days. So far, nobody has had an issue.

Sorry the answers to your questions are not more promising; I can understand wanting to work together. If you all DO decide to open individual daycares, I would advise joining some of the FB groups dedicated to discussing the new daycare laws and what these mean - for example, daycare providers are not allowed to meet in each other's houses unless they have only 5 daycare children total. So you could not take your 5 children to your friend's daycare to have a playdate with her 5 daycare children, because the law dictates no more than 5 daycare children on the premises at one time. You can however meet in public places like parks, playgroups, the library, etc.

The new laws have been about 2 years in the making, and a group of home providers have been fighting them since the provincial government first announced it. Have a look at www.cicpo.ca (the Coalition of Independent Childcare Providers of Ontario) for more info, and links to FB groups surrounding the topic.

Good luck!

Visit http://www.ontario.ca/document/child...arly-years-act. They have broken down the main points in the new Child Care and Early Years Act in simple and easy to understand terms.