Printable View
In Ontario you are not allowed to have more than 5 children in your care no matter how many adults you have in the house. I can have 4 adults in the house but i am still only allowed to have 5 kids in my care at one time. It says so in black and white in the nursaries act.
So my point is anyone who has an "assistant" in ontario so they can take on more kids is definetly breaking the law
Greenborodaycare ~ yes the Ontario DNA is black and white with only allowed 5 children in your care under the age of 10. A provider can have as many children as they feel comfortable with that are 10 and above.
What about people who are licensed and have an assistant? are they allowed more children?
I had a lady call me for an interview saying that she feels her child is not getting enough individual attention in his current daycare because between the provider and her assistant there are 12 kids that they take care of.
I have no idea how many were their own kids but it just seemed to me that it was not a very good situation. I was almost tempted to tell her that this may not even be legal and that she should perhaps investigate further but I just wished her the best in her search since I could not accommodate her needs.
It still bothers me weeks later. I don't want to cause issues for someone and I have no idea if the care situation she had was licensed or not but it did make me curious on whether a licensed provider would be allowed an assistant and therefore more kids
Spixie, here in Ontario, it does not matter how many adults are present whether they are paid assistants or not. You could theoretically have three paid daycare assistants, but that does not change the amount of children you can have. The rule is five children under the age of ten, no matter how many adults are there, but this does not include your own children.
greenboro, I think the other two women were talking about how they wished that Ontario would change its law to include 8 children if you have your ECE designation, and then they were discussing this scenario theoretically, and that is how the issue of assistants came up. I think everyone that posts on this forum follows the regulations of the Daycare Nurseries Act.
In Ontario no it doesn't matter if you have an assistant are licensed or not it is still 5 children. Across the river from us in Quebec this would be legal. However, there may be an Ontario loophole. IF the assistant is a mother bringing her own children to the daycare then they don't count in the five children or so we have been told in the latest interpretations of the guidelines. However, coming for a visit on a daily basis and benefiting from the business is a totally different thing. So a mom with 4 kids of her own plus her 5 daycare children is legal. If the visiting mom had 3 kids that would make 12 kids.
No child ever really gets individual attention in a daycare setting because the caregiver must be with and aware of what everyone else is doing. Parents that want their child to be the centre of attention at daycare should either stay home themselves or hire a nanny that can devote the time to just the one child. It is hard for a parent with just one child to imagine how to extend themselves to multiple children until they actually do it. When their child has siblings they will experience the same issues as in daycare - waiting their turn, doing things for themselves, relying on themselves or peers for entertainment and not being told how to play by the adult.