Private Dayhome regulations in alberta

[FS2011]

I have been researching this a bit because my parents live in Edmonton (me in BC, and am licensed) and we considered moving to Edmonton. I liked that as a licensed centre I could have 7 not including my own, right? It's very confusing in Alberta tho! I must say! Plus I found the rules very slack compared to us in bc. Not licensed can be shut down if they run with more then 2 kids(plus own) how can you feed a family on that kind of income!?

[BestforKids]

I have been researching this a bit because my parents live in Edmonton (me in BC, and am licensed) and we considered moving to Edmonton. I liked that as a licensed centre I could have 7 not including my own, right? It's very confusing in Alberta tho! I must say! Plus I found the rules very slack compared to us in bc. Not licensed can be shut down if they run with more then 2 kids(plus own) how can you feed a family on that kind of income!?

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Hello, Great thread here. I am with Best For Kids (Bestforkids.ca), we are a dayhome advocacy group in Alberta and are very up to speed on these regulations for both private and accredited. To say there are no regulations for private day homes is a bit misleading. For example, private dayhomes do have the ability for a caregiver not to count their children into the ratio, however, they also must count all children under the age of 16 (who are not theirs) into their 'children in care' ratio of 6 maximum unlike accredited programs who are allowed to include as many children as they live over the age of 12.

Therefore, a private dayhome is permitted have up to 6 children in care + the caregiver's own children, which do not count into the ratio. So, to clarify, the province does have regulations on private day homes, which are as follows:

1. No more than 6 children in care (no age restrictions, applies to both accredited and private dayhome programs. The only way you can have more than 6 children in care is if you are licensed with a 'Group Family Childcare' license or a 'Daycare' license. No regular dayhome, private or accredited, can have more than 6 children in care at any one time).

2. In a private dayhome program, the caregiver's own children DO NOT count into the 6 child ratio (unlike registered programs, where the caregiver's children do count into the ratio)

3. Private dayhomes DO NOT have age related ratios unlike registered dayhome programs. This is something that confuses many people because the Alberta Family services website only lists the regulations for accredited programs, and really does not make reference to regulations related to private programs. However, as mom-in-Alberta noted, if you call in the one of the Calgary offices, they will clear it up for you.

4. In a private dayhome, all 'children in care' under the age of 16 count into the ratio, as opposed to an accredited program where children 12 and over do not count into the 6 'childcare in care' ratio, hence why many accredited programs earn additional revenue by running an after school program without ratio concerns. This is one of the give and takes of a private program. Whilst the caregivers children do not count in to the program ratios, a private program cannot have any more than 6 children in care regardless of age). The kicker on this is that the city bylaw does not allow more than 6 'children in care' (not including the caregiver's children because the city's concern is over residential traffic vs childcare concerns). So, if an accredited program does accept after school care kids that cause them to exceed the 6 'children in care' ratio, they are technically in contravention of the city's bylaws. However, this does not seem to stop them as this is quite a common operational policy for providers, and does help alleviate the after school bottleneck in the city.

Conclusion: Private programs are a very good way for a mother with children to stay home and run a dayhome program while they care for their own children. This was a really good move by the province and does allow these programs to be both safe and lucrative for the program provider. Parents should always do their due diligence (we have noted MANY accredited and private programs in the city that are run, in our opinion, sub standard - so using accreditation as your measure might not be the best. Parents should judge a program based on a combination of their personal visit, program references, etc... rather than a reliance on a provincial designation).

There are also a few other considerations with regard to age related ratios. The other side of the coin is that if a program is trying to care for a multi-age group of children, then there may be safety concerns related to the developmentally appropriateness of toys (for example, a 4 year old can play with small toys that might be a choking hazard for an infant). Also, even if a program has 6 children under the age of 2, a good provider will ensure that 2 children are likely napping at any one time during the day meaning that, aside from mealtime, drop off and pick up, they would really only be actively caring for 4 children. I have seen this in action and it works well. Also, a having children of the same developmental level means they can engage in age appropriate group activities together. This is much more challenging in a care environment with age diversity ranging from infant to 4 years old. So there is a bit of another perspective on all this for you all to consider.

[Dcoole]

Ok so here's a scenario. Private day home in Alberta had two care takers full time in home. Does that mean the 1:6 ratio applies to bothe providers? Say there are 10 kids and two providers and 2 kids are only part time. Being that it's private is that ratio ok?

[MommaL]

Ok so here's a scenario. Private day home in Alberta had two care takers full time in home. Does that mean the 1:6 ratio applies to bothe providers? Say there are 10 kids and two providers and 2 kids are only part time. Being that it's private is that ratio ok?

What you are describing sounds like a group family daycare (where there are more than 6 children and more than one provider), which would require a license. Otherwise (from my understanding), it doesn't matter how many caregivers you have, you still can only have 6 kids in a private day home. I believe this is same no matter what province you reside in (i.e. you can't have more kids in a private daycare just because there is more than one caregiver).