May 8, 2008
Ministry of Children and Family Development
- British Columbia’s child-care system provides parents with a range of options to meet the diverse needs of their families and makes child care affordable for those who need it most – low and moderate income earners.
- B.C. spends nearly $300 million a year on child care:
- creating new licensed spaces
- operating funding to help keep those spaces open
- child-care subsidies for low and moderate income parents
- added support for families of children with special needs
- assistance and incentives for early childhood educators
- innovative partnerships to provide parents with better options
- Through a $12.5-million capital funding commitment in fall 2007, B.C. has provided capital funding to support the creation of more than 2,200 additional licensed child-care spaces that are expected to be open by 2010.
- A partnership with BC Housing is creating more than 200 child-care spaces in existing or planned social housing developments. This will eliminate some of the barriers to child care, employment and schooling for vulnerable families.
- To make child-care spaces more convenient and affordable for families, the Province is providing incentives for child-care providers to maximize the use of neighbourhood hubs and under-used public spaces such as schools.
- Today, B.C. has more than 87,000 licensed child-care spaces that receive ongoing government funding – a near 20 per cent increase since the launch of the child-care operating funding program in 2003/04.
- Child-care subsidies are available to the province’s most vulnerable families. Significant enhancements have made financial assistance available to the families of more than 50,000 children each year.
- In 2005, B.C. increased the rates and income threshold to qualify for subsidy from $21,000 to $38,000.
- In 2007, the Province improved the subsidy rate system for kindergarten children and increased subsidy rates to benefit approximately 13,300 school-age children.
- Meanwhile, the Province’s supported child development program enables more than 5,800 children with special needs – more than ever before – to participate in child-care settings. Additional special needs supplements help special needs children and their families with their child-care needs.
- Qualified child-care staff are essential for the system to work. The Province is doing its part to address child-care staffing issues through new licensing regulations, new one-year early childhood educator certificates, student bursaries and two new pilot programs: the Early Childhood Education Loan Assistance Program and the Early Childhood Educator Incentive Grant Program.
- All of these initiatives are part of the Province’s commitment to continue to help build a child-care system that provides options for families, quality care for children, and support for B.C.’s child-care providers.
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