Ministry of Education
Early Years and Child Care Division
315 Front Street West, 11th Floor
Toronto ON M5V 3A4
Memorandum to: Consolidated Municipal Service Managers and District Social Service Administration Boards (CMSMs and DSSABs)
First Nations with Licensed Child Care and Child and Family Programs
Child Care Licensees
From: Phil Graham, Assistant Deputy Minister, Early Years and Child Care Division
Date: January 12, 2021
Subject: Child Care Updates
I recognize the past few weeks have been incredibly challenging as child care and early years partners have been asked to develop and activate emergency child care plans under extremely tight timelines in order to ensure we are able to meet the unique needs of Ontario’s families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. I want to again extend my sincere appreciation for your continued efforts and patience during this unprecedented time, and your unwavering commitment to serving children and families. With your support, almost 3,000 children in the province have had access to targeted emergency child care since it was first established on January 4, 2021.
As you may be aware, the Ontario government announced today that students in the following public health units (PHUs) will not return to in-person instruction until February 10, 2021:
The Chief Medical Officer of Health will make a determination on when schools will return to in-person instruction in the remaining southern Ontario public health units, and an announcement will be made by January 20, 2021.
The approach to emergency child care and before and after school programs that has been in place since early January will continue, meaning:
For communities where emergency child care will be ending, information about reporting and wind down will be shared with CMSMs/DSSABs and First Nations shortly.
EarlyON Child and Family Centres/First Nations-run Child and Family Programs must continue to remain closed and may not offer indoor or outdoor in-person programming. EarlyON Centres are strongly encouraged to continue to offer virtual programming during this time.
To support the continued efforts to maintain health and safety in child care settings and based on advice from the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Ministry of Education will be identifying additional health and safety measures to protect children and staff. The ministry will be working with the Ministry of Health to update child care guidance documents with these additional measures, including enhanced screening and the introduction of asymptomatic testing in child care settings. Updated documents will follow shortly.
In the meantime, we request that child care operators continue to adhere to existing health and safety guidelines, including but not limited to the following practices:
Sincerely,
Phil Graham
