What is being rated?
This assessment rates a child care centre's activities, learning,
health, safety, adult/child interactions and nutrition by comparing
them to the standards laid out in the Toronto Operating Criteria. Learn more...
How is the rating calculated?
For each child care centre with a service contract for fee subsidy,
you will find a rating for the following Operating
Criteria Sections by age group: Infant, Toddler, Preschool,
School Age and Nutrition. In addition, ratings are broken down into Subsections and individual Items and are calculated as follows:
a. Operating Criteria Section
The
total of all individual items assessed are averaged to give
an overall rating for the Section e.g. Infant, Toddler etc.. |
b. Operating Criteria Subsection
In
each section a set of related items are grouped together to
form a subsection. The item ratings within the subsection are
averaged to give a subsection
rating e.g. The learning subsection includes art,
language, drama and science etc. |
How
often is a child care centre rated?
A Toronto
Children's Services Consultant makes an unannounced visit once a
year to all child care centres with a service
contract for fee subsidy to do a formal assessment using the
Toronto Operating Criteria.
Note, the ratings from the Toronto Operating Criteria Assessment
are a "snapshot" of the environment and events that children
experienced on the day of the assessment. It is important for parents
to visit child care centres they are interested in. Visiting allows
you to observe the program, speak to staff and ask questions. Learn
more in A Parent's Guide to Licensed
Child Care in Toronto.
Where do I find a child care rating online?
Go to the child care finder to choose the child care centre you are interested in. Once you are on the page that describes the centre, you can find ratings under the header - Program Offerings and Quality Ratings.
Note, ratings are only available for child care centres with a service
contract for fee subsidy. Home child care ratings are not available on-line..
What
is an acceptable rating?
Any item, subsection or section that has received a rating of 
has met Toronto Operating Criteria expectations.
When
a child care centre receives an unacceptable rating, what happens?
Any item, subsection
or section that has received a rating below has not met Toronto Operating Criteria expectations. Failure of
a child care centre to meet expectations will require action to
fix the issue and may result in sanctions. The sanctions will vary depending on the nature and seriousness of the issue and may include
a grace period to comply, written warning and in extreme cases,
the service contract for fee subsidy may be terminated. On the web site,
Children's Services will identify if action is required. Although
the rating will not change, we will also identify when action has
been completed and the expectation has been met.
My
centre received a low rating, what should I do?
Discuss the rating with the Supervisor of the child care centre
to clarify the issue(s) and to find out what actions the centre
is taking to fix the issue(s). If you continue to be concerned,
contact the Children's Services Consultant responsible for the centre. To find your Consultant go to the A to Z listing, click on your centre and at the bottom of your centre's registry page you will find the Consultant's name and phone number.
The centre I am interested
in received a low rating, should I still consider enrolling my child?
There are many factors to consider when deciding on a child
care placement, including location, cost, hours of operation etc.,
but quality should also be an important factor to consider. For
additional information on making an informed choice, please refer
to A Parent's Guide
to Licensed Child Care in Toronto.
What are the average
ratings across the city?
For each subsection
and item, the citywide average is posted beside the individual child
care centre rating for comparison.
Some centres don't
have a rating, what does that mean?
Only child care programs with a service contract for fee subsidy
are obligated to meet the expectations laid out in the Toronto Operating
Criteria. If they do not have a contract with the City, they are
not assessed using the Operating Criteria.
Sometimes, the
City of Toronto has a contract with a child care, but it does not
include all the age groups served at the centre. When this happens,
only the age groups included in the contract will be assessed.
How is this information different than the
information posted by the Province?
The web site for the Ministry
of Children and Youth Services provides parents with licensing
status information for child care centres. Minimum standards for
child care licensing are determined by the Day Nurseries Act. In
addition to provincial legislated requirements, the City expects
all child care centres with a service contract for fee subsidy to
meet and maintain the additional quality standards outlined in the
Toronto Operating Criteria.
If
a parent doesn't have access to the Internet, how can they find
out what rating a centre got?
Access to the Internet is available, free of charge at all Public
Libraries, or you can drop into the child care program and ask
to see their criteria assessment. Child care centres with a service
contract for fee subsidy are required to publicly post the results
of their criteria assessment in the child care centre.
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with one being the lowest rating and four the highest. An item
that receives a rating below 
has exceeded expectations. When
there is more than one room for an age group, the item rating
shown will be an average of the ratings in all rooms.