Childhood learning and care

17. Child care salaries in Toronto
The average annual salary for a full-time, trained Early Childhood Educator (ECE) working in a child care centre with a purchase of service contract was $29,286 in 2003 (see Map 7).

Source: Toronto Children's Services

Importance
Quality child care is an important cornerstone of healthy child development. This applies equally to children who have a stay-at-home parent, or who are cared for by relatives, babysitters, nannies as well as children cared for in formal regulated and licensed settings. The licensed child care system is clearly under stress. The fiscal restraint discussed in the section on Parental Supports not only affects the accessibility of services but also adversely affects two of the known factors of quality child care: well-trained and well-paid staff.

Status/trends
The average ECE salary has increased by $682 or only 2% since 2000. For the first time in recorded history, an ECE working in a commercial centre earned a somewhat higher average salary ($29,327) than trained staff in a non-profit centre($29,143). Yet, when converted to an hourly wage, at $18.52, the ECE in a non-profit centre earns $3.51 more than their counterpart in a commercial centre ($15.01). In fact, the hourly wage for an ECE staff in a non-profit centre increased by $1.19 (6.9%), while in a commercial centre the wage went up by 43 cents (2.9%). The 2000 gap of $2.75 per hour has increased to $3.51per hour in 2003. This gap will further increase, as pay equity payments to staff in many non-profit centres resume in 2004. Map 7 illustrates how average hourly wages for trained and untrained staff vary across Toronto.

The apparent contradiction between annual and hourly wages is clarified when put into the perspective of average total hours worked per year. Staff working in commercial centres are, on average, working more hours while the hours worked by full-time staff in non-profit centres have actually declined between 2000 and 2003. The same trend is even more prevalent among the untrained teaching staff. In fact, the average annual income has declined for untrained staff in non-profit centres as a result of the reduced number of hours staff worked during the year.

Many non-profit centres, faced with mandatory pay equity salary increases, elected to reduce hours of work to the minimum required to maintain legislated ratios as one way of reducing or minimizing the pressure of increasing operating costs. Despite the increase of 2,569 licensed spaces in centres with purchase-of-service agreements since 2000, the number of full-time staff has not increased, while the number of part-time staff has risen by 516.

Ratio of trained to untrained staff
The ratio of trained to untrained staff is widely recognized as an indicator of quality of care; the higher the ratio, the better. In an ideal world all teaching staff in licensed child care centres would have adequate academic training. In Ontario the minimum standard for a trained staff is a two-year diploma from a community college. Unfortunately, the replacement of trained early childhood educators by untrained staff as another way of reducing or limiting increases in operating costs, seems to be on increase. This degradation is especially noticeable in the non-profit sector, where the average ratio has been reduced from 3.16 full-time trained staff for each untrained staff to 2.65. Yet, even at that level it is still more than two times higher than the average ratio in commercial child care centres. As Map 7 shows, the ratio varies significantly across Toronto. In many areas the average ratio is well below the desirable minimum of two trained staff for every staff without training. It is important to reverse the current trend to lowering the ratio; the 2004 service planning process will address ways of improving the ratio, especially for child care centres serving high need areas.

Municipally operated child care

• the data discussed in this section does not include the municipal child care centres
• the Municipality operates 58 child care centres with 410 full-time staff and 25 part-time staff
• all full-time teaching staff are trained (ECE or approved equivalent)
• the front-line ECE staff earn $18.90-$20.65 per hour ($34,530-$37,728) depending on years of employment in the position
• part-time trained staff earn the same hourly wage as full-time staff.
• in addition, the municipal centres employ part-time untrained staff used to maintain staff-to-child ratios. Untrained staff earn $12.46 per hour.

Key issues
Increasing costs and increased dependence on untrained and part-time staff are clear indications that the current child care system in Toronto has been under severe stress over the last several years. The goal of an accessible, affordable and quality child care system seems, at times, more elusive than ever. The wages of child care workers, even the better than average salaries of municipal child care educators, neither reflect the value that child care workers bring to the lives of children and families, nor do they represent a "living wage" in today's Toronto. Yet those wages, inadequate as they may be, represent approximately three-quarters of the cost that parents pay for child care. Direct government funding of wage subsidies represents on average 24% and 7.7% of an ECE wage in non-profit and commercial centres respectively. Thus, while the part of the wage that is paid by the user is relatively similar between the two sectors ($14.30 for staff in non-profit and $14.04 for staff in commercial centres), the total hourly wage shows a significant 23.3% difference.

Objectives/benchmarks
The answer to improving the quality of child care, including better wages and more trained staff, does not lie in increased user fees. The current system is already divided between people who are well off enough to afford the fees and the low-income families that meet the stringent eligibility criteria for subsidized child care. The benefits of licensed, quality child care remain largely inaccessible to a large proportion of children in middle-income, working families. In the short term, the progress towards a more accessible system that can benefit all that wish to access it lies in:

• updating the subsidy eligibility criteria to reflect urban reality
• restoring and enlarging the number of subsidized spaces
• increasing and equitably distributing wage subsidies
• repairing the child care infrastructure
• adequately funding the cost of quality child care
• monitoring and publishing information on quality of service.

18. Readiness to learn
24% of TDSB elementary schools reported at least one-quarter of their young students as very low readiness scores* in two or more of the domains (See Map 8).

1. physical health/well-being
2. social knowledge and competence
3. emotional health/maturity
4. language and cognitive development
5. communication skills and general knowledge.

Source: Early Development Instrument (EDI) Spring 2003

Importance
Children's readiness for school learning reflects their early development and is a strong predictor of later school achievement. The EDI allows us to see how well communities in Toronto are doing in supporting young children and their families. An extraordinary amount of a child's development is carried out in the first six years of life, and it is important that families have the appropriate resources available to them in their community that support early childhood development to ensure their children are ready for schooling.

Status/trends
In Spring 2003, for the first time in the Toronto District School Board, all 18,000 Junior Kindergarten students from over 380 elementary schools across Toronto were assessed by their teachers using the EDI. Funding for this particular administration was received from Human Resources Development Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of Community, Family and Children's Services.

An analysis of the assessment results indicates that young children's school readiness levels varied significantly from one local community to another. While some neighbourhoods had a large percentage of their four-year-old children assessed as being highly ready for schooling, in other local communities a majority of young children achieved low readiness-to-learn scores.

Key issues
There is a strong relationship between the children's school readiness level and some of the demographic variables such as gender, month of birth, English as a Second Language background, and family socio-economic status (SES). (see following charts)

The percentile scores for the above graphs were based on the Ontario cohort results produced by The Canadian Centre for Studies of Children At Risk.

Services, supports and initiatives
Early childhood experiences that support parents' active participation in their child's early learning are available through: Toronto First Duty Programs, Toronto District School Board Parenting and Family Literacy Centres, quality licensed child care programs and nursery schools, Family Resource Programs, Ontario Early Years Centres and Toronto Public Health. Toronto Parks and Recreation and Library also offer services and programs to support young children and their families.

Since 1997, two former Toronto School Boards (North York and Toronto) participated in the Readiness to Learn Project funded by the federal Human Resources Development Canada. The goal of the project, which was initiated by the Early Years Action Group-North Quadrant of the City of Toronto, was to develop a population-based measure for communities to assess their young children's readiness to learn at school. The Canadian Centre for Studies of Children at Risk (McMaster University) was commissioned to design the instrument with wide consultation from local schools in these two former boards. After over two years of consultation, field-testing and piloting, the measure (Early Development Instrument) was finalized in early 2000. In the same year, over 17,000 Junior and Senior Kindergarten children from nearly 200 elementary schools in both former boards took part in the EDI assessment.

19. Student achievement (EQAO)
In May of each year, the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) administers assessments in reading, writing and mathematics to all students in Grades 3 and 6 in Ontario.

• 41% of all schools (230 out of 559 schools) had more than 70% of students achieving level 3 or 4 in at least one of the assessments

• 26% of schools within low-income areas (48 out of 183 schools) had more than 70% of students achieving level 3 or 4 in at least one of the assessments (see Maps 10 to 15).

The assessment is based on The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8. Student work is evaluated using a four-point scale: Level 1 (below the provincial standard), Level 2 (approaching the standard), Level 3 (meeting the standard) and Level 4 (surpassing the standard).

The Ministry of Education standard for the EQAO assessments is set at Level 3, which corresponds to 70-79%. Level 3 indicates a high level of achievement of the provincial curriculum expectations, and Level 4 indicates a grasp of knowledge and skills that is significantly above average. Therefore, students achieving Levels 3 or 4 in a particular assessment can be assumed to be doing well.

Importance
The purpose of the EQAO assessment is to provide accurate, objective and clear information about student achievement and the quality of publicly funded education in Ontario.

Status/trends
The following table shows a clear difference in Grade 3 student achievement when schools are divided into two groups depending on whether or not they are located in areas of high poverty (a census tract where 30% or more of kids 0-14 years live below LICO). In reading and writing, the proportion of schools located in low-income areas with 70% of the students achieving the standard is less than half the proportion of schools located outside low-income areas. For the math assessment, the proportion is just over half. Clearly, poverty has an impact on school achievement.

However, growing up in poverty does not mean that children cannot do well in school. In fact, some schools that are located in low-income areas had assessment results that were either as good or better than the overall results for the city. Forty-eight schools located in low-income areas (over one-quarter) had 70% or more of their students achieving the standard in at least one assessment.

In 11 of these 48 schools, 70% or more of the students achieved this in two of the assessments and in another 11 of these 48 schools, 70% or more of the students achieved this score in all three assessments (see table below).

The EQAO results also show lower rates of achievement for students whose first language is not English. The above table compares English-as-a-second language (ESL) students versus students whose first language is English. The proportion of ESL students in both grade 3 and 6 assessments who achieved the standard in reading, writing and mathematics was much lower than those of non-ESL students. This speaks to the need for ESL programs in our schools. Map 9 shows the proportions of ESL students in Toronto's elementary schools.

It has been known for some time that a mother's education level is a significant contributor to a child's educational achievement. This factor might be especially important in Toronto with its high rate of immigrants who, despite under-employment and the associated low-income status, are often very well educated. In this context, maternal literacy and level of education are, for a young child, at least as important as fluency in English. Although detailed data linking parents' education and children's EQAO outcomes are not readily available, a reasonable illustration of the relationship can be built by cross-tabulating the percentage of students in any given school who achieved the Level 3 or 4 in any assessment, with the percentage of females in the school's census tract who have accomplished any kind of post-secondary education.

As the table shows, in areas with low female educational achievement levels, only 22.3% of schools fall into the 70% or better achievement category, while for the areas with high educational achievement this level is 70.9%.

Access to school-based and community resources is very important and often a special effort is required to ensure that economic, cultural and literacy barriers do not segregate children and families from the mainstream of supports offered to all residents of Toronto.

Services, supports and initiatives
Leading to Reading
Leading to Reading is a reading support program offered by Toronto Public Library for children in Grades 2 to 6 who can communicate in English but who are reading below their grade level. It provides a chance for children to practice their reading and writing skills. Children and their families are encouraged to get a library card and to borrow library books as part of the Library's efforts to spread the joy of reading.

• The summer program was expanded to 19 locations across Toronto in 2003. Student leaders are hired to conduct the program and provide interesting and fun group activities to stimulate children's interest and love of reading.

• The school-year program was expanded to 32 locations across Toronto in 2003/2004. Children are provided with an hour of one-on-one tutoring and assistance in choosing interesting and appropriate reading materials by a trained community volunteer.

kids@computers
The kids@computers scholarship project offered by the Toronto Social Services in partnership with Toronto Public Library, Toronto Fire Services and other City divisions gives children access to a computer in their home with the intention of supporting success in school. The program provides children whose families are on social assistance with a new computer, a software package and hands-on instruction in using the computer and accessing the on-line resources offered via the Toronto Public Library. Parents or caregivers attend a joint session with their children which introduces Internet safety.

kids@computers is the only program of its kind in North America that combines information literacy training with the donation of new computers, software and support to its participants. kids@computers was presented with the Industry Canada LibraryNet Award for Best Practices in 2002: Innovative Internet Use in Canadian Public Libraries. The program provided for 1,365 children in 2002 and another 546 in the summer of 2003.

Toronto Public Library also offers 1,300 free public access computers with Internet and e-mail workstations at 98 branches across the city. In addition, specialized children's resources are available on-line, and computer instruction is available in the Library's learning centres.

Homework Club
Toronto Public Library's Homework Club (October-May) is a free program offered by the Library to help children with their homework. Children get one-on-one attention and lots of motivation. The club is open to students in Grades 2-6 who can communicate in English.

Each child is paired with a volunteer, and they meet at the library once a week. They join other pairs, and together the group plays learning games to build confidence and make homework fun. Children go home with the tools to learn, read and to meet homework expectations.

Student nutrition programs
Student nutrition programs take place in schools and community centres throughout the city. Studies indicate that the ability of children to learn is closely linked to their level of nutrition. It is estimated that more than one-third of Toronto children come to school with inadequate or no breakfast. These programs are funded and supported through a partnership between the City of Toronto, the Canadian Living Foundation, the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School board, the Toronto Foundation for Student Success, the Metropolitan Catholic Education Foundation, parents and local communities.

For the 2002-2003 school year:

• there were 369 programs (breakfast, lunch and snack) in 228 schools and community sites across the city
• over 90% of programs were in schools
• up to 70,000 students participate daily, an 80% increase since 1998
• the annual aggregate cost of the program is $7.7 million (includes estimated value of in-kind food donations and volunteer hours)
• over 900 volunteers contributed in excess of 180,000 hours.

The Project is in its third year of a five-year project of implementation at five Toronto First Duty Sites (TFD). (www.toronto.ca/firstduty).

The TFD sites incorporate five core elements:

1. Create high quality Learning Environments that combine learning expectations, activities and routines from existing kindergarten, early childhood education/child and parenting /family support programs
2. Develop a Staff Team comprised of teachers, ECEs, parenting workers and teaching assistants that work together to deliver and achieve program goals and address the needs of the whole child
3. A Local Governance structure to determine the allocation of resources, service planning and monitoring and program policies
4. Seamless Access to an expanded and comprehensive early learning and care program - continuum of supports and services for all families and children.

The Toronto First Duty evaluation aims to track the development, implementation and impacts of the sites within the three strands:

• program, policy and services
• children and parents
• community and public awareness.

20. Access to services for children with special needs
On average 0.6% of all children 0-9 years living in Toronto are receiving specialized supports in licensed child care (see Map 16). It is estimated that 10% of children 0-9 years (approximately 30,000 children in Toronto) have some special need and would benefit from specialized support services. Approximately 5% of all children enrolled in licensed child care are receiving specialized services to support their development, and in some instances to assist in securing their child care placement. There are 258 children with special needs currently waiting for subsidized child care. This data reflects the children formally identified as having a special need where a formal request for support has been made. It does not reflect the children who have not been formally identified prior to admission to child care. There are many children who have not been formally identified who attend licensed child care.

Limitations
Ministry data regarding the number of children currently receiving support outside the child care system was not available at the time of this report.

Importance
All children benefit from high quality child care services. This is particularly important for children with special needs as it provides the same opportunity to develop and participate as their peers. Families of children with special needs face unique challenges in gaining access to the child care system, often due to insufficient funding to support their exceptional needs.

Early identification and assessment are important in ensuring children receive the appropriate support services they require to help them reach their optimal development. It is critical that the services are available and accessible to both the child and the service providers supporting them on a daily basis.

Status/trends
Early identification and screening as part of the Healthy Babies/Healthy Children, Toronto Speech and Language Service and the Toronto Preschool Autism Service have increased the number of children requiring formal developmental assessments. This has resulted in more children being referred for specialized services and supports. As wait times increase for developmental assessments, some children become ineligible for treatment due to maturation.

Key issues
While the Ontario Early Years Plan has provided increased funding to preschool children, the funding has been concentrated on targeted programs benefiting only a few for a very short period of time in their development (0-6 years of age). Children who do not meet the criteria for a highly specialized program are often left without service. Furthermore, the lack of a cohesive and accepted definition of "Special Needs" makes policy development in this area and the subsequent development of support services difficult. While the funding for early identification has increased, there has been no increase to the Toronto Children's Services budget to meet increased needs.

The Child Health Network for the Greater Toronto Area has identified a decrease in the number of developmental assessment clinics available in Toronto. This has increased the waitlist time for the existing clinics.

The wait for a developmental assessment is on average two years. The Hospital for Sick Children currently has 900 waiting for a developmental assessment of, which 70% are under six years and 30% are of school age, with 60% of all children with a question of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Assessment time for complex developmental disorders can be as long as three years.

Toronto Children's Services receives $52,000 annually to provide short-term emergency support directed towards maintaining child care placement. Last year, 179 children had access to this funding.

More funding is required to expand the necessary support services for children with special needs. Children with a range of abilities are participating in a variety of services across the city in most cases.

Services, supports and initiatives
Many children have complex behavioural and/or developmental disorders requiring extra staff to reduce the staff-child ratio in the centre, enabling the child to receive the necessary guidance to increase developmental outcomes. Children's Services directly delivers and contracts with 27 agencies to provide support to children with special needs in specialized licensed settings or consultation to children enrolled in regular child care placements. These agencies and the City's directly-operated programs collectively provided support to 3,331 children.

Across the four quadrants of the city, community service providers from Health, Mental Health, Developmental Services and Children's Services are participating in Interagency Co-ordinating Teams.

These multi-disciplinary teams have been instrumental in ensuring families with children with complex needs are referred to and supported by the appropriate agency. This year, Children's Services has hired three service co-ordinators to provide administrative support to the local teams.

In addition to providing service co-ordination to children identified through Children's Services, Client Services Unit, in 2002 the interagency co-ordinating groups serviced 242 children in Toronto.

Objectives/benchmarks
A coordinated process is planned between the Ministry and the City to accurately assess the number of children currently receiving support services, and to determine strategies to ensure more children have access to the services they require for their optimal development.

21. Access to speech and language services

Two key indicators are:

• age at which children with speech and language problems are identified and referred for treatment: in 2002/2003 the average age at referral was 32 months
• number of children identified with speech and language problems, who received services: in 2002/2003, 5,601 preschool children received services

Importance
Communication development is a key indicator for school readiness. Acquiring appropriate communication, speech and language skills early in life is key to developing academic, social and vocational skills.

Research has shown that delays in language development can have a significant impact on cognitive, emotional and psychosocial development. Early identification is crucial to help these children acquire communication and language skills early in life. This is crucial to successfully developing academic, social and vocational skills.

Status/trends
The Toronto Preschool Speech and Language Services is part of a province wide initiative, funded by the Ontario provincial government, designed to identify and provide services for children between birth and five years of age, with speech and language needs. In Toronto, this program has operated since September 1998.

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care's "Planning Guidelines for the Development of a Speech and Language Services System for Preschool Children," published in 1996, stated that the "accepted prevalence rate of these (speech, language and communication) disorders among preschool children is 10%." It also stated that "a communication disorder can range in severity from mild to profound and it may be developmental or acquired." In Toronto, that translates to potentially 17,000 preschool children being at risk for developing speech, language or communication problems.

For a larger view, please click on chart

Key issues
There are several key issues and/or challenges facing the Toronto Preschool Speech and Language Services System:

• staffing and funding levels make it a challenge to respond to the volume and complexity of referrals in a timely fashion
• shortage of qualified Speech and Language Pathologists in the province
• providing services to the large numbers of children referred with multiple developmental, cognitive and physical needs
• providing service coordination as well as speech and language intervention
• responding to and supporting the multicultural and language needs of the families and children living in Toronto
• developing an evaluation process that will examine the outcomes of service delivery.

Services, supports and initiatives
The Toronto Preschool Speech and Language Services, managed by Toronto Public Health, is funded to provide these services in Toronto. Toronto Public Health has developed service contracts with a variety of service providers across the City to deliver these services. The goal is to deliver services as close to where the family lives as possible. Services were delivered in over 430 sites across Toronto in 2002/2003. These services are offered in child care programs, early years centres, hospitals, drop-in programs, family resource programs, community health centres and other neighbourhood centres.

The Toronto Preschool Speech and Language Services system blends/integrates existing speech and language resources with the new funding provided by the provincial preschool speech and language initiative.

Services are delivered from four quadrants and several city-wide agencies. The four local quadrant coordinating agencies are

• East - The Rouge Valley Health System
• North - North York General Hospital
• South - The Hanen Centre
• West - The George Hull Centre for Children and Families