Shaping Care:
Ontario Policies and ECE Advocacy
Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) in Ontario are deeply affected by the policies that shape the way they conduct practice as well as how their well-being is impacted.
CWELCC
CCEYA
AECEO
Shaping Care:
Impacts on ECEs and Student Educators
Understanding the policies, and the role the AECEO has in advocating for positive change, is essential for everyone in the sector.
Whether you are an experienced educator or a student new to the field, policies affect everyone, and it is important to recognize how they impact YOU.
CCEYA
CWELCC
AECEO
Shaping Care:
Who supports you
The AECEO has been supporting early childhood educators since 1950. They have valued their work for 75 years and actively work towards bettering the lives and working conditions of early childhood educators. Through community building, government relations, policy work, campaigns, and professional learning, the AECEO fights for respect, recognition, professional wages and decent working conditions.
AECEO
CCEYA
CWELCC
The CCEYA: How does it affect you?
The CCEYA impacts both working ECEs and student educators by setting provincial standards for child care in Ontario.
- It outlines the regulations and compliance requirements that all educators must follow. The Act also details penalties for violations and emphasizes the importance of continuous professional learning opportunities regarding staff training and development.
- Students are impacted by these regulations because they are being sent to placement experiences in child care where the educators are obligated to follow the procedures from the CCEYA, like staff to child ratios, and students new to the field must follow the same policies, whether they align with their values or not.
The AECEO: How does their work affect you?
For educators and students, it is important to recognize who supports you, and how they do it. The AECEO collects and shares information on relevant policies, advocating with the provincial government to promote program quality through compensation and working conditions. They do this through supporting CARE collectives, which are local identity based collectives that provide a space for empowerment, advocacy, recognition, and community. They create spaces for educators to come together and care outloud. In total, the AECEO supports ten collectives, which include the Community of Black ECEs, Student Early Childhood Educators of Ontario, and the Early Years Coalition Waterloo Region.
After learning about what the AECEO is, and how they can impact your work, it is important to highlight how they support you. In this section, you will learn about how the AECEO has been involved in or influenced CWELCC or the CCEYA through their work with educators. Below, you can find the links to the AECEO instagram page and website to learn more!
In this infographic, you will find two key pieces of legislation that directly impact YOU as an educator, or as a student. The Child Care and Early Years Act (CCEYA), as well as the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) agreement shape and proctor how you give care and education to the children and families you work with. The Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO), a professional organization that supports educators as well as advocates for changes to the pieces of legislation that govern your work, will also be covered in hopes to inform on how change can happen. Click through the '+" signs to gain information on what each topic is, does, can do for you, and their connection to advocacy.
CWELCC: What is it?
The Canada-Wide Early Learning for Child Care agreement is a national program that moves for licensed child care to be accessible, inclusive, and affordable. The CWELCC agreement was created to give families access to more affordable child care options while also receiving high quality care. The agreement aims to increase child care spaces and opportunities for inclusion while supporting educators. Ontario’s action plan is focused on lowering fees, increasing access, enhancing the quality of care, supporting inclusion, and enhancing data and reporting.
The AECEO: What is it?
The Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario is a professional association that represents ECEs in Ontario. They are known for being advocates for respect, recognition, and professional wages and decent working conditions for all ECEs. Their mission is to build and support a strong collective voice for educators so they can engage in positive changes in the sector for ECEs, children and their families.
The AECEO: How can they help you?
The Association for Early Childhood Educators Ontario is an inclusive organization that strives to make work better for every educator. The work they do when partnering with organizations like the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, or supporting their many associated care collectives, is meant to reach people who also believe that ECEs and early learning and child care are important and valuable. While it may not seem like we have a choice as educators, changes and impacts to the CCEYA and CWELCC have been made through collective action. The AECEO has shown that while these policies are made by the government, with a strong collective voice and advocacy actions, policies can change. For educators and students who want to make a difference in the sector, becoming a member of the AECEO or an AECEO CARE collective is one step closer to an enriched early learning sector. It could be a sector that not only focuses on the well-being of children and their families and how care is provided, but recognizes the importance of the work educators do, and that without them and their sustained well-being, there would be no care.
The CCEYA: What is it?
The Child Care and Early Years Act is legislation created in 2015 by the Ministry of Education in Ontario. Originally the Day Nursery Act, the CCEYA sets the standards for ensuring the safety and well-being of children, provides oversight for child care providers, and can be used to help parents make informed decisions about child care options. The CCEYA was created for multiple purposes. It mainly outlines the guidelines ECEs must follow when supporting children's health, safety, and well-being. It is also a framework for educators to follow regarding how to regulate child care services as well as establishing the rules for licensing, compliance, and funding requirements.
CWELCC: How does it affect you?
The CWELCC agreement originally focused on reducing the fees for child care and expanding access for families through the creation of additional spaces. The original document did not include any commitments to improving the working conditions and support educators receive, even though it acknowledged how educators played a vital role in delivering quality care. Early childhood educators have since experienced increased expectations without guaranteed improvements to their spaces or resources. For student educators, this means entering a field that is undergoing change, where the value of ECEs is being increasingly recognized, but the conditions to sustain that recognition are still being built.
The CCEYA: How is the AECEO connected?
In 2020, the government of Ontario proposed changes to the CCEYA that would force younger children to be placed in larger groups with fewer qualified staff, skewing ratio requirements. The AECEO demonstrated concern with merging the infant and toddler age groups, proposing risks to quality and safety. To advocate in opposition to these changes, the AECEO launched a survey on their website to gather the perspectives and opinions from working ECEs. Without organizations like the AECEO, advocating against changes such as these, centres would have become overcrowded with not enough ECEs to provide meaningful care. Here is a link to the CCEYA document from the Government of Ontario:
CWELCC: How is the AECEO connected?
The AECEO is known to advocate for decent work, fair wages, and the recognition of ECEs, which closely aligns with the goals of CWELCC. In response to the agreement, the AECEO created a document titled, The Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario. The document highlights the need for an equitable system in Ontario that puts the needs of not only children and their families first, but brings the well-being of educators to the forefront. The roadmap outlines the need for strategies that reflect the circumstances the sector faces currently. Here is a link to the Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario through the AECEO, with an updated version coming soon:
In this section, you will discover how the CCEYA and CWELCC affect you while working in the field, as well as how the AECEO works to support educators through advocacy and CARE collectives. These policies shape your day-to-day experiences, from working conditions to access to professional learning, the AECEO ensures that your voice is heard in decisions that impact your role and well-being.
Shaping Care: Ontario Policies and ECE Advocacy
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Transcript
Shaping Care:
Ontario Policies and ECE Advocacy
Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) in Ontario are deeply affected by the policies that shape the way they conduct practice as well as how their well-being is impacted.
CWELCC
CCEYA
AECEO
Shaping Care:
Impacts on ECEs and Student Educators
Understanding the policies, and the role the AECEO has in advocating for positive change, is essential for everyone in the sector.
Whether you are an experienced educator or a student new to the field, policies affect everyone, and it is important to recognize how they impact YOU.
CCEYA
CWELCC
AECEO
Shaping Care:
Who supports you
The AECEO has been supporting early childhood educators since 1950. They have valued their work for 75 years and actively work towards bettering the lives and working conditions of early childhood educators. Through community building, government relations, policy work, campaigns, and professional learning, the AECEO fights for respect, recognition, professional wages and decent working conditions.
AECEO
CCEYA
CWELCC
The CCEYA: How does it affect you?
The CCEYA impacts both working ECEs and student educators by setting provincial standards for child care in Ontario.
The AECEO: How does their work affect you?
For educators and students, it is important to recognize who supports you, and how they do it. The AECEO collects and shares information on relevant policies, advocating with the provincial government to promote program quality through compensation and working conditions. They do this through supporting CARE collectives, which are local identity based collectives that provide a space for empowerment, advocacy, recognition, and community. They create spaces for educators to come together and care outloud. In total, the AECEO supports ten collectives, which include the Community of Black ECEs, Student Early Childhood Educators of Ontario, and the Early Years Coalition Waterloo Region.
After learning about what the AECEO is, and how they can impact your work, it is important to highlight how they support you. In this section, you will learn about how the AECEO has been involved in or influenced CWELCC or the CCEYA through their work with educators. Below, you can find the links to the AECEO instagram page and website to learn more!
In this infographic, you will find two key pieces of legislation that directly impact YOU as an educator, or as a student. The Child Care and Early Years Act (CCEYA), as well as the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) agreement shape and proctor how you give care and education to the children and families you work with. The Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO), a professional organization that supports educators as well as advocates for changes to the pieces of legislation that govern your work, will also be covered in hopes to inform on how change can happen. Click through the '+" signs to gain information on what each topic is, does, can do for you, and their connection to advocacy.
CWELCC: What is it?
The Canada-Wide Early Learning for Child Care agreement is a national program that moves for licensed child care to be accessible, inclusive, and affordable. The CWELCC agreement was created to give families access to more affordable child care options while also receiving high quality care. The agreement aims to increase child care spaces and opportunities for inclusion while supporting educators. Ontario’s action plan is focused on lowering fees, increasing access, enhancing the quality of care, supporting inclusion, and enhancing data and reporting.
The AECEO: What is it?
The Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario is a professional association that represents ECEs in Ontario. They are known for being advocates for respect, recognition, and professional wages and decent working conditions for all ECEs. Their mission is to build and support a strong collective voice for educators so they can engage in positive changes in the sector for ECEs, children and their families.
The AECEO: How can they help you?
The Association for Early Childhood Educators Ontario is an inclusive organization that strives to make work better for every educator. The work they do when partnering with organizations like the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, or supporting their many associated care collectives, is meant to reach people who also believe that ECEs and early learning and child care are important and valuable. While it may not seem like we have a choice as educators, changes and impacts to the CCEYA and CWELCC have been made through collective action. The AECEO has shown that while these policies are made by the government, with a strong collective voice and advocacy actions, policies can change. For educators and students who want to make a difference in the sector, becoming a member of the AECEO or an AECEO CARE collective is one step closer to an enriched early learning sector. It could be a sector that not only focuses on the well-being of children and their families and how care is provided, but recognizes the importance of the work educators do, and that without them and their sustained well-being, there would be no care.
The CCEYA: What is it?
The Child Care and Early Years Act is legislation created in 2015 by the Ministry of Education in Ontario. Originally the Day Nursery Act, the CCEYA sets the standards for ensuring the safety and well-being of children, provides oversight for child care providers, and can be used to help parents make informed decisions about child care options. The CCEYA was created for multiple purposes. It mainly outlines the guidelines ECEs must follow when supporting children's health, safety, and well-being. It is also a framework for educators to follow regarding how to regulate child care services as well as establishing the rules for licensing, compliance, and funding requirements.
CWELCC: How does it affect you?
The CWELCC agreement originally focused on reducing the fees for child care and expanding access for families through the creation of additional spaces. The original document did not include any commitments to improving the working conditions and support educators receive, even though it acknowledged how educators played a vital role in delivering quality care. Early childhood educators have since experienced increased expectations without guaranteed improvements to their spaces or resources. For student educators, this means entering a field that is undergoing change, where the value of ECEs is being increasingly recognized, but the conditions to sustain that recognition are still being built.
The CCEYA: How is the AECEO connected?
In 2020, the government of Ontario proposed changes to the CCEYA that would force younger children to be placed in larger groups with fewer qualified staff, skewing ratio requirements. The AECEO demonstrated concern with merging the infant and toddler age groups, proposing risks to quality and safety. To advocate in opposition to these changes, the AECEO launched a survey on their website to gather the perspectives and opinions from working ECEs. Without organizations like the AECEO, advocating against changes such as these, centres would have become overcrowded with not enough ECEs to provide meaningful care. Here is a link to the CCEYA document from the Government of Ontario:
CWELCC: How is the AECEO connected?
The AECEO is known to advocate for decent work, fair wages, and the recognition of ECEs, which closely aligns with the goals of CWELCC. In response to the agreement, the AECEO created a document titled, The Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario. The document highlights the need for an equitable system in Ontario that puts the needs of not only children and their families first, but brings the well-being of educators to the forefront. The roadmap outlines the need for strategies that reflect the circumstances the sector faces currently. Here is a link to the Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario through the AECEO, with an updated version coming soon:
In this section, you will discover how the CCEYA and CWELCC affect you while working in the field, as well as how the AECEO works to support educators through advocacy and CARE collectives. These policies shape your day-to-day experiences, from working conditions to access to professional learning, the AECEO ensures that your voice is heard in decisions that impact your role and well-being.