Daycares struggling
Yellowknife's two day care centres have seen a significant drop in enrolment since school districts opened preschools three years ago
Candace Thomson
Northern News Services
Published Friday, October 11, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
New parents might think day cares are thriving because of steadfast wait lists for children under two years of age, but operators say they are struggling to fill spaces for all other age groups.
Vetunga Kaangundue, a day care teacher at Kids Corner in Niven Lake, supervises children in the facility's outdoor playground on the afternoon of Oct. 8. Day cares in Yellowknife are struggling, despite long waiting lists for one-year-old children, to keep their enrolment up since the arrival of school-run preschools three years ago. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo |
Both the downtown Yellowknife Day Care Association and Kids Corner in Niven Lake have a limited number of spaces available for children up to 23 months of age because of strict regulations set for that age group by the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment.
"It's the criteria that doesn't allow us to have many babies," said Marine Voskanyan of the Yellowknife Day Care Association. "We might be able to have 60 kids but we don't have the settings to create more baby rooms since they have to have a different environment."
Kid's Corner can take up to four children under two, and the Yellowknife Day Care can take eight. The younger children need a separate, quiet space with cribs, changing tables and other specialized care items.
The wait lists at both facilities are always full for this age group, and many families sign their child up before they are born. For those stuck on the list, their only options are putting their child into one of Yellowknife's 40 registered day homes, or waiting for the child to turn two.
"Basically, the parents are waiting for the children currently in the program to get old enough to move into the two-year-old group," said Kathryn Watkins, executive director of Kids Corner.
Waiting lists for the three to five age group have dropped off and day cares are finding it hard to keep a full staff because parents are choosing preschool programs each September, Watkins said.
"Our facility was more to capacity before they opened the preschools three years ago," Watkins said. "It's hard on the day cares because our budget is based upon the number of students we have. We have to lay off one teacher and operate with one fewer staff member until the enrolment goes back up in the spring."
The Yellowknife Day Care Association is experiencing the same struggle, according to Voskanyan.
"(The preschools) have definitely affected us," she said. "Since they opened we can see the difference, we definitely used to have waiting lists for all age groups and now we don't."
Voskanyan said it's ultimately the parent's choice where they send their children.
Preschools offered by the school districts are roughly $300 cheaper per month.
The preschools, however, have shorter days. Preschools in both school districts open at 8 a.m. and close at 3:30 p.m. where day cares are open by 7:45 a.m. and stay open until 5:30 p.m.
"For parents working a nine-to-five job our hours work better, but parents with more flexible schedules might be fine with the shorter preschool days," said Voskanyan.
"We offer everything that a preschool does. The children learn the same things and get that social exposure, we just don't do it in a self-contained classroom with huge expensive materials," Watkins said.
Parents who are looking for a more family-oriented experience for their children might choose day homes instead, but Voskanyan said the atmosphere between day homes and day cares is completely different, so the surplus of day homes doesn't affect them as much as the preschools do.
Watkins agreed and said the number of day homes doesn't bother her.
"There have always been lots of day homes in Yellowknife and they're pretty much always full," she said. "Day homes have more of a family model. Often, when children turn two their parents bring them to day cares instead because they want their child to socialize within their own age group and learn about self-discipline, routines and that kind of thing."
