September is a time of new beginnings. As a new school year starts, children and families settle into new routines, meet new teachers and support staff, and look ahead to the year to come.
This also brings the opportunity to reflect on what is working well, what could be better, and what children and families need to feel welcomed, supported, and included.
For families of children with disabilities, the new school year can bring excitement and possibility, but it can also highlight barriers that have been present for years. Transitions, staff changes, limited supports, inaccessible environments, and a lack of coordination between child care, schools, and other services can make what should be an exciting transition feel uncertain and overwhelming.
This September, we want to open that conversation beyond the classroom and look at inclusive child care.
Building a Child Care System That Works for Every Child
The province has made significant commitments to expanding access to child care in British Columbia. More recently, the province has paused to re-evaluate aspects of the BC Child Care plan to make the system more equitable. BC has also renewed its agreement with the federal government, with additional federal funding for child care available on top of the renewed agreement. These investments create an important opportunity.
As decisions about the future of child care in BC are made, we need to ensure that the experiences and needs of children with disabilities are clearly a part of the conversation.
Families continue to tell us about the barriers they face in accessing child care, including difficulty finding programs that can meet their child’s needs, limited availability of supports, uncertainty about who is responsible for providing those supports, long waitlists, and situations where families may be offered access to a child care space but not the supports necessary for their child to participate equitably. Access to a child care space is not the same as access to inclusive child care.
Our goal is to ensure that any steps taken around child care genuinely consider the needs of children with disabilities and advance truly inclusive child care. Spaces that welcome all children and have the supports necessary for equitable access and meaningful participation.
This is why our Position Statement on Access to Early Learning and Child Care is an important part of our ongoing advocacy. We believe inclusion cannot be an afterthought or addressed only when a family encounters a barrier. It needs to be built into the design, funding, planning, and delivery of child care from the outset.
More Spaces in Schools Must Also Mean More Inclusive Spaces
Part of the province’s strategy is to expand early learning and child care, including school-age child care, on school grounds. This gives everyone a great opportunity to ensure inclusion is thoughtfully planned into that expansion.
At the start of this school year, Inclusion BC reached out directly to school district leaders and school trustees across the province with a letter inviting them to bring disability inclusion to the front of the conversation.
We recognize the important role school districts are playing in expanding access to early learning and child care. Increasing the availability of high-quality child care can have a significant positive impact on children, families, and communities.
But we also want to ask an important question:
As we create more child care spaces, are we also protecting and expanding inclusive child care spaces?
A strong child care system must have access and inclusion.
Expanding the number of spaces without addressing the barriers experienced by children with disabilities risks creating a system where access improves for some while others continue to be excluded.
With the Province re-evaluating aspects of its child care plan, a renewed federal-provincial agreement, and additional funding available for child care, now is an important time to make sure inclusion is at the centre of the conversation.
This September, as we welcome a new school year, let’s also renew our commitment to building a child care system where every child belongs.
This article was featured in our monthly newsletter, Inclusion in Action.
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