Parents across GTA snap up full-day kindergarten spots
March 9, 2010
Kristin Rushowy
EDUCATION REPORTER
Full-day kindergarten spots are being snapped up across Greater Toronto, with demand particularly high in a few communities, school boards report.
Ross Virgo, spokesman for the York Region District School Board, said even though some schools are already oversubscribed, all students will be accommodated where they registered.
"We do not anticipate the need for any displacement of kids," he said, adding one school in Newmarket projected 75 students but already has 84 enrolled.
In Thornhill, another hot spot, a school with 52 spots has 68 children registered.
Virgo said the board has heard, anecdotally, that some of the children signing up otherwise would have gone to private schools.
Full-day kindergarten will be phased in across the province over the next six years, beginning this fall at almost 600 elementary schools with spots for 35,000 kids.
It's to be taught by a teacher and the equivalent of a full-time early childhood educator, with class size bumped to 26 from the current 20.
The program means 4- and 5-year-olds will be in school for a full day, instead of the current half day most boards offer. Before- and after-school care will be provided, for a fee, should enough parents request it.
When fully implemented in 2016, the province estimates the cost to be $1.5 billion a year, which has been criticized as too costly during tough economic times.
Other critics have pointed out that boards don't have to provide care during the March Break or summer, which will leave parents in a bind.
York Region's public board projected it would have 1,800 full-day kindergarten students enrolled for September. Registration began last month and already 1,550 have signed up.
Toronto's Catholic board says it will have a better handle on enrolment patterns this week, and it will then turn its attention to staffing needs.
Superintendent of education Colleen Tovey-Shackleton, said the 28 schools have been asking parents about their interest in before- and after-school care, which the province has said must be provided if enough families ask for it.
Halton's Catholic board found demand in Milton, a growing community, to be "extraordinary," said spokesperson Chris Jewell, but slower in older, established areas like Burlington.
Toronto Star