A daycare in Medicine Hat is pictured in an undated photo

By Charles Lefebvre

Program ending

Province dropping early childhood education accreditation

Mar 2, 2020 | 3:43 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The province is officially ending its early childhood education accreditation in Alberta next month, CHAT News has confirmed.

The decision, first reported in the Edmonton Journal, will take effect on April 1, Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Children’s Services, said in a statement.

“Eliminating accreditation lets child care providers spend more time with kids and families,” the statement reads. “Child care centre operators and workers have been clear that the accreditation process added unnecessary red tape, causing workers to spend hundreds of hours on paperwork rather than focusing on care for children.”

The decision will save the province $3 million per year, Schulz’s office confirmed.

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Childcare centres have to meet minimum safety standards for licensing, which Schulz’s office says will not change.

“The safety of our children continues to be our highest priority,” the statement reads. “That’s why licensing officers will continue to enforce safety rules and regulations in licensed childcare centres and licensed family day homes.

Accreditation differs from licensing by putting a focus on the child’s development and positive relationships with educators and caregivers.

Jennifer Usher, coordinator with the Medicine Hat and District Child Care Association, says providers were not consulted about the changes.

She adds she’s concerned the quality of early childhood education is going to decline.

“Programs will no longer be held accountable for the quality they’re providing, except for those minimum licensing standards, so we’re really worried for children and families that they won’t be able to find accessible, affordable quality child care,” she said.

Usher adds parents of children who use the programs need to be vigilant and examine the programs children are enrolled in.

“Accreditation is a process through which research and best practice was communicated to child care centres,” she said. “We won’t have that same kind of communications to programs that these are the standards of excellence you should be reaching for.”

In speaker with providers, Usher says ones in southern Alberta that received accredited status will attempt to maintain the same level of quality, even though the program is ending.

“We definitely don’t want to see children and families noticing any kind of major change, but you just don’t know, because that inspiration is going to be gone, that motivation for maintaining that high quality has been taken away with this cut,” she said.

Schulz’s statement notes the province will be reviewing the Child Care Licensing Act later this year, and will take accreditation changes into effect.