THREAD

There is an avalanche of hard things going on right now re COVID, #UnsafeSeptemberON and #childcare in #Ontario, but, I want to alert @PaulaFletcherTO, @kristynwongtam, @m_layton and @Peter_Tabuns to a particular wrinkle in this landscape re daycares. (1/5)

I have spoken to many parents whose daycares have said that they will they lose their spot if their child does not return to care on Sept 1, AND that they will not receive their enrollment deposit back either, because most daycare contracts require 60 days notice. (2/5)

The thing is that the decision to allow centres to return to full capacity for September 1, 2020 was only announced on July 30, 2020. It was impossible for any parent to give 60 days notice in advance of September 1, 2020. (3/5)

Despite this, I haven& #39;t heard of any provider returning an enrollment deposit. I think some have agreed to apply the deposit to a future enrollment, when and if the child decides to return to care. But there is no guarantee that there would be a spot to do so. (4/5)

Parents are already bearing the psychological and financial brunt of the pandemic in so many ways. Can anyone find a way to address this particularly frustrating issue so that parents do not have to pay significant sums of money to *not* send their children to daycare? (5/5)