Toronto child care ratings on the web

Community Action, Feb 20, 2008

Parents can now review inspection ratings at child care services that have contracts with the City of Toronto. The city's Children Services made this possible on a new web site that is publicly available. Toronto is the first city in Canada to provide such information through the interact.

Each year the city conducts at least two random spot checks of the child care services, including centres, family and family home care, rating them for:

* program content and development;

* health & safety standards of the physical facility;

* training, experience and stability of caregivers;

* group size--ratio of children to caregivers;

* family involvement in the program;

* sound management practices.

Children Services has 22 inspectors on its staff to review more than 900 centers.

The rating system measures 650 of the 900 daycares that receive funding for subsidized spaces. Twenty-two staffers conduct inspections every year, but this is first time the information is being made public.

www.toronto.ca/children.html