As two-income households become increasingly common in Canada, the number of children requiring care before or after school has grown.
Often, this presents challenges for parents.
“Most jobs do not fit with the school day,” says Rhonda Breitkreuz, a professor of human ecology at the University of Alberta. “A parent might need to be at work at 8 a.m., school doesn’t start till maybe 8:55 a.m. — so there’s a gap there.
“Or the school day ends anywhere between, say, 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., but a parent might work till 5 p.m.”
Research shows many parents are patching together child-care solutions for their school-aged kids. Meanwhile, the effects of before- or after-school on children are not well understood.
There is a lack of research surrounding child care for children who still require “adult supervision, but [whose] parents are likely to be at work,” said Breitkreuz.
“We know that there’s a big gap there.”
Working moms
The breadwinner model, where a father financially supports the home while the mother stays at home with the kids, has become more rare in recent decades. In 2022, about 70 per cent of all Canadian families were dual income — up from 36 per cent in 1976.
The vast majority of mothers of young kids are in the workforce.
According to a 2021 government report, 76 per cent of mothers of children aged zero to three work. That figure rises to 84 per cent for mothers of kids aged six to 12.
“So child care is a very salient issue in Canada,” said Breitkreuz.
Breitkreuz co-authored a 2019 study on Alberta families with kids who need child care. It found parents assumed most of the responsibility of caring for their kids, but filled in the gaps with a mix of informal and formal arrangements. These arrangement often include relatives, neighbours, babysitters or formal programs at schools.
This process of securing and managing child care is “gendered, often invisible, and require[s] substantial accommodations and flexibility by mothers,” the study concludes.
Parents — and especially mothers — who struggle to line up appropriate care may put off returning to work or leave their jobs altogether, says Breitkreuz.
In a 2022 Statistics Canada survey, 28 per cent of parents of children aged four to 12 reported having difficulty finding child care, versus 41 per cent of parents of children under five.
Surprisingly, the survey revealed the consequences of failing to find care were more severe for parents of the older kid cohort. These consequences included working fewer hours, using work leave to care for kids and declining work altogether.
Two years ago, Ottawa launched its nationally subsidized child-care program. As it stated at the time, one of the goals of the program is to increase women’s participation in the workforce. This program is only open to children under six.
For parents of older kids, the most common form of before- and after- school care is programs within schools. In their coverage, these programs are similar to daycare programs for little kids: they typically cover the hours 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and cost between $6 and $50 a day for every child.
Gabrielle Garon-Carrier, a family researcher and education professor at the Université de Sherbrooke, says more research is needed on whether these before- and after- school programs are accessible for families.
Such research could help policymakers and child-care providers know whether there are gaps in accessible care, she says.
Dysregulation
However, making formal care programs more accessible could have trade-offs.
Melanie Toews, a public school teacher in rural Manitoba, says she sees these tradeoffs in the kindergarten classroom she leads. Canadian Affairs agreed to not identify Toews by her real name due to concerns of professional repercussions.
Toews says she has noticed that her students who spend significant time in before- or after-school programs are more tired.
“What does this fatigue lead to? I would certainly say dysregulation,” said Toews. “When you’re tired, you cannot control your feelings and emotions as easily.”
“And so out of a class of 20, the handful that are in before- and after-school care are the ones … doing far more attention-seeking behavior. They’re definitely the ones that have a harder time focusing.”
Before-and-after school care “is not that covered in the literature on child development,” says Garon-Carrier. “It’s less documented.”
If policymakers were to expand coverage of this form of care, understanding the effects on child development would be important.
“There is such a thing as too much social interaction,” says Toews. “You don’t get those breaks away from people in a daycare setting.”
