Families with children with complex needs being left behind

HALIFAX - Children who have complex needs are being left behind by the Liberal government’s failure to develop a plan for child care for school aged children.

“There are basically no good options for families whose children require special support,” said NDP Education and Early Childhood Development spokesperson Claudia Chender. “At the best of times there are limited child care and support options for these families. In the current situation many children and families are falling through the cracks, often with one parent being forced to exit the workforce to provide child care.”

Kaitlin lives in Dartmouth. She has two school-aged children. This is her story:

“People seem to not understand that school-aged children aren’t able to attend childcare centres, and that there’s a large gap between the ages of daycare children and children who are able to care for themselves. My children are 5 and 8, and one of them has some extraordinary behavioural needs. There are no options for me currently. We have no plan. My plan is to continue to struggle to care for them while I work at home, alone. Apart from being an impossible feat as a parent, this circumstance is developmentally and socially inappropriate for children.”

Families in Nova Scotia have been left on their own to figure out child care for school aged children since schools were closed, and have no idea what to expect in September. Due to the government’s lack of a plan for child care fewer day camps are operating this summer and those that are open are limited to the number of children they can accept. With fewer spots, there are fewer opportunities for programming for children who require supports, and finding those spots is becoming harder and harder.

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