Glossary of Terms and Definitions

Here are explanations of some of the common terms and definitions that relate to child care in Ontario.

Age groupings in child care:

Infant. A child under 18 months of age.

Toddler. A child from 18 months to 30 months of age.

Preschool. A child from 31 months up to and including 5 years of age.

Junior/Senior Kindergarten. A child 44 months of age or over and up to and including 67 months of age as of August 31 of the year, who is eligible for junior or senior kindergarten school attendance.

Senior Kindergarten. A child 56 months of age or over and up to and including 67 months of age as of August 31 of the year who is eligible for senior kindergarten school attendance.

School Age. A child 68 months of age or over as of August 31 of the year (who is eligible for Grade one attendance) and up to and including 12 years of age as of August 31 of the year.

Mixed age grouping. In some cases, the ministry will allow up to 20% of children in one age group to be combined with another age group. This occurs to allow children from one age group to transition into the next older age group and to allow for family groupings.

Child care. The temporary care and supervision of children by a caregiver. In Ontario, child care can be unlicensed or licensed. Licensed child care centres provide child care for more than five children under 10 years of age who are not related. The Ministry of Children and Youth Services also licenses day nurseries for children with a developmental disability up to the age of 18. Licensed private-home day care agencies contract with individual caregivers who use their own homes to look after up to five children under 10 years of age.

Child Care Service System Managers. Consolidated Municipal Service Managers (municipalities) and District Social Service Administration Boards are responsible for planning and managing the delivery of child care services in their areas.

Centre-based child care. These programs operate in a variety of settings including workplaces, public buildings, schools and places of worship. They include nursery schools, full day care, extended day care, and before and after school programs. Child care centres are referred to as day nurseries in the Day Nurseries Act.

Compliance. When the requirements of the Day Nurseries Act have been met. If requirements are not met, the program is considered to be in "non-compliance".

Day Nurseries Act. This is the legislation that regulates licensed child care in Ontario. The act sets out the requirements that a licensed child care operator has to meet in order to operate. These requirements help protect the health, safety and well-being of children.

Director's Approval. Under some provisions of the Day Nurseries Act, a Director,who is an employee of MCYS, has discretion to specify the requirements that a program must meet. An example would be an approval of mixed age grouping of children in a child care centre.

Home-based child care. See Private-home day care.

'Illegal' child care: When operators of an unlicensed child care program are found to be offering care to more than five children under 10 years of age or are operating a private-home day care agency without a licence, they may be charged with the offence of operating a day nursery or a private-home day care agency without a licence. Persons operating a day nursery or a private-home day care agency without a licence may be convicted of an offence under the Day Nurseries Act and if convicted fined up to $2,000 per day for each day that the activity is conducted.

Language of Service Delivery. The licensed child care operator may offer service in English, French or both languages. The operator can choose either language to correspond with the ministry.

Licence. The licence is the document that the Ministry of Children and Youth Services issues to the operator providing the authority to operate the child care program. A licence can be regular or provisional and may have terms and conditions.

Licence Appeal Tribunal. The Licence Appeal Tribunal is an agency that provides a means to appeal decisions concerning licensing activities regulated by the MCYS.

If a child care operator disagrees with the decision of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services concerning the status of its licence, the operator can appeal the decision to the Tribunal. At the hearing, the Tribunal can uphold the ministry's decision or substitute its own decision.
For more information, visit the Licence Appeal Tribunal website.

Licensed Capacity. This is the maximum number of children that may be in attendance at any one time. In a child care centre, the capacity is specified on a location's licence. In home-based child care, provided in association with a licensed agency, the number of children under 6 years of age, including the children of caregiver who are under 6, cannot exceed 5. The caregiver can have five children even if she has children under 6 years of age because some of the children may be over age 6.

Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS). The Ontario Government ministry that has responsibility for monitoring and inspecting licensed child care programs to determine if they are meeting the requirements of the Day Nurseries Act. The ministry also investigates complaints about unlicensed child care.

Operator. An individual or corporation who holds the licence for a child care centre or private-home day care agency.

Private-home day care. Also referred to as home-based child care. This is child care that is provided in a private residence other than the home of the children. Licensed private-home day care agencies contract with individual caregivers who use their own homes to look after up to five children under 10 years of age. The agency screens, approves and monitors caregivers.

Program advisor. An employee of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services who is authorized under section 16 of the Day Nurseries Act to inspect licensed child care programs and investigate complaints about unlicensed child care centres. In some areas of the province, these employees may be called licensing specialists.

Provisional licence. A provisional licence is issued when a child care program has not met all the licensing requirements of the Day Nurseries Act when last inspected. When this happens, the program may be given a short period of time to meet the licensing requirements. If it meets the requirements at the time of the next licensing inspection, the program may be given a regular licence. A provisional licence appears in yellow.

Regional Office. The MCYS office responsible for licensing child care programs, responding to complaints about child care programs, investigating allegations of programs operating without a licence and contracting with municipalities.

Regular licence. A regular licence is issued when the child care program has met the licensing requirements of the Day Nurseries Act when last inspected. A regular licence may be issued for a period of up to one year.

Suspended licence. The Ministry of Children and Youth Services can suspend a program's licence if there is a threat to the health, safety or welfare of the children. When this happens, the location cannot operate until the operator complies with the "Notice of Direction" from the ministry and the program remains closed. If the operator complies with the Notice of Direction, the suspension is removed and the program can re-open. The operator of the program has the right to request a hearing before the Licence Appeal Tribunal.

Terms and Conditions. Terms and conditions are requirements prescribed by a Director and are additional to the requirements of the Day Nurseries Act. They may reflect circumstances specific to the operation, such as half day or 10 month service. They may also be in place to minimize the recurrence of a non-compliance, such as incomplete staff medical records.

Unlicensed child care. In Ontario, caregivers may look after five or fewer children under 10 years of age without a day nursery licence. Unlicensed child care arrangements are privately made between the parents and the caregiver. Another name for unlicensed child care is informal child care.