Administrative penalties for child care providers
Find out what child care providers, home child care agencies and child care centres need to know about the penalties that help us ensure compliance with child care legislation.
Enforcing child care rules
In Ontario, child care providers must follow the rules set out in the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 (CCEYA) and its regulations. The act helps to support the health, safety and well-being of children and child care providers in child care settings.
The CCEYA gives the Ministry of Education enforcement tools to encourage compliance in the unlicensed and licensed child care sectors, including:
- compliance orders
- protection orders
- administrative penalties
- prosecution
- prosecution of offences under the act
Whenever appropriate, we will take a progressive approach to enforcement, starting first by providing clarity to child care providers, staff and licensees on the rules set out in the legislation. Ministry staff including program advisors and regulatory compliance officers can provide this clarity.
If further actions are required, depending on the nature of the contravention and the specific circumstances, we might issue:
- a protection order
- a compliance order
- administrative penalties
Protection order
Ministry officials can issue a protection order when there is an immediate threat to the health, safety or welfare of children.
Child care providers who are issued a protection order must immediately stop providing child care until such threat is resolved.
Compliance order
An investigator can issue a compliance order any time a child care program or child care provider is not in compliance with the rules in the CCEYA or its regulations.
A compliance order identifies which requirement has not been met and orders that the non-compliance be corrected.
Administrative penalties
Administrative penalties may be issued in a number of different circumstances where someone is not following the rules in the CCEYA or regulations, including exceeding the permitted number of children on site and obstructing an inspector. Administrative penalties under the legislation range from $500 to $2000. Some penalties will accumulate for every day the non-compliance continues, up to a maximum of $100,000.
Find a list of penalties (in dollars) for all contraventions. The maximum administrative penalties are set out in Ontario General Regulation 137/15.
The purpose of the penalty must be to encourage compliance and prevent a person from deriving any economic benefit from contravening the act or regulations.
Under the Act, the amount of the administrative penalty must be reduced if it is:
- excessive under the circumstances
- punitive in nature
An administrative penalty is also sometimes referred to as an administrative monetary penalty. All administrative penalties are centrally issued by the manager of the Regulatory Compliance Unit after careful consideration of the circumstances.
Responsibility for payment
Licensees
Licensees (the person or corporate entity to whom the child care licence is issued) must meet all licensing requirements in the regulations. This means that administrative penalties are issued to the licensee.
It is the responsibility of the licensee to either:
- pay the administrative penalty within 30 days
- submit a request for review within 15 days
Individuals (licensed and unlicensed)
We can issue administrative penalties for some requirements that apply to individuals. These include:
- the duties and prohibitions that apply to unlicensed providers
- individuals working in licensed settings
- home child care providers
List of administrative penalties with dollar value
Administrative penalties in table 1 accumulate daily if the contravention continues for two or more successive days. Penalties in table 2 do not accumulate. All administrative penalties increase if the contravention is repeated within the next three years.
Table 1: accumulating penalties
| Item | Column 1 Contravened provisions | Column 2 Description of contravention | Column 3 Amount of administrative penalty, in dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Act, s. 6 (1), read with s. 6 (3) subparagraph 1 i | Prohibition – provision of home child care, total number of children | 2000 × number of children that exceed the number specified in the act |
| 2. | Act, s. 6 (1), read with s. 6 (3) subparagraph 1 iv | Prohibition – provision of home child care, number of children younger than two | 2000 × number of children that exceed the number specified in the act |
| 3. | Act, s. 6 (1), read with s. 6 (3) subparagraph 1 iii | Prohibition – provision of home child care, advising home child care agency | 1,000 |
| 4. | Act, s. 6 (1), read with s. 6 (3) subparagraph 2 i | Prohibition – provision of unlicensed child care, total number of children | 2000 × number of children that exceed the number specified in the act |
| 5. | Act, s. 6 (1), read with s. 6 (3) subparagraph 2 iii | Prohibition – provision of unlicensed child care, number of children younger than two | 2000 × number of children that exceed the number specified in the act |
| 6. | Act, s. 7 | Prohibition – operation of home child care agency | 2,000 |
| 7. | Act, s. 8 | Prohibition – operation of multiple unlicensed premises | 2,000 |
| 8. | Act, s. 9 | Prohibition – past conduct, child care providers, etc. | 2,000 |
| 9. | Act, s. 10 | Prohibition – preventing parental access to the child and premises | 1,000 |
| 10. | Act, s. 11 | Prohibition – use of terms re-licensing | 750 |
| 11. | Act, s. 12 | Duty to disclose if not licensed | 750 |
| 12. | Act, s. 14 | Duties re posting, returning and copying licences | 750 |
| 13. | Act, s. 15 | Duty to provide receipt for payment | 500 |
| 14. | Act, s. 31 (4) | Obligation to produce and assist | 2,000 |
| 15. | Act, s. 35 | Obligation to provide police record checks | 2,000 |
| 16. | Act, s. 76 | Prohibition – obstruction of inspector | 4,000 |
| 17. | Regulation, s. 8 | Ratios and maximum group sizes, child care centre | 2000 × number of children that exceed the number specified in s. 8 |
| 18. | Regulation, s. 8.1 | Licensed family age groups | 2000 × number of children that exceed the number specified in s. 8.1 |
| 19. | Regulation, s. 9 | Home child care group sizes | 2000 × number of children that exceed the number specified in s. 9 |
| 20. | Regulation, s. 11 | Supervision by adult at all times | 2,000 |
| 21. | Regulation, s. 77.1 | Prohibition – charging fees above cap | 750 × number of children for whom a fee above the cap was charged |
| 22. | Regulation, s. 77.4 | Prohibition – charging base fee higher than applicable base fee | 750 × number of children for whom a fee higher than the applicable base fee was charged or not credited or refunded |
Table 2: non-accumulating penalties
| Item | Column 1 Contravened provisions | Column 2 Description of contravention | Column 3 Amount of administrative penalty, in dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Regulation, s. 11.1 (1) | Supervision of volunteers and students at all times | 1,000 |
| 0.2 | Regulation, s. 15 (2) | Designated spaces and items inaccessible to children | 1,000 |
| 0.3 | Regulation, s. 30.1 (1) and (2) (a) | Bodies of water | 1,000 |
| 0.4 | Regulation, s. 31 | Hazards | 1,000 |
| 1. | Regulation, clause 38 (1) (b) | Reporting of serious occurrence | 2,000 |
| 2. | Regulation, subclause 40 (1) (b) (ii) and clause 40 (1) (d) | Administration of drugs or medications | 2,000 |
| 3. | Regulation, s. 48 (1) | Prohibited practices, licensee | 2,000 |
| 3.1 | Regulation, s. 60, 61.1 and 63 | Duty to obtain record check | 1,000 |
| 4. | Regulation, s. 72 (1), (2), (3) | Records re children | 750 |
| 5. | Regulation, s. 74 | Records re home child care providers | 750 |
| 6. | Regulation, s. 75 | Copies of agreements | 750 |
Penalties for child care providers who care for more children than permitted under the CCEYA
Licensed home child care providers
If a home child care provider is found caring for more than six children, the provider may be issued a notice of administrative penalty for $2,000 for each child exceeding the permitted number for every successive day the non-compliance continues.
Home child care agencies
In addition, the home child care agency may be issued an administrative penalty if there are more than six children being cared for on a premises where the agency:
- oversees the provision of child care
- appears to have played a role in the non-compliance
Unlicensed child care providers
An unlicensed child care provider may be issued a notice of administrative penalty for $2,000 for each child exceeding the permitted number for every successive day the non-compliance continues if we find that they are caring for:
- more than five children
- more than three children under the age of two years
How to appeal an administrative penalty
You have up to 15 days to submit a request for review of your administrative penalty, unless the designated reviewer determines there may be a longer timeline because of exceptional circumstances.
A senior designated employee will conduct the review and consider the:
- materials and documents presented in the notice
- request for review
The senior designated employee may rescind, reduce or affirm the penalty amount.
Your notice of administrative penalty will have instructions about how to submit a request for review.