Alberta Education and Child Care Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says he’s looking to change the way parents are notified of serious incidents in their child care programs.
The province’s official opposition is calling for changes to the Early Learning and Child Care Act.
The NDP requires the government to notify every parent of serious situations, such as physical or sexual abuse, to create a public online portal that tells the history of a program, and to conduct regular reviews of the legislation.
“The status quo is leaving parents in the dark about serious incidents of abuse,” said Marlin Schmidt, NDP MLA for Edmonton-Gold Bar.
The NDP is using Edmonton’s Willowbrae Millcreek Academy as an example.
Last year, an employee was charged after allegedly sexually assaulting a child at the daycare.
Alberta’s Ministry of Education said it learned of the allegations in June, but parents said they were not informed until an email was sent two months later.
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“It was 82 days between the initial report of abuse at our children’s daycare and the point where the parents actually realized what had happened. It was only through a town hall that the parents pushed for ourselves,” parent Thomas Kyle told Global News in an email.
“The system worked exactly as designed and that’s the problem.”
Kyle said he was one of five Willowbrae parents who met with Nicolaides last month.
They are asking for changes similar to what the DPA is suggesting.
“The tone of that meeting was positive and I felt our concerns were taken seriously,” Kyle said.
“These are straightforward changes that would help make sure the next family doesn’t experience what we did.”
“They were asking for more parental notification, so I’m happy to look into that,” Nicolaides said of his meeting with Willowbrae parents.
Nicolaides said the province has an online portal where parents can find information on a program’s licenses and violations.
He added that he is asking his team to look at what kind of details can be shared with parents.
Right now, he says criminal investigations — like the Willowbrae situation — make it difficult to share information.
“These are exactly the kinds of questions I want to explore. What level of information can we provide without compromising the details of an investigation?” Nicolaides said.
The minister did not give a time frame for how long a review might take.
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