Our older daughter will start kindergarten in the fall and amid the joy and excitement of hitting this lovely milestone, I’m also excited to start saving $1,000 a month in daycare fees.
Turns out, child-care fees don’t magically disappear once your kid starts school. That’s because the fees that parents with kids in daycare pay shift to covering before- and after-school care.
Here’s what I’ve since learned about the high cost, and scarce availability of, before- and after-school care for elementary school students.
In Canada, school hours don’t match those of working parents. Depending on where you live, the bell rings between 8 and 9:30 in the morning and learning ends around 2:30 to 4. In most cases, it’s a six-hour school day.
Some working parents can cover school drop-off and pickup themselves, thanks to flexible schedules, and part-time or remote work. For many, that simply isn’t possible.
The most logical option is to look for a before- and after-school program, but securing a spot is tough. These programs are typically run by either private providers like the YMCA or by the school board itself, often in the school the child attends.
The cost can range widely depending on whether the program is subsidized. One parent who responded to my callout said she will be paying $350 a month for a child she has in the subsidized program – and $850 a month for a private program for her older child.
Under Canada’s new national child-care program, sometimes referred to as the $10-a-day program, infant and toddler spots in Canada are subsidized. These subsidies end at age 6.
If the before- and after-school program isn’t subsidized or your child is 6 or older, be prepared to pay the equivalent of private non-subsidized daycare fees.
Toronto mom Corie Caplan sends her five-year-old daughter to a program run by the Toronto District School Board.
She was not able to choose just before-school care or just after-school care. “You have to opt into both and it costs between $850 and $1,000 per month. On average, my daughter is there for an hour and a half a day. It’s brutal and completely threw a wrench in our plan for savings,” Ms. Caplan said in a social-media message.
“I of course thought sending my daughter to a public school would result in minimal additional costs. I was wrong.”
In addition to the high cost, she also noted the lack of flexibility, something I heard echoed from other parents: Often with these programs, you’re fully in or you’re out.
One friend only needs it two to three days a week but pays for the full week so she doesn’t lose her spot. Others said they only need it in the morning or afternoon but have to pay for both.
Another is a single parent who only has her daughter two to three school days every week; her co-parent has a more flexible schedule and doesn’t need to use the program, so she’s stuck paying for five days on her own.
Like daycare, there are also long waiting lists for before- and after-school programs, with one parent describing it as harder to get into than daycare (which is saying a lot).
“When we needed before and after care when our son started kindergarten, I assumed that there were always spots for kids entering school that year. … I had no idea the waitlists were one to two years long,” Amanda Bailey, a mom of two living in Guelph, Ont., said on social media.
Parents who can’t snag a spot, or who want an alternative, must turn to private babysitters or nannies, daycares that provide before- and after-school coverage (ours doesn’t), or alternative programming like dance or art studios that offer after-school classes – some will even pick kids up from school and bring them to their studio.
The cost and availability of these vary widely though, with one parent telling me she spent $3,200 a month between a nanny and after-care program when her kids were young.
Like me and my husband, my mom and stepdad also worked busy tech jobs, and I attended an after-school program at my elementary school – but we have little hope of getting our children into the program at our local school in Prince Edward County, which has a famously long waiting list.
When our daughter goes to kindergarten in the fall, my husband will drop her off. Since we run our own company, he has a more flexible schedule. My in-laws will pick her up and tide us over until our work day is done.
We have that flexibility and family help, but many parents don’t. They’ll be on the hook for hefty child-care payments for years to come.
Erin Bury is the co-founder and CEO of online estate planning platform Willful.co. She lives in rural Ontario with her husband and two young children.
