Admission Policy
We intake new families from our waiting list, which may be accessed through the City of Ottawa Child Care Registry and Waitlist at: https://onehsn.com/Ottawa. Our intake policy prioritizes families living in the Kitchissippi area of Ottawa, siblings of children currently enrolled at the centre, and returning clients.
We do not charge a fee to place a child on our waiting list, however we do request a small non-refundable deposit from clients to hold a space for them once one is offered. This deposit is applied to their first month of child care service.
When an opening becomes available, the supervisor will contact you and make arrangements to show you the centre, and will answer any questions you may have. You will be provided with an enrollment package and a parent handbook outlining all of our centre’s policies. Once you have completed and returned the enrollment form, and we’ve confirmed your start date, your child will be enrolled in our centre.
In order to help your child adjust to a group care environment, we ask parents of newly enrolled children to bring their child in for a short period of time for the first few days and gradually increase the time spent in the program with us until your child has adjusted comfortably. The amount of time needed for the integration period will vary with each child. For children who are moving to an older age group, or a toddler transferring to preschool, the supervisor will ensure that a staff person accompanies the child to the new program for visits until the child is comfortable enough to stay full days.
Child Care Fees
Child care fees must be paid by the first day of each month and may be paid by cheque, money order, or cash. Parents are encouraged to submit postdated cheques dated for the 1st of each month twice annually (January and July).
There are no refunds for statutory holidays and non-attended days due to illness or vacation. Should the centre close early due to severe weather, or other emergencies, there will be no reimbursement of fees. Tax receipts are issued to parents at the beginning of each year for the previous calendar year and will be mailed out to parents whose children are no longer enrolled at our centre. Receipts may be made available at any time upon request from parents.
2018 Child Care Fees by Program
Preschool (ages 30 months-5 years)
$920 (for December $796.13)*
Toddler (ages 18 months-30 months)
$1255 (for December$1086.00)*
Infant (ages 6 months-18 months)
$1670 (for December$1438.69)*
* The monthly rate for December has been adjusted to take into account our centre’s closure for the 3 regular business days between Christmas and the first working day of the new year.
Discharge Policy
Every effort is made to accommodate children as they move from program to program. However, we are not always able to guarantee a child care space will be available for every child moving up to the next program. In such a situation, we would allow the child to stay in the program as long as possible and we would keep the parents informed to allow them the time to make alternate arrangements prior to discharge. The child would then be placed on our priority waiting list to return.
ABC Daycare reserves the right to discontinue child care service to a family if:
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The child is not adjusting to the group care setting after a reasonable period of time as determined by the centre.
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After exhausting all teaching resources available, a child continues to display continuous, harmful behaviour which jeopardizes the health, safety or emotional wellbeing of the other children or staff. This also applies to vulgar language and profanities.
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Parent/guardian is abusive to the centre’s staff, children, or his or her own child.
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Failure to abide by the policies in the Parent Handbook.
Withdrawal Policy
A one-month written notice is required when you decide to withdraw your child from ABC Daycare Centre, or one month of child care fees in lieu of written notice will be charged. The City of Ottawa’s withdrawal policy will be observed for parents who have a subsidy arrangement in place with the City.