Dozens of children with autism being dismissed from N.L. daycares due to staff shortages, advocates say
CBC
In mid-January, Kristen Parsons-La Montagne's family was told their three-year-old son, William, would be losing his spot at a St. John's daycare due to a shortage of early childhood educators, leaving them with just two weeks to find an alternative.
Parsons-La Montagne says they were blindsided.
"We thought everything was going great," Parsons-La Montagne said from her home in Paradise, "and then one day my husband went to pick him up at the daycare and we were advised that he was being discharged due to lack of staffing and resources."
It would be a hurdle for any family: searching for a new daycare amid a child care crisis in which spots are sparse and wait lists stretch up to two years long.
But for Parsons-La Montagne, the dismissal poses an even bigger challenge.
William has autism, and sometimes needed help from an inclusion worker at daycare, which makes it even harder to find a daycare to accommodate him, she says.
"We were told that that inclusion worker was going to fill another spot and that they would have to look and recruit for an [early childhood educator]," Parsons-La Montagne said, who added her son previously attended the daycare without help from an inclusion worker.
Parsons-La Montagne is one of what advocates say are dozens of families in Newfoundland and Labrador now scrambling to find placements for their children with autism in the midst of a widespread daycare staffing shortage across the province.
Parsons-La Montagne relocated her family to the Avalon Peninsula from Labrador West last summer, noting she couldn't find a daycare spot and there was a lack of services for children with autism in that region.
"The goal was to give [William] the very best outcome and quality of life, and give him an early start so that he could be a child and get every opportunity to grow and love this province the way that we loved it," Parsons-La Montagne said.
Parsons-La Montagne says she's frustrated and disappointed because attending daycare has allowed her son to flourish.
"He went from a little guy who had challenges with self-regulation, transitioning, verbal skills, even eating, to being a boy that could go to daycare ...seven hours a day."
Since William stopped daycare at the end of January, Parsons-La Montagne says her son is regressing.
Parsons-La Montagne says they've contacted more than 100 daycares and day homes, tried to hire a nanny, and even flew in her mother for about six weeks to help care for William.
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.