Representing the sector since 2018
One voice for everyone who cares about BC child care
Educators, owners, operators and directors share the same rooms, the same regulations and the same funding system. We represent all of them.
Who we are
From owners' association to sector association
We started in 2018 as the BC Child Care Owners Association, formed by providers who needed a way to be heard on funding, licensing and the day-to-day realities of operating a licensed program.
It became clear quickly that the people we were speaking for did not stop at owners. Educators asked us to carry their concerns too. So did directors and managers, who sit between provincial policy and the staff room and are rarely represented by either. In response to that demand, we widened our mandate and became Child Care Professionals of BC.
Today we speak for the whole professional side of licensed child care in this province. That breadth is deliberate. Wages, ratios, funding rules and quality standards are not separate problems belonging to separate groups — they are one system, and the people inside it are better served by one organization that understands how the pieces move together.
Our record
What we've worked on
Eight areas where we have pushed for change, built tools, or filled a gap that no one else was filling.
Funding & reporting
Pressed for changes to CCOF and CCFRI reporting and payment schedules so that they line up with how a child care business actually operates — how it invoices, when money arrives, and what a small operator can reasonably be expected to track.
Health & safety
Produced and circulated safety information to operators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, at a point when programs were required to stay open and clear provincial direction was slow to arrive.
Funding transparency
Advocated for $10-a-day funding models that are transparent — where operators can see how allocations are calculated, what they are expected to cover, and what happens when actual costs diverge from the model.
Compensation
Advocated for fair wages for child care professionals in British Columbia, and for wage policy that recognises the qualifications, responsibility and retention pressures the work carries.
Quality measurement
Developed and introduced the BC Child Care Quality Assessment Standard — six quality areas, eighteen standards and sixty-two elements, built for BC's regulations and Early Learning Framework, and free for any program to download and use.
Open data
Collect, store and share data about child care in British Columbia so that operators, educators, researchers, journalists and families can look at the sector with real numbers rather than anecdotes.
Certification & mobility
Advocated for streamlined cross-province certificate applications and validation, so that qualified educators moving to BC are not held out of the workforce by avoidable administrative delay.
Regulation
Provide guidance and support to educators on BC child care regulations — what the rules require, how they are interpreted in practice, and where to go when a program is unsure.
Who we represent
Four roles, one sector
Early childhood educators
The people in the room with the children. We carry their concerns on wages, working conditions, certification and how regulations land in practice.
Owners
The people who carry the financial risk of keeping licensed spaces open, and who need funding rules that are predictable enough to plan against.
Operators
Those running programs day to day — staffing, compliance, enrolment, and the constant work of matching provincial policy to a real building and a real team.
Directors & managers
Sitting between policy and the staff room, with responsibility for both and representation from neither. We speak for this group specifically.
Wages, ratios, funding and quality are not four arguments. They are one argument, and the sector is stronger making it together. Child Care Professionals of BC
How we work
We are a volunteer-led association. Our positions come from members who are currently working in licensed child care in British Columbia, not from a communications office at a distance from the sector.
Where we can, we ground our advocacy in evidence: provincial administrative data, member surveys, and the wider research literature on early childhood education and care. Where the evidence is genuinely contested, we say so rather than overstating it.
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