Divided City Life In Canada's Child Poverty Capital

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DIVIDED CITY: Life in Canada’s Child Poverty Capital 2016 Toronto Child and Family Poverty Report Card 3. Unequal Educational and Recreational Opportunities A key determinant of child development and well-being – and a central component of the city’s poverty reduction strategy – is good access to high quality early learning and recreational opportunities. Much research now shows that access to child care and early learning programs supports early child development, prepares children for school success, and provides an essential support for many working parents. 18 Individuals and families face a range of barriers to accessing recreation programs, including lack of appropriate programming, lack of transportation, user fees, and stigma or complexity of fee subsidies. 19 Toronto District School Board data shows that children from lower income families are less likely to be accessing these programs. Forty-eight percent of children in families with an income below $30,000 do not participate regularly in out-of-school sports and arts activities (only 7% of children in families with an income of $100,000 or more do not participate). Figure 7 shows the breakdown of this disparity by neighbourhood: in some neighbourhoods only 3% of children do not participate regularly in arts or sports programs; in other neighbourhoods more than half of children are not partaking in this important learning and growth opportunity. Children in diverse Etobicoke and Scarborough neighbourhoods are much less likely to be participating than those in the central core. Figure 8 shows a similar geographic disparity in participation in early learning and care programs: with the percentage of students not participating in early learning programs ranging from a low of 5% in some wealthy neighbourhoods to a high of 65% in lower-income neighbourhoods. Figure 7: Percentage of Students Who Did NOT Regularly Participate in Arts or Sports Outside of School, TDSB, Grades K to 6, 2012 12.3 26.1 38.4 46.6 25.1 25.0 51.3 46.8 30.9 48.2 40.3 49.0 10.9 29.3 48.7 28.0 53.2 17.8 2.8 31.7 13.9 53.2 46.4 42.0 48.6 50.4 7.6 20.2 50.2 9.3 50.7 49.2 11.6 54.3 29.0 13.8 13.9 43.3 47.9 54.0 45.2 25.3 21.3 26.6 51.5 29.0 14.4 51.6 40.2 22.9 11.9 51.9 20.7 26.6 20.1 18.3 35.0 37.6 12.2 20.6 13.7 15.1 23.8 29.3 9.0 4.4 10.9 8.3 27.3 10.8 3.6 5.4 5.4 23.3 8.9 5.4 5.8 24.8 20.8 29.2 40.3 26 44.8 27.4 21.9 15.0 12.5 6.8 16.4 15.3 18.6 22.8 20.2 34.4 32.5 42.8 37.9 49.9 5.1 26.3 17.7 26.7 7.4 22.9 19.2 22.4 40.4 7.5 31.4 21.2 27.2 15.7 47.3 30.9 38.6 42.4 29.5 32.1 41.4 41.1 42.8 32.7 2.8 - 16.4% 20.0 16.5 - 27.2% 24.7 6.1 27.3 - 41.4% 41.5 - 54.3% N 37.8 42.8 30.2 42.9 28.7 36.0 46.7 48.0 43.4 18.0 42.2 41.4 34.7 29.2 21.3 0 1 2 3 4 Km Source: Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Parent Census, Grades K to 6, 2012. 14
DIVIDED CITY: Life in Canada’s Child Poverty Capital 2016 Toronto Child and Family Poverty Report Card Figure 8: Percentage of Students Who Did NOT Participate in an Early Learning or Care Program, TDSB, Grades K to 6, 2012 51.5 66.6 48.0 26.4 25.8 20.6 49.7 13.5 32.2 37.3 47.4 26.4 21.5 22.5 56.8 19.5 23.7 52.7 45.5 9.6 36.5 37.3 43.9 36.2 14.3 43.3 23.2 8.0 41.6 30.0 44.9 33.5 47.9 42.1 42.6 45.9 49.0 40.2 28.7 6.0 15.5 37.5 7.4 43.5 43.6 5.4 42.5 36.6 37.1 31.1 19.7 36.2 36.8 32.6 6.9 29.0 14.8 22.5 54.0 38.8 11.4 7.0 40.9 39.7 19.3 9.7 25.3 52.9 49.5 6.4 45.6 40.4 36.2 20.7 6.6 31.0 33.4 7.4 22.7 33.3 14.3 10.7 25.9 7.1 4.9 14.1 29.4 27.9 30.2 22.0 14.6 14.1 12.1 5.8 45.4 21.7 47.8 26.7 21.6 11.5 11.9 23.1 10.7 24.2 12.4 30.8 14.3 22.2 13.6 23.7 19.5 23.8 19.5 27.0 18.1 34.0 33.6 10.4 21.5 25.4 18.9 25.5 11.3 25.7 16.9 27.2 23.7 45.9 24.0 16.7 31.0 31.7 5.0 - 17.7% 17.8 - 26.3% 26.4 - 37.7% 37.8 - 65.4% N 38.0 40.2 22.9 36.1 37.0 34.6 39.2 21.6 Source: Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Parent Census, Grades K to 6, 2012. 0 1 2 3 4 Km One of the most important paths out of poverty is helping low-income families access full-time employment, which requires access to quality and affordable care arrangements for their children. However, the costs of child care in Toronto are extremely high. The City of Toronto recently released a research study 20 showing that three-quarters of families would have to pay more than 10% of their family income (after tax and benefits) to access licensed child care. While this is an affordability benchmark that many jurisdictions around the world have used, 10% of family income represents a significant burden for Toronto’s lower-income families. There were over 18,000 children on the wait list for child care fee subsidy. Clearly, lower income families need to access subsidies to afford child care. However, as of October 2016, there were over 18,000 children on the wait list for child care fee subsidy. The lack of fee subsidies available to meet the needs of Toronto’s families means that low-income families face significant barriers to accessing high quality child care for their children, forcing parents to either choose less reliable, lower quality care options, go into debt to pay for child care, or choose not to work full-time or at all. The impacts of poverty, combined with lack of access to basic supports and services, is evident. The most recent cycle (2014-2015) of the Early Development Instrument survey shows that children living in lowincome families are already at a developmental disadvantage when entering school (Figure 9). The Early Development Instrument (EDI) assesses children in Kindergarten against age-appropriate milestones in five key areas of development – physical, emotional, social, cognitive and communication skills. 15
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