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The symposium on Collaborative Practice in Action brought together 200 educators from across Ontario to share their knowledge with practitioners, researchers, government staff and school board officials. The symposium provided an opportunity to share examples of best practice and consider challenges that need to be addressed.

Kimberly Bezaire of George Brown College and Rachel Langford of Ryerson University summarized the key points of the day, in the presentation, "Voices from the Schools:School Teams Share their Experiences."

Healthy Child Manitoba Office has released its 2010/11 Annual Report. "This report reflects the continued commitment of government and community partners in the Healthy Child Manitoba Strategy to facilitate child-centered public policy..."

Presented by Alison S. Fleming, Ph.D., FRSC, Professor of Psychology, Canada Research Chair in Neurobiology, University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM), at the Atkinson Colloquium.

Excerpt: ""The Government of Saskatchewan continues to make significant progress in increasing the number of licensed child care spaces in Saskatchewan," Duncan said. "The 25 new spaces at Pangman School are part of that investment. More children will now have access to high quality early learning opportunities while their parents are following their own education or employment pursuits.""

The current research initiative examines the pathway to employment in the field of early childhood education for internationally trained professionals. In particular, the study's aim is to investigate the experiences of internationally trained professionals in the ECE Bridging Program (first step in the accreditation process in Ontario for internationally trained educators). The study also explored the experiences of participants in applying for jobs prior to and after achieving their ECE equivalency. The second goal was to explore whether international education credentials had any impact on employability.

The Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador announced "more than $685,000... to support three child care centres in the communities of Labrador City and Wabush…. This funding is being provided through the Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Capacity Initiative of the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services. It will support the development of 117 new regulated child care spaces in Labrador and also sustain existing spaces by providing funding for renovations to maintain a current child care facility."

Excerpt: "I would like to address three issues before you today. 1. The elimination of child care subsidies; 2. The privatization of city operated child care centres; 3. The elimination of quality controls. From an economic perspective public spending on child care is not consumption. In the barest of economic terms it is an investment. Child care delivers multiple benefits to the children and families who use it, but it also plays a multifaceted role in regional economies; as an economic sector in its own right with facilities, employees and consumption from other sectors; as labour force support to working parents; and for the long-term economic impact it has on the next generation of workers."

Manitoba Child Care Program launches Early Returns: Manitoba’s Early Learning and Child Care Curriculum Framework for Preschool Centres and Nursery Schools. This curriculum framework supports staff to develop, describe and enhance their curriculum.

Excerpt: "All children need supports to achieve their optimal development. All young children need parenting, peer interaction, and educational opportunities in order to develop social skills, language, physical and cognitive competence. For many children with disabilities, this also includes early intervention strategies that might come from medical and clinical intervention, therapeutic interventions and/or family supports that increase resilience where there are risk factors for children and their families..."

Province-wide online resource and child care registry allows parents to find out about, and register for child care options, including licensed child care centres, home child care and nursery schools. Manitobaparentzone.ca also provides parenting and child development information. Manitobaparentzone.ca will run on a $70,000 annual budget, with initial site development and marketing costs of $200,000. The online registry is being launched at a cost of $1.575 million and will operate on an annual investment of $150,000.

You've heard the claims from the famous HighScope Perry Preschool and Abecedarian studies about the tremendous payoffs of early education for disadvantaged U.S. families, but did you know that Canadian researchers are also amassing unique results documenting the cost-benefits of preschool here?

By age 4, 40% of Quebec youngsters are attending a full-time, publicly-supported learning and care program. Pundits point to the high cost, but new work by economist Dr. Pierre Fortin of the University of Québec at Montréal reveals the benefits begin immediately and the payoffs are more far-reaching than speculated. Award-winning economist Robert Fairholm of the Centre for Spatial Economics shows that almost all Canadian governments make the wrong decision when allocating their economic stimulus dollars. At a panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Lars Osberg, McCulloch Professor of Economics at Dalhousie University, these researchers presented their findings and provided some new ways of thinking and talking about the public's interest in early childhood.

Excerpt: "This contribution will total more than $11.5M. Over 160,000 children between the ages of 0 and 5 live in these communities. The networks include municipalities, child care services, health and social service centres, schools and community organizations and total over 1,000 partner agencies."