News

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Category: Reports and Briefs
Federal and provincial governments have embarked on a major undertaking to build systems of early learning and child care across Canada that meet high standards for quality, affordability, accessibility, inclusion, and flexibility.

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Category: Updates and Announcements
We are excited to share that a new member benefit is now available for associate members! HR Covered Inc. is a team of passionate HR experts who make HR simple and cover all HR avenues at a fraction of the cost.

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Category: Reports and Briefs
We are excited to share an impact report summarizing early childhood educator (ECE) feedback from year two of the Brain Story & Theory-to-Practice grant as well as an executive summary of the first two years of the grant.

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Category: Updates and Announcements
The 2024 wildfire season in Alberta has brought significant challenges and hardships to the province.

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Category: Government Updates
On Monday, June 17, 2024, Minister Jones of Jobs, Economy and Trade (JET: the new Ministry overseeing child care) hosted a town hall for the early learning and child care (ELCC) sector.

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Category: Conferences
SACDA's 2025 IGNITE Conference Committee is putting together another year of amazing school age care learning and connection.  Please save the date for
Saturday, March 8, 2025

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Category: Updates and Announcements
Alberta Health Services has released an updated Health and Safety Guide for Operators of Child Care Facilities. Take a look by clicking the button below.

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Category: Reports and Briefs
A new report from the Lawson Foundation “More Than a New Course: A Framework for Embedding Outdoor and Land-based Pedagogies in Post-Secondary ECE Programs,” provides guidelines to help integrate Outdoo

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Category: Media Release
As Alberta continues to build out its spaces under the Canada-wide child-care system, there are increasing calls to improve compensation for educators who staff child-care centres.

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Category: Articles
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Category: Updates and Announcements
Happy Early Childhood Educator Day! This special day is dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the hard work, dedication, and impact of early childhood educators. You play a crucial role in the development and growth of young children, laying the foundation for lifelong learning and success.

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Category: Reports and Briefs
The Edmonton Council of Early Learning and Care (ECELC) has released a new publication. Parents’ Views About the Quality of Early Learning and Child Care in Alberta

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Category: Updates and Announcements

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Category: Updates and Announcements
The AECEA Early Childhood Educator Award of Recognition shines a light on an early childhood educator making outstanding contributions within Alberta’s early learning and child care community.

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Category: Updates and Announcements
The Dr. Sherrill Brown Award of Distinction recognizes the outstanding historical contributions of an educator and leader in Alberta’s early learning and child care community.

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Category: Reports and Briefs
This report contains a snapshot of the Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care’s work and associated impacts between September 2022 and August 2023.

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Category: Wages and Benefits, Reports and Briefs
The Association of Early Childhood Educators of Alberta (AECEA) and the Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care (ECELC) have been working on a community-engaged, qualitative research project to explore ways to achieve workforce stability for Alberta's early learning and child care (ELCC) sec

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Category: Reports and Briefs
The 2021 federal budget laid out its historic vision of a universal, publicly funded child care system “for all” based on five principles: affordability, accessibility, quality, flexibility and inclusivity.

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Category: Reports and Briefs
Exciting new report from the town of Jasper titled “Jasper’s Community Child Care Strategy 2023-2027”. This report is an example of how Alberta municipalities can be a strong voice for creating child care access in their communities. Background

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Category: Updates and Announcements
Consider nominating an educator for a 2024 Prime Minister’s Award!

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Category: Updates and Announcements
Applications for the ECDV 0100 - Exploring Early Childhood Curriculum: Play, Participation and Possibilities Winter 2024 course is now open.

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Category: Conferences
We are excited to announce the dates for the 2024 Essential Pieces conference! For 2024, the conference will be virtual in order to allow early childhood educators province-wide the ability to attend and will be held on April 26-27, 2024.

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Category: Articles
Each year, September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The day honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities.

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Category: Reports and Briefs
A budget for now and the future Author: Alternative Federal Budget Working Group
Source: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Format: Report
Publication Date: 24 Aug 2023 AVAILABILITY

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Category: Updates and Announcements
AECEA, ECELC and the University of Alberta are recruiting participants in the early learning and child care (ELCC) sector for a research project, Alberta Early Learning and Child Care Workforce Stability Project.

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Category: Updates and Announcements
2023 AECEA Awards

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Category: Government Updates
Children's Services launches additional technical briefings on the Cost Control Framework and For-Profit Expansion Plan Technical Briefings. VIEW THE LETTER

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Category: Professional Development
Are you currently employed in the child care field?

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Category: Articles
The Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation (CCLF) has launched 

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Category: Reports and Briefs
In fall 2022, the Muttart Foundation in partnership with the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Alberta and the Alberta Leaders Caucus sponsored a series of focus group discussions with certified early childhood educators across Alberta.

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Category: Articles
Advocates say Alberta needs to improve compensation for early childhood educators so they stay in the system at the same time the number of spaces is expanding dramatically under the federal government's plan for $10-a-day child care. 

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Category: Updates and Announcements, Conferences
AECEA is excited to announce that award nominations are now open. Please see below for information on 2023's awards and nominate someone today!

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Category: Wages and Benefits
On March 15, 2023 the wage grid research team presented in an AECEA Connect session to share their recommendations for a wage grid for Alberta ECEs and for the next step will be engaging with ECEs, progra

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Category: Professional Development
Early Childhood Education Leadership Development Certificate New 1-year certificate starting in September 2023 at Red Deer Polytechnic! 

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Category: Reports and Briefs
"Over the past twelve months, a research team representing the Community-University Partnership (CUP), the Evaluation Capacity Network (ECN), and the Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care (ECELC) has been working with the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Alberta (AECEA) on a com

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Category: Conferences
AECEA's Essential Pieces conference is back! For 2023, the conference will be virtual in order to allow early childhood educators province-wide the ability to attend. Stay tuned for more information! 

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Category: Reports and Briefs
In January 2021, ECELC launched the Journeys Project. The Journeys Project is a collaboration between the Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative, the Community-University Partnership and the Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care.

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Category: Articles
CRRU happy holidays and child care in review

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Category: Updates and Announcements

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Category: Government Updates
From: Employment and Social Development Canada

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Category: Government Updates
Alberta’s government is providing early childhood educators with a one-time payment and wage top-up to help recruit and retain staff. 

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Category: Government Updates
The Government of Alberta understands that high-quality child care starts with qualified ECEs. As part of our commitment to support the quality and professionalism of the childcare workforce, we would like to share with you the following information about what we are doing to invest in the training recruitment, and certification and retention of early childhood educators.

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Category: Conferences
The Alberta Resource Centre for Quality Enhancement (ARCQE)'s upcoming National Child Day conference is now open for registration. The conference theme is titled "Empowering Children to Thrive: Cultivating the Strong Potential of All Children!". It so positively reflects the premise of Alberta’s Flight Curriculum Framework relative to nurturing children to be competent, capable, curious, and rich in potential! Leading off this year’s conference in thought-provoking reflection, insight, and pedagogical discussion, ARCQE is also pleased to share the engagement involvement of two engaging and dynamic keynote speakers—Dr. Claire Wardon of Scotland and Alex Morgan of Colorado! ARCQE has decided once again to proceed with a virtual format on the Accelevents platform which many of you have previously engaged with during our last two conferences' annual events. The conference will be held virtually on November 17-19, 2022.

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Category: Updates and Announcements
The AECEA office has moved to the following address effective September 1, 2022. Please update your records accordingly.  320 - 11150 Jasper Avenue
Edmonton, AB, T5K 0C7

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Category: Articles
Child care coverage rates are an important way to measure the availability of child care, with higher rates generally meaning child care is more available.

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Category: Updates and Announcements
Applications are open for $50 million in funding in 2022-23 for non-profit groups interested in creating new child-care spaces and providing child care in a licensed child-care program in Alberta.

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Category: Government Updates
Access agreement online Excerpted from agreement

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Category: Updates and Announcements
The Association of Early Childhood Educators of Alberta (AECEA) is proud to announce ECE Day for 2022 will be held on May 20, 2022.

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Category: Government Updates
As part of the Alberta-Canada Early Learning and Child Care (AC-ELCC) agreement, Children’s Services is engaging with child care sector stakeholders to explore a wide variety of topics to create a system that supports families, early learning professionals and the sector as a whole.  

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Category: Professional Development
If you have already obtained your Level 3 Early Childhood Educator certification and you want to expand your knowledge, the Government of Alberta has recently approved five mental health courses for professional development funding (up to $1500/year).

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Category: Articles
Child care fees on track to drop substantially in 2022 in most big cities, but not all are projected to meet targets: report

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Category: Updates and Announcements
Each year AECEA presents the Dr.

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Category: Updates and Announcements
The Inclusive Child Care (ICC) Resource Bank is now live!  ICC is funded by Alberta Children’s Services and provides resources and supports to licensed Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) programs to successfully include children who have extra support needs.

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Category: Reports and Briefs
The Government of Alberta has released its plan to reduce child care fees in Alberta by an average of 50% by early 2022. Under this plan, every family’s out-of-pocket fees will decrease, but lower-income families will not see a 50% decrease—and some may see a decrease of less than 15%.

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Category: Reports and Briefs
The final report from the COVID-19 Survey AECEA conducted with the sector in October 2021 is now available!

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Category: Government Updates
Today, the Minister of Children's Services, Rebecca Schulz, sent a letter and additional resources to program operators on the new Federal-Provincial Child Care Agreement.

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Category: Government Updates
On November 15, 2021, Albertans received great news.

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Category: Government Updates
A made-in-Alberta child-care deal gives the province the flexibility to meet the unique needs of Alberta families, helps drive economic recovery and supports working parents by lowering child-care fees.

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Category: Media Release
Recently, early learning and child care programs in Alberta expressed increasing concerns about the effects of the fourth wave of COVID-19 and what the future holds for them. To better understand these concerns, AECEA conducted a survey of ELCC programs in Alberta.

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Category: Reports and Briefs
Just released by the Canadian Child Care Federation, Child Care Now, Muttart Foundation and the YMCA of Northern Alberta, Roadmap to a Quality Early Learning and Child Care System in Alberta. This roadmap has been organized into four sections:

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Category: Articles
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Category: Reports and Briefs
In this brief, Rob Buschmann, Miranda Brown, and Gordon Cleveland provide an overview and analysis of the two major federal early learning and child care plans (Liberal and Conservative) and analyze their effects on early learning and child care affordability for an example family in Calgary.

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Category: Government Updates
The Alberta and federal governments have reached an agreement to extend the Canada–Alberta Early Learning and Child Care Agreement that will provide Alberta over $290 million in funding over 4 years to improve access to high quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive early learning and child ca