CLICK ON THIS BOOK’S COVER and it will open to the complete book. Due to the urgency of the issues—especially that the next pandemic could be just around the corner—we want to share directly and at no cost our findings in researching this book. 

Before COVID-19, we all shared in the struggle to see children with disabilities universally included in high quality child care in Canada. The battle was far from won  but the country was on the upswing. For example, under the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreements [CWELCC] the provinces and territories are now required to include children with disabilities. However, the COVID pandemic brought new challenges such as children’s health and behavioural issues, parental fears and reduced staff that closed the child care doors on many of those children. 

During our research we interviewed 67 child care directors, other staff, and parents of children with disabilities. We quickly realized that what we were learning was significant impacts on typical children as well as children with disabilities, although children with disabilities continued to be the last ones included. As this book demonstrates, devastating mistakes in policy during the pandemic were revealed, such as the strategy of keeping children out of school for what turned out to be up to a year-and-a-half, resulting in historically low math and literacy scores and missed opportunities for socialization and language skills. This new book provides insights that should help prepare teachers, government and families for the next pandemic.

The digital version of Inclusion Quality in the Time of COVID is provided here free of any charge and via other websites such as Inclusion NOW, Child Care Resource and Research Unit and several related organizations devoted to the inclusion of children with disabilities in child care.

The book can also be ordered in paper directly from the publisher at bretonbooks@gmail.com. The 79 page, 8.5 x 11, paperback sells for $40.00, including shipping • ISBN 978-1-998919-41-3

This book, Inclusion Quality, is an urgent report about where Canada is today with respect to the inclusion of children with disabilities in early learning and child care. While the federal government’s current Multilateral Framework on Early Learning and Child Care addresses many factors essential to the development of a strong national system of early learning and child care in Canada, it does not focus sufficiently on inclusion quality for children with disabilities. Without this focus, these children, and their families, will get left behind.

Inclusion Quality presents a thoughtful analysis of the recent work of SpeciaLink—the results of observations using the SpeciaLink Early Childhood Inclusion Quality Scale, in over 65 early learning and child care centres across Canada, and provides essential recommendations toward improving the quality of care for children with disabilities.

Free PDF: Inclusion Quality is available right now in this website as a PDF, at no cost. Click here: resources/index.html

The Executive Summary and Recommendations from Inclusion Quality are available in French and in English, here: resources/index.html    

Inclusion Quality is also available in paperback for $40.00. Order it at bretonbooks@gmail.com