Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Tomomi. I'm Mount President resident and the mother of seven years old with diverse needs. I'm here today to share what I have witnessed at the ground level and to bring the voice of many parents and members of the disability community in the Vancouver District. Last year, I presented alongside 50 other community members about the importance of individual consistent support for each child with diverse needs. I have since seen inclusive education featured at Florida Day and more SSAs hired, but I have not seen meaningful improvement on the ground. My ask this year is straightforward, track all the inclusive educational funds and how they are used for the children and the teachers and the SSAs. Despite the growing number of SSAs, actual support for children and teachers are not improved. So I have to ask, what is your measure of success? Children are not commodity. Each child has unique strengths and challenges. The school environment, the language teachers use, and the attitude of staff all shape a child's development. Consistent one-on-one support is the key to building a stable trusting relationship between a child and a trusted adult. Yet the district continue to rely on temporary and on-call SSA, assigning them to different location day to day, sometimes splitting a single SSA between two schools, morning one side and afternoon at the other. This is not workable condition for SSA and it is not meaningful support for students. My son is fortunate to attend a school with dedicated, open-minded teachers and the staff, and he does receive one-on-one support, but he still cannot participate in full school day due to staff shortage. Why? I heard from a mother at another school whose non-verbal child was told to leave early because he didn't focus the whole day. even with one-on-one support in place. Co-regulation and redirection are essential tools for navigating this moment, and I am left wondering whether the SSS supporting these children have the training to use them.

Here are three more examples of what inadequate support looks like in practice. Some students mask their emotions at school and appear to cope. then fall apart at the moment they get home. Some cannot manage the noise of a crowded gym at lunch, go without eating, and are too dysregulated to participate in the afternoon.

Some student wants to join an activity but cannot articulate what they need in the moment, and when the frustration spilled over, they are removed from the classroom. These are exactly the situation where a trusted adult makes a difference. someone who knows the children's expression and body language, who can read the earlier signs, offer the right support, and guide the child back to the lesson. This is a benefit to teachers too, who can then focus on the whole class with reliable partner on site. To be clear about the role, it is not simply sitting beside a child all day. It is identifying emotion, keeping children safe, physically and emotionally, collaborating when needed, and guiding the student back to work. The goal is that over time, the student develops the capacity to do this independently.

As our fellow presenter noted in the previous meeting, inclusive education fund must be used to support students and teachers, and the result must be tracked. We are asking for accountability. Here are our specific questions. How many SSAs are employed at full-time, part-time, temporary, or on call? And in which school they are assigned? Do they have the skill needed to support children with diverse need? What additional insight training is offered to SSAs, EAs, teachers, and staff? Increasing the number of SSAs is not solution to its own. Quality matters. Thank you.

I also want to know what types of skill set they have. And obviously students are too overstimulated with the many noises, different stimuli in the school. So I understand they are tired, even the neurotypical children.

Well, I want to know actually what they are doing, because even I ask the question, the clear answer is often no, because the temporary support staff coming in and go. And teacher cannot sometimes answer either, because teacher is relying on them, but they don't know who's coming today, tomorrow, even they are there or not.

Good evening, trustees. My name is Audrey Liang. I'm a grade 12 student at Pointe Gray Mini School and the co-founder and president of our school's debate team. Thank you so much for welcoming my comments tonight. I'd like to start off by sharing a personal experience that speaks to the impact of school libraries. Back in grade 10, at the age of 15, I was unexpectedly hospitalized for a post-COVID condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C. a life-threatening immune reaction that inflames multiple organs. But even after I left the hospital, my recovery didn't end there. I was later diagnosed with functional neurological disorder, or FND, a condition that affects how the brain sends and receives signals to the body. It meant that even when there was no structural damage, my body still wouldn't respond the way it was supposed to. At one point, I required a walker just to move around like my classmates. There were moments of frustration, moments of doubt, and moments where I felt like I was falling behind, not just academically, but in a life I used to recognize. Simple things like getting through a school day or moving between classes became overwhelming in ways I had never experienced before. And during that time, the library became my place because it was the only space that didn't feel overwhelming. It gave me a chance, even for just a little while, to forget about what I was going through. but more than the space, it was the people in it that made the biggest difference. Our school librarian, Ms. Rodlin, took the time to understand what I was going through. She introduced me to a memoir written by a young local author who had lived through a chronic illness during her teenage years. In her story, I saw experiences that mirrored my own, suddenly becoming unwell, losing a sense of normalcy, and trying to rebuild a life that no longer felt familiar. Then Ms. Brodlin presented an opportunity I will never forget, the opportunity to meet the author herself. Sitting in the same room and having a conversation with someone who had lived through something so similar and who had found a way forward gave me something I hadn't felt in a long time, hope. A reminder that my story wasn't over and that there was still a life beyond the moment. Sorry, I'm just gonna...

Okay, thank you. Thanks. More importantly, I realized something fundamental. The library is far more than just books on its shelves. It is a space where our individual experiences and stories truly connect. It's a place where students can feel seen and supported in ways that go well beyond their academic performance. And my experience reflects a broader reality. In every school, students are navigating invisible challenges like stress, burnout, learning differences, or unexpected health crises, events that deeply shape how they engage with their education. That is why school libraries are core educational infrastructure. They act as stabilizing environments where students can pause and rest, but they are also essential academic hubs. Under the guidance of teacher librarians, these spaces teach us how to research, think critically, and work independently. They are also a matter of equity. Not every student has a quiet place to study, access to reliable technology, or books at home, but it is the library that helps close that gap and ensure that every student has the support they need to succeed. But right now, libraries are being asked to do more with limited funding. In many schools, that means reduced access to up-to-date books and learning materials, less availability of technology and academic support. It can also mean fewer opportunities for students to receive one-on-one help, participate in literacy programs, or access a consistent supportive space throughout the day. As resources are stretched, it becomes harder to maintain the level of support that students rely on. And in the end, it's students who feel it through less access to guidance, fewer opportunities to fully engage in their learning, and fewer spaces where they feel supported and are able to succeed. Tonight, I'm asking you to prioritize our school libraries, not just as a place for books, but as essential places that support both learning and student wellbeing. Increasing funding for libraries mean ensuring students have access to the resources, support, and environment they need to succeed. Thank you.

You can begin. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jenna Otto-Ray, and I'm here representing Friends of School Libraries. I'm a parent from AR Lord Elementary in East Vancouver. I'm a reader and a weekly public library visitor. I work at neighborhood houses, and I'm a believer in belonging, connection, and the importance of community spaces like libraries. As a young child, like my daughter is today, I was a library kid, finding leadership opportunities, belonging, safety, and refuge from the rain and my elementary school library in Southeast Vancouver. I'm here to advocate for the imperativeness of school libraries, the role they play as a part of education and the places of belonging they create within school communities. I'm also here to call on this group to address discrepancies and inequities across the district and implore that you consider them when making your budgetary decisions throughout the next few weeks. My kid is in grade five. She is shy, she is quiet, she is an observer, and she is a reader. Her school, AR Lord in Northeast Vancouver, is one of the lucky ones. While being a small school with only nine divisions, they have a permanent teacher librarian, Barb Parkin, who through combining library and resource hours, is able to ensure their library is open five days a week. This means that a kid like mine has found consistency, belonging, and leadership opportunities during times of uncertainty or inconsistency in other aspects of her school life. The library where she is now a monitor two days a week has been consistent for her throughout her six years at AR Lord. And I know how lucky we are because that's not the case for schools across the district. We know that library resourcing is inequitable for a variety of reasons, and I urge all of you to allocate funds to narrow these gaps. Annexes in smaller schools, because of their size, are allocated one or as little as .5 days of library support a week. meaning these schools aren't able to provide the consistent space for the kids who need the reliable landing place. This is felt especially in schools and communities where pay inequity, marginalization, and language barriers are disproportionately present compared to the rest of the city. In these neighborhoods like mine in Hastings-Sunrise, having regular access to school libraries equals healthy school communities. Currently, libraries, especially in elementary schools, can't keep up with the insatiable thirst for books, an incredible problem to have.

School libraries have to rely on their PAC's financial support, and the communities that are living paycheck to paycheck can't be called upon to stock their libraries, so wealthier neighborhoods have better resourced ones. It is impossible to keep up with inflation, as we all know, with the current allocations and budgets, which means the librarians' buying power has gone down significantly, leaving less books in the schools who need them the most. And lastly, I implore this group to reconsider the planned defunding of the teacher-librarian mentor role. This singular full-time position is pivotal to the district connecting and supporting teacher librarians in both elementary and secondary schools. Their role touches libraries across the 100 plus schools in Vancouver. They provide professional development workshops and organize entire conference days, support teacher librarians with maintaining diverse library collections and building lessons on digital literacy. They work with new teacher librarians who are learning about their role and they act as communications hub to help problem solve and keep our libraries running smoothly. Losing this cross-district role will be felt across the 100 plus schools throughout Vancouver, their librarians that teach at those schools, and all the learners who attend them. I've watched my kid grow this year as a leader in her school community, and that has much to do with the role that she plays in Barb Parkins Library. Our libraries are not only integral in education and literacy, but also ensure kids find community, belonging, and consistency no matter what is going on in their lives. Thank you for your time.

Trustees, thank you for taking the time to hear from us today. My name is Nate Stanley, and I'm one of the co-chairs of Cope Vancouver, better known as the Coalition of Progressive Electors. There's two challenges to achieving the schools we need in Vancouver. First is the direct result of decades of chronic underfunding by the province. Next year the funding for all students including the extra funding to support inclusive education and other programs will be frozen at the 2025-2026 levels. Frozen funding is cut funding. What this means is that school boards will need to make cuts to staff and programs and that is reflected in this draft budget. cuts to school food programs, cuts to English language learners, cuts to indigenous education, and cuts to adult education. It's a reduction in services that Vancouver students rely on. Trustees, I urge you to lobby for increased funding from the province and to push for new revenue sources such as more equitable taxation to fund what is needed in Vancouver schools. The second challenge as you work towards balancing next year's proposed budget is on what basis should you choose to fund what to fund, knowing that you are not able to fund everything. At COPE, the Coalition of Progressive Electors has been a long defender of our schools and the children who learn there since our founding in 1968. Here are three values we hold, which may hopefully guide you to make the best decisions for our students. First, COPE is committed to funding the teachers and providing the resources directly in the classroom. The classroom and services to the classroom are the first priority. Trustees we urge you to revise the draft budget to replace resource teachers on the first day of absence on in the draft budget. There is a statement about teachers on call not being able to replicate the targeted support on a casual basis. do not agree with this statement as what you are saying is that it is better to leave students who need extra help with no service until two days have passed how is this helping students where are the resources in the classroom secondly although you could have made minor cuts to district and school-based administrators you could still make further cuts to the senior manager levels and put that funding into staffing that would directly service students in our schools

The next thing COPE firmly believes in is that there is need for more mental health support in our schools for youth and children at risk instead of police. We believe that those students are better served by healthcare and education professionals rather than police. Last year, there were staff reductions to the safe and caring school programs. This year, there are further reductions to SSBs who work with students facing significant social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges. We ask that if these SSB positions are no longer needed at some of these programs, they should be redeployed to other schools where they needed rather than being outright cut.

And lastly, the Coalition of Progressive Electors supports a living wage for all workers in Vancouver School Board workers. This Vancouver School Board decided to eliminate the living wage policy. This decision resulted in school district bus drivers who drive students with diverse learning needs to and from school, to face pay cuts and economic insecurity. We ask that you lead by example and reinstate this policy as all workers deserve a living wage. In closing, we ask that you consider our suggestions so Vancouver schools can be places that are inclusive, equitable, and accepting, and that our schools provide safe learning environments for students. Thank you for your time.

All right, so there are a lot of misconceptions in our schools about how inclusive education funding works in BC. Parents of kids with invisible disabilities, which I've spoken about here to your team before, are frequently told that their child's disability is not funded and that they don't qualify for more support. So I'm here today to clarify how the provincial funding works with the general goal of changing this narrative so that we can better support students with disabilities and their families. So next slide.

In an effort to explain the funding, which I will give you is quite confusing, VSB has been using the graphic shown here to communicate the ministry funding for inclusive education. On the left hand side is the VSB spending and on the right hand side is the supplemental grant amount for the inclusive education funding that goes to level one, two and three students. At the bottom, you'll see the difference between the two is $43 million. This number is discussed in the budget as money that VSB spends that's over and above the inclusive education funding provided by the province. And in a recent board meeting, I saw a couple of trustees saying, you know, in a perfect world, the ministry would give us that $43 million. Next slide. conversely the ministry of education's website also shares information about how inclusive education funding works and while this page detail the link is there below that it details the amounts that are allotted per pupil under level one two and three funding it also says that under the basic allocation it includes funds to support the learning needs of students who are identified as having learning disabilities mild intellectual disabilities, students requiring moderate behavior supports, and students who are gifted. And on the next slide. Next slide, sorry.

Oh, we missed one. I'll just read it. Oh, they look the same. Sorry. There we go. Okay. It further states the basic allocation also includes funds to support boards of education in providing learning assistance, speech pathology services, physiotherapy services, hospital homebound services, and assessment service. And just to clarify, this is under the basic allocation. So next slide. So as I mentioned before, parents of kids with invisible disabilities are regularly told that their child's designation is not funding, which is not true per the previous two slides from the ministry's web page. The budget's documents in relation to this or the infographic at very least seems to be somewhat misleading and suggests that the inclusion efforts of the district are more generous than what the province gives. Next slide. And so just to clarify the math in that statement, the basic allocation for next year is $443 million of what some portion of that should be going to inclusive education.

Next slide. So I agree the ministry does not give us enough money. Please go and advocate for more money from the provincial government. But I would just like to call attention to the slide with a tiny edit on the math. Because on the right-hand side, there is a portion, a percent of the base allocation that should be coming from the base allocation that is for inclusive education. And so I would re-correct the statement of in a perfect world, the ministry would provide sufficient funding within the basic allocation to support the needs of both students with and without diverse needs.

And one more slide.

And so my ask for today is that we change the narrative of how we talk about supports for inclusive education. Parents of kids with invisible disabilities should never be told that their child's designation is not funded. That's the worst thing to hear as a parent. Budget documents should align with the ministry's website page, and the budget documents shouldn't mislead the readers to think that the VSB is being generous by giving more than what the province provides through that infographic.

Oh, okay. I am on video.

Oh, lovely. Okay. Thank you very much. And hello, everybody. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is May. I'm a mother of two. And I'm here today to express my unequivocal support for this motion. Like I said, I'm a mother of two. I grew up in Vancouver and I'm still here with my family. My youngest is a year and a half and my oldest is turning five next month. She's going to be starting school in September. And like many parents, my search for childcare and the stress that has accompanied that search has basically been ongoing since um since before she was born um you know you've probably heard the story a million times i put on all the wait lists we went through all the the various hoops we landed in various types of child care over the past four years um and that search now continues with my son unfortunately he doesn't get any priority into the daycares that my daughter got into due to age limits But I'm not here to sort of express my frustration about childcare for zero to five. What I wanted to mention though, is you can imagine how relieved I was when we got a call just a couple of months back that we got an offer to be in the afterschool care program at our school. This program is attached to the school. It's through the community center. It provides before and after school care, professional development days, It provides care during spring break and summer. And I truly feel as though I have won the lottery. It feels life changing. Like a huge weight has been, I'm sorry, I'm actually getting emotional. Like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It is, it's actually incredible. The insane thing though, is that I put her on the wait list when she was one year old. like i i and i don't even know why i have the foresight to do that i think i got word from somebody in the neighborhood that said oh you know after school care is even harder than daycare so make sure you get on the wait list now so i went ahead and did it and it paid off but it shouldn't be like that And now I've spoken to a number of families in my neighborhood who are going to send their kids to this neighborhood school who did not get into the after-school care program. And the only reason we got in is because we put her in when she was a year, four years before she was actually, you know, enrolled in school. So it shouldn't be like this. The reality is it is. We're in a crisis. And if the VSB has an opportunity right now to look into a potential solution or a potential way of alleviating this situation, alleviating the stress on the system.

I truly feel like it is incumbent on the DSP to take those steps necessary to at least look into it, at least try it out and see what can be done, because like I said, you know, the feeling of finally having some sort of stable child care truly feels life changing. It shouldn't be that case. We should all be entitled to some form of good child care for our kids. It's so important for the stability of our families, for the well-being of our children. So I urge you to vote in favor of this extremely important motion. I would be happy to take any questions. If you have any, an apology for getting emotional. It just goes to show how important this issue is.

So that must have been very out of context, Ben, and you're probably wondering. Why? I see there's another question from Trustee Jennifer Reddy, and I believe it is going to be her motion. So why don't I let her actually just explain it?

I don't have the stats. This is really just anecdotally. When I'm at the park talking to parents, there's a handful of people who have gotten in. However, there's probably equal number of people that I've spoken to who didn't get in. So for instance, we are in a duplex. My duplex neighbor is going to be going to school with my daughter. They didn't get in. um there's another at least three to four other parents that i've spoken to who haven't gotten in there's also a handful of people who did in part because of sibling uh priority i know some of those folks were people who had siblings in the program and those siblings obviously get priority um so i i don't have the sort of firm statistics um but certainly it's it's not an anomaly to hear of people not getting in it's not a rare occurrence

okay wonderful um thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you today um similarly to may who i was actually just listening to on the live stream speak right before me um i also am calling in to talk about out of school care and express my strong support um for the motion that trustee ready has brought forward or that you will all be seeing um when it comes forward shortly for the budget to allocate what seems to be a very small and reasonable amount of funds for a feasibility study into a pilot program of offering out-of-school care on-site at Vancouver schools. So I'm a parent to a five-year-old and a 16-year-old. My 16-year-old daughter, we managed to get her into out-of-school care really by fluke. It was one of those things where I was really persistent because we were desperate for it. And one of the programs that served her school finally agreed to give us a space two days a week because that's what they could handle. And the day I showed up with post-dated checks, someone had just dropped out. So they gave us a space instead of going to their wait list. It was such a fluke. And I genuinely and literally don't know what our family would have done without that. We don't have extended family. We don't have grandparents. We don't have aunts and uncles. And myself and my partner both work full-time jobs that are not very flexible. I will say one of the other places that we put my daughter on a wait list for called us and offered us a spot when she was 13, that many years later. That is how oversubscribed these programs are. With my younger son, who's in kindergarten this year, we were luckily successful in getting him into a private out-of-school care place after a couple of months. Um, but from next year, we're going to be paying nearly $700 a month. And you know, that after not getting into affordable childcare for the first five years of his life, I mean, we will be spending well over a hundred thousand dollars on childcare just for that child, which is just, um, yeah, out of reach for so many families. And, um, I, I think that schools are such a great space. I've seen other jurisdictions, other places where they have onsite care at schools. These facilities are safe for children. They're appropriate. There are staff on site who may wish to extend their hours and offer child care. And it would give us something that our current care doesn't have. So the current care that we are paying a lot for doesn't offer any support on Probe D days, spring break, winter break, summer break. That's a lot to cover. And I just really want to echo what May said. to feel a bit emotional thinking about this because it would be life-changing for so many thousands of families across the school district not to have to stress about it it is that thing where years before both my kids started schools there's the rumors and the whispers and the okay if you go to a summer camp at this neighborhood house maybe you'll get priority and you could get on the wait list and then you could get a spot it's such a lottery

and i watch other kids in my son's kindergarten class whose parents do shift work and have to patch together like all of these kind of piecemeal a grandparent here a neighbor there it just feels impossibly difficult and so i think it's incredible that especially with from my understanding i'm not an expert but i understand that the province has changed the rules so that it's possible for this type of program to be offered now or it's more easy for it to be offered and I just think it is such an incredible opportunity and it feels like such an important step to do a feasibility study to see what the genuine barriers might be and how they can be overcome and what it would look like in practice. So I support this motion and I really appreciate you offering me the opportunity to speak. Thank you.

It's off site and so we are lucky that it's close enough that they can walk from the school there, but they do have about a 20 minute walk and so it would be. Yeah, amazing and incredible to have care that was on site.

Hi everyone, my name is Rachel Tetreault. I'm a mom of two young boys who one who attends. Yeah honey.

That's right, one of the two is home right now watching TV, so hopefully that entertains him for the next few minutes. So I'm the mom of two young boys, one who. uh is next to me right here he's two years old and the other is five and attends kindergarten in vancouver and i'm here to speak in favor of trustee ready's motion for the vsb to allocate fifty thousand dollars to conduct a feasibility survey and study to figure out what it would take for the vsb to run its own before and after school care programs so there's a running joke in vancouver when you announce you're pregnant people don't say congratulations they say are you on a daycare waitlist yet and when your kid gets into daycare the question becomes i know your kid's only one but have you thought of what school your kid's going to go to and which after-school care program because you've got to get on the waitlist now I just heard Liz say that her kid didn't get on until they were age 13, like absolutely wild. And it sounds absurd because it absolutely is. And the experience of Vancouver parents is defined by many, many wait lists for something that should be a given. High quality, accessible care for our kids. Schools open around nine and they close at three, as we know. And this is a schedule that does not resemble the hours of most working families in Vancouver. Yet most of the programs that exist only service about 15% of the kids in schools across the city. So it leaves most of us scrambling. We're making impossible choices to piece together some type of care for our kids and a way to work and live and make it all come together for our lives to live in this expensive city. And this is, of course, not unique to me and my family. We've just heard of previous speakers, but there's also hundreds of us, thousands of us. And so I'd like to read you an open letter, which is, as of today, been signed by over 900 Vancouver parents and community supporters. So this is the letter from over 900 of us. Dear Trustees of the Vancouver School Board, we are writing to express our strong support for Trustee Reddy's motion urging the Vancouver School Board to conduct a feasibility study into operating licensed school-aged childcare on multiple school sites. We support this motion because it seeks to address a crisis that Vancouver families are all too familiar with. Out-of-school care in the city is scarce, expensive, and often impossible to find. This motion is a meaningful step towards fixing that. Despite years of promises at every level of government, licensed out-of-school care remains inaccessible for most Vancouver families. Weightless stretch for years. And if you are lucky enough to get a spot, costs are often prohibitively expensive, consuming a significant share of household income. And for families with non-traditional work hours or children with complex needs, the options are even more limited.

the burden of the child care shortage shortage does not fall equally on every family it falls hardest on single parents on lower income families and disproportionately on women who continue to bear the majority of caregiving responsibilities a lack of accessible out-of-school care is not just an inconvenience it is a barrier to economic participation and equity bsb schools sit largely empty before and after school hours using existing space to provide licensed community-based out-of-school care is a smart use of public infrastructure school-based program also naturally aligns with the rhythms of family life same location same calendar same community and prioritizing vsb staff and enrollment is not only a practical starting point but it addresses the difficulty the vsb has in retaining teachers over the last several years Vancouver needs more licensed out-of-school care spaces. Vancouver parents have been waiting too long for real solutions to the out-of-school care crisis. This is an opportunity for the VSB to take meaningful, practical action, not just for its own staff, but for the broader community it serves. So we, all 900 of us, plus, plus, it's growing every day, this letter, we call on all VSB trustees to support this motion when you have the opportunity to. And this is from over 900 parents and community members of the Vancouver School District. So thank you for listening to this letter on behalf of all of these folks who've signed it. All of these parents who are really waiting for a solution to this crisis in this school district. My youngest sitting next to me here, he's two and three years. He will be starting school in the district. He is on all of the wait lists and I really hope that by the time he gets there, those wait lists won't exist anymore because there'll be enough care available for everyone. Thank you so much.

Yeah, I did submit it as part of my written submission for this to prepare for this. Was that not received?

yeah so this is just based on some research at the local school in my neighborhood so um nelson elementary school is close by and this is just like there's not totally publicly available information of how many people are enrolled in the frog hollow after school care program but the amount of spots that i understand there to be compared to the population of the school is about 15 sorry appreciate that uh trustee ready i see you have your hand up but rachel just popped out for a second

Submissions that were made in accordance with the timelines that were published on our website and communicated to public delegations have been included in the agenda. All late submissions have been shared with trustees and a summary of public engagement will be published before. the budget approval is considered by the board on April 29th.

Thanks. Thank you for having me. My name is Justin Sekiguchi. I'm a parent living in East Vancouver with a five-year-old daughter who will be starting kindergarten this year. I'm here to support the pilot for out-of-school care in Vancouver School Board schools. Like other working parents out of school, childcare isn't a nice to have. It's what makes it possible for me to show up to work. My partner and I both work full time. We have no extended family nearby to lean on, and our schedules don't bend around a 9 a.m. drop off and 3 p.m. pickup. The public education system was designed without working families in mind. We shouldn't have to choose between child care or keeping our jobs. The infrastructure for this already exists. Schools are distributed across every neighborhood in the city, and roughly 70% of existing school age children already operates on school properties. And yet the Vancouver School Board, which owns that space and host those programs, isn't the one running them, leaving the vast majority of school age children without reliable access to care. That's not a gap. That's a structural failure. The solution is straightforward. Expand out of school care through the Vancouver School Board. The children are already there. The buildings are already there. Doing so would make child care more accessible, more affordable and more consistent. for the families who need it the most. Thank you for your time.

Yes, I can. Can you hear me?

I do, but I haven't been able to get my camera working, unfortunately.

Thank you very much. Thanks for letting me speak today. My name is Dan Ward, and I'm here to speak in favor of the motion before the board today. to initiate a feasibility study to explore the operation of before and after school care. I'm a parent of two young kids in the city of Vancouver, one in kindergarten and the other soon to be. I'll need to be brief because the TV show looking after my kid is about to end. But I'm here today because this motion is a critical step to enabling the BSB to further leverage school sites to support students and staff. To quote the reaction of everyone I've mentioned this motion to, yeah, that sounds like a no-brainer. It was very exciting to have our kid reach kindergarten age, I have to say. After years of traveling to different daycares across the city, and even one outside the city, getting that enrollment letter from our catchment school felt like we finally made it. Finally care in our neighborhood. without the $800 to $1,700 price tag of other care providers we've had. Little did we know we had actually hit the final boss of the Vancouver childcare game. We had care nine to three, but have work hours that extend before and after that. So in the end, we were lucky to find before and after school, like to get on a wait list and eventually got into a program that picks up kids and holds them at a local park. rain or shine until parents are able to arrive.

But it's less than ideal. Sometimes they accidentally leave a kid at school, but it's what we got. My point here is demand is high. I think everyone's aware, but just want to reinforce that we need this and kids need this. My second and final point is that this would be an attractive option for school staff to extend their hours. Between 2013 and 2015, I worked as a student support worker in VSB schools, coming into the role after years of working with school-aged kids in other settings. If the opportunity existed at the time to opt to extend my work hours for before and after school care, I would have taken that in a heartbeat. Not only would this have provided a meaningful bump to my paycheck, but it would have been a welcome change of pace from my role during instructional time. My partner and I often feel silly trying to make it work in this city. Please make us feel less silly I guess is my ask and more hopeful by enthusiastically supporting this motion and future actions that could help further leverage the district's capacity to facilitate before and after school care. Thank you very much.

Okay, this time I can't hear you.

yeah i am uh just like i just pull um to the side of the road uh because i was driving before i joined the meeting okay wonderful keep it off if that's okay that is okay we're gonna begin your time right now and you can you can start presenting okay great thank you my name is ayla and ironically i'm late to this meeting because i drive across the city to access child care And it takes every day one hour and it is away from the community that I live in. And I'm a mom of two with a school-age child starting kindergarten in September. And like many working parents, I rely on out-of-school child care to ensure my child will be safe and supported. And I work with a very strict work schedule. No extended family, an immigrant, women of color in the city with no alternative support system that I can access. And I was shocked to learn about children's admitted in the school in the early morning at 9 a.m., release at 3 p.m., which has no correlation with the working people's schedule, majority of the working people's schedule, or anyone that can actually work if there were accessible childcare. So I feel this public education system is failing families in the city. And lack of available out of school care spaces are extremely stressing my family and right now deriving every choice that my partner and I make. and we are forced to make choices between do we earn less income and spend thousands or dollars to child care out of school care and that leads a discussion to do we need to meet with our basic living needs or do we make the choice and give away some of them to be able to keep our kids safe during after school hours And I know probably many parents, including some of you as trustees, as working parents, widely share this experience. And very recently, in 2022, I was very thrilled to see the City of Vancouver's childcare analysis, which shows there is a significant shortage of licensed childcare spaces across the city, particularly for school-age children. However, there is a huge potential if we utilize the resources within the school system. I live in East Vancouver where a higher number of low income newcomer and indigenous families live. And for example, there are approximately more than like 600 students enrolled in one of our catchment schools. I will talk to you live in a bit. Hastings Elementary is our catchment school and currently all the providers in this school are stretched and they can meet the demand. Only less than 10% of the school population can access to out of school care.

And the part that I want to highlight is I want to ask like we know who are in the schools. We know the students in the schools. They are distributed across neighborhoods. Schools are the ideal infrastructure for equitable out-of-school care for students. And we know the current system is significantly lacking spaces. And even most existing, like among existing spaces, about 70% of school child care is located on school properties. However, the spaces are not universally available. Still, they are not accessible. And the VSB owns the space. space host the programs but by not operating them uh bsb is currently living around like 80 90 of school-age children without out-of-school care this is a systematic problem and you have the power to fix it and in 2020 bc school act was updated right now we're encouraging school boards to directly operate school age child care. This means you have the legislative support as the VSP trustees to take on this role. I am not responding my child because I want to urge you, VSP trustees, use your power as representative of the public and support this motion that will initiate a study for school board led model. Expanding out of school care through VSP is the solution that we need right now. because students are already in the school and it will improve accessibility, affordability, and stability. And I will cut it short to not let my child cry, but I think you got the point. You have the power, you have the support, you have the system, you have the space. Out-of-school care needs to be accessible to families and students right now, not tomorrow. Thank you.

Hi, everybody.

Okay. Thanks for allowing me to speak this evening. My name is Harper Keenan, and I'm an assistant professor at the UBC Faculty of Education, where my research focuses on early childhood and elementary education. And this, along with my previous job as an elementary school teacher and my current role as the parent of a future VSB student, provides me with some expertise supporting the motion for the board to fund a feasibility study for out of school care in the VSB. So I'm just going to talk a little bit about the empirical research on this. Out-of-school care is not a peripheral service. It is essential educational infrastructure. For a district like the Vancouver School Board, investing in these programs is directly tied to student success, family stability, and system sustainability. Harvard University researcher Bianca Baldridge reminds us that schools alone cannot meet all of students' developmental needs. The hours before and after the school day matter. High-quality out-of-school programs provide safe, structured environments where students build relationships, develop social-emotional skills, and stay meaningfully engaged in learning. In a city like Vancouver, where the cost of living is among the highest in the country, this is also a workforce issue. Families rely on consistent, affordable care to maintain employment. When these supports are not available, the burden falls disproportionately on working families, particularly those already facing economic pressure. And we also need to be clear about the system level consequences. When public schools cannot offer reliable out-of-school care, families make pragmatic decisions. Some turn to private schools, not necessarily for academics, but for the stability of extended day programming. In this way, gaps in care are not just a social issue, they are an enrollment and retention issue for the public system. And failing to offer adequate out-of-school care can lead to divestment from public education. The research on this is clear. Participation in high quality out-of-school programs improves academic outcomes, strengthens attendance, and reduces risk behaviors in young people. It also improves student behavior during the school day. Students develop self-regulation, caring social relationships, and conflict resolution skills, leading to fewer disruptions and more time focused on learning. Particularly for students from marginalized communities, these programs are even more crucial. They can be culturally and identity-affirming spaces where students experience social belonging, identity development, and leadership opportunities. Scholars like prominent learning scientist Naila Suhad Naseer and educational researcher Sean Ginwright show that these environments are key to engagement, student agency, and long-term success. My own research recently published in a leading Canadian education research journal curriculum inquiry has developed or demonstrated the positive impact of out-of-school care for young children who experience bullying and social marginalization at school. These programs offer valuable additional time and supports for children to develop the social relationships that are foundational to their academic success.

For the Vancouver School Board, this is a clear choice. Expanding equitable access to out-of-school care is not an add-on. It is a concrete, evidence-based strategy to support families, improve student outcomes, reduce behavioral challenges and social marginalization, and strengthen public education. In a city where families are already stretched, the question is not whether we need out-of-school care. It's whether we're willing to treat it as essential to a functioning, equitable public school system. Thank you.