Memramcook daycare trial raises questions about monitoring

A former Memramcook daycare owner has admitted in court to tying children to chairs to calm them down and throwing water in a boy's face to shock him out of a tantrum, a case that raises questions about discipline methods used inside publicly-licensed daycares.

But those issues are not addressed in a new government report, released on Friday afternoon, on the future and quality of child care in the province.

Celine Lang, who ran the Couvee de la Vallee daycare in the southeastern New Brunswick village, is facing 10 charges of assault against children.

She's also charged with assault and assault with a weapon -- throwing a flower pot at an employee. She has pleaded not guilty to these charges.

Her two-week trial ended with closing arguments on Friday, and Judge Jean-Paul Ouellette will have a ruling on Sept. 27.

Throughout the trial, Lang's lawyer argued she used "reasonable force" in the course of dealing with the children in her care.  

But according to provincial daycare regulations, no corporal punishment is permitted in licensed child care centres.

"[We're] focused more on child guidance. So basically no corporal punishment. The educators must follow positive techniques of child guidance," said Diane Lutes, director of Anglophone Early Childhood Services.

• Ex-daycare owner used 'reasonable force' on children: defence 
• Ex-daycare owner Celine Lang grilled by Crown about dousing boy with water 
• Ex-daycare owner testifies she tied children to chairs when they were restless

Her department receives about 25 complaints a month about daycares on issues ranging from discipline to record-keeping to food services, Lutes said in an interview with Shift on CBC Radio.

While some of the methods described in testimony at the trial would be considered extreme, even a common discipline method like sending a child to sit in a time-out chair is being phased out at regulated daycares.

"We discourage time outs. We don't prohibit it per se, but we do discourage it and sending a child to a cot or mat is prohibited," said Lutes.

Case raises questions about monitoring

The final report from a task force on child care in the province, called "Valuing Children, Families and Childcare," talks about re-designing the child care system to be publicly-funded and fully not-for-profit.

But it doesn't delve into whether the system of monitoring and vetting the quality of care of daycare services is adequate.

Daycares in the province are subject to an in-depth annual inspection, but may get three or more unscheduled monitoring visits a year. 

The 22 daycare inspectors each have a caseload of about 45 childcare centres.

​"If a facility has a history of non-compliance, our staff may be visiting a bit more," Lutes said.

A glance at New Brunswick's online daycare inspection registry doesn't reveal whether other daycares have been flagged for improper discipline.

The province's online daycare registry reveals some details of those inspections, but not all. The registry includes a checklist of standards that daycares must follow, with a red X beside any standard a daycare doesn't meet.

But there's no way to figure out why a daycare didn't meet that standard.

That's because the online registry is much less detailed than the original paper inspection reports produced by inspectors. The online registry doesn't include comments left by inspectors, which can add context to problems found by inspectors.

Former Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Serge Rousselle publicly promised a more detailed inspection registry in April 2015, but the new registry has yet to launch.

Lutes said parents can have confidence that the daycares they're sending their children to are safe, but they should research what is expected of the daycares so they can spot issues as they appear.

"It's really helpful if [parents] understand and know what they should be looking for," said Lutes.