Make a child care complaint

Talk to your caregiver

If you have concerns about your child’s care, your first step is to talk to the staff or your caregiver. You should:

• schedule a time with your caregiver to talk about your concerns (that way, both you and the staff or caregiver will be ready to talk)
• be prepared and make notes ahead of time about your concerns
• be clear about what’s being said (if you need clarification or have concerns about your caregiver’s response, ask him or her to explain it further)
• arrange a follow-up meeting (if necessary)

Make a complaint (licensed care)

To report a complaint about a licensed child care centre, licensed home child care agency or licensed home child care provider, please contact us:

Telephone: 1-877-510-5333
Email: childcare_ontario@ontario.ca

Make a complaint (unlicensed care)

To report a complaint about an unlicensed child care provider, please contact us:

Telephone: 1-844-516-6263
Email: uccv@ontario.ca

What information to include

When making a complaint, please give as much as information as you can. This will make it easier for the Ministry of Education to look into your complaint.

Please include:

• name of the child care centre or home child care agency
• address of the child care centre, or location where licensed home child care is being provided
• a description of your concern, including relevant dates and course of events

Search for a violation

Find out if a child care provider (licensed or unlicensed) in Ontario has a confirmed violation under the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 such as:

• providing unlicensed care to more than five children under the age of 13 (including their own children that are younger than four years old)
• providing unlicensed care to more than three children under the age of two (including their own children)
• providing home child care at more than one premise without a license
• providing licensed home child care for more than six children under the age of 13 (including their own children under the age of 4)
• obstruction of an inspector conducting an inspection of an unlicensed or licensed child care provider

You can also find out if a child care provider was issued a compliance order, protection order or administrative penalty or if they were convicted of an offence under the CCEYA.

Search for child care violations

How it works

You can use the registry to search for child care violations recorded and verified against:

• unlicensed child care providers since January 2012
• licensed providers since August 2015

Search by entering:

• the individual’s name
• business name
• address

Your privacy

In addition, if we have your personal information (e.g., name, address, telephone number and/or email), ministry staff can contact you for more information if needed and follow up with you after the complaint has been investigated.

Personal information provided in connection with a complaint is collected under the authority of the Child Care and Early Years Act.

You are not required to provide personal information when you make a complaint. If you do, the Ministry will not disclose it to the child care program during the follow-up process. However, the program may be able to identify you based on the nature of the complaint.

There are some situations where the Ministry may disclose your information. For example, the Ministry may decide to disclose your personal information to other organizations, such as police or public health, to allow them to investigate the complaint. In addition, the Ministry is required to disclose information to children’s aid societies to allow them to investigate if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a child is in need of protection. The Ministry may also be required to disclose your information if the investigation of your complaint results in a hearing or prosecution involving the child care program.

If you do not consent to the collection of your personal information, please do not include any personal information when making a complaint.

If you have any questions about the collection of your personal information, you can contact the Manager, Program, Policy and Operations Unit at 416-325-5832 or by mail at 77 Wellesley Street West, Box 980, Toronto ON M7A 1N3.