Ottawa School Day Nursery History

The Ottawa School Day Nursery Inc. was formed in 1986, but its "beginning" was several years in the making. The Corporation, as we know it today, has an extensive history. Built from humble beginnings, it has continued to grow and evolve over the years. In this time, programs have changed, obstacles have been overcome, challenges have been met, and goals have been set. With a continued focus on the needs of children and their families within the Ottawa area, the OSDN Inc.'s goal has always been clearly pointed toward the need for quality school based childcare.

During the early years, May 1983 to May 1986, the former Ottawa Board of Education established and operated several school based child care programs. At the time the Board of Education held the licenses for these centres; with the later option for each centre to form an independent Parent Board, their own corporations, and hold their own licenses.

In May of 1986 concerns were expressed by Trustees of the Board of Education that there was no clear mandate under the Education Act concerning the responsibilities that this would entail, nor were there any in the former Ottawa Board of Education procedures to establish an "Umbrella Board" that could address these concerns and continue to facilitate child care programs with the school system. Despite that, the Ottawa Board of Education continued to support child care within their schools until June of 1996 when financial support was withdrawn for the positions of Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator of Child Care Services.

Commitment from the former Ottawa Board of Education, the former Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, the Ministry of Community and Social Services, dedicated Trustees, Community members, and many professional organizations helped our current Corporation to develop and grow, and their support has been endless. The Ottawa School Day Nursery Inc. continues to provide a quality foundation within the structure of current school based child care programs.

In the summer of 1999 OSDN Inc. restructured and split with programs that had formerly been facilitated by the Ottawa Board of Education, but had their own parent boards. The seven programs that the Ottawa School Day Nurseries Inc. held the licenses for have since grown to the present 14 programs.

In 2005 the Ottawa School Day Nurseries Inc. has a volunteer Board of Directors which is responsible for the operation of these 14 child care programs. We have a Purchase of Service Agreement with the City of Ottawa which allows us to offer subsidies to families who meet the criteria. All of the programs are licensed by the Ministry.

Two of our programs offer care to children from 3 months of age to 4 years of age, one of the programs offers care to children 2.5 years of age to 5 years of age, and the other 11 programs offer care to children from 3.8 years of age to either 10 or 12 years of age, depending on the what the license states.

The Ottawa School Day Nurseries Inc. has always been true to its' original mandate to provide high quality, licensed, school based child care to children and families of the Ottawa area.