A community approach to understanding the early childhood education workforce

Knowing Our Numbers:
A Community Collaboration

Knowing Our Numbers Phase II builds on the voices of almost 6,000 members of Ontario’s early childhood education workforce who participated in Phase I. Their experiences established an important foundation for understanding working conditions, professional learning, recruitment, and retention across the province.

Phase II continues this collaboration, gathering updated evidence about the Ontario workforce supporting children and families as the Canada-wide early learning and child care system develops. By examining what has changed and where challenges persist, this next phase will help inform policy, guide local planning, and identify the supports needed to sustain a qualified and valued workforce.

The initiative brings together all 47 service system managers, the College of Early Childhood Educators, the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre, and researchers from the Atkinson Centre. Together, these partners are strengthening a province-wide approach to workforce data collection that maintains a local lens, supports comparisons across regions, and creates opportunities to share promising practices.

Phase II includes RECEs and non-RECEs across licensed child care, EarlyON programs, full-day kindergarten, as well as supervisors, licensed home child care providers, and home child care agency staff. Their perspectives will contribute to regional and provincial findings, supported by an interactive dashboard that will make the evidence more accessible for planning, advocacy, and decision-making.

The Phase I Executive Report, Methodology, Northern Perspectives and 30 regional reports remain available and provide the foundation for this next phase.

Knowing Our Numbers depends on the commitment of participating service system managers and the contributions of the early childhood workforce. Phase II continues that shared commitment: ensuring workforce experiences inform the decisions that shape Ontario’s early learning and child care system.