Ontario fully rolls out full day kindergarten; some classrooms not yet ready

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TORONTO — Ontario Education Minister Liz Sandals says full-day kindergarten is now available across the province, though some classrooms are not yet ready.

Sandals says the “really, really, really” cold winter is to blame for delaying construction at some schools by about a month.

She says with full-day kindergarten now completely rolled out, there are 265,000 kids enrolled this fall in the program for four- and five-year-olds at 3,600 schools.

Sandals says it’s clear full-day kindergarten is helping students do better, even though there’s no firm evidence yet to support that conclusion.

The education minister says critics of full-day kindergarten should wait until the province gathers evidence on the first students to go through the program before declaring it is not a success.

Sandals says class size for full-day kindergarten is an important issue, but wouldn’t say if she would put a cap on the number of children in a class.