Where every fact comes from, and how we check it
How a provider gets in
We read the provider’s own website and note what it says it offers children: ages, the weekly timetable, fees and the period they cover, the language of instruction, trial classes and whether a parent has to stay.
The Google Maps listing of a provider can supply its address, its map point and its opening hours as well. A few places have no website of their own: their pages rest on the Google listing alone and give only the address and any opening hours. For a sports club, membership in a provincial or national sport body may come from the club list that body publishes.
We store every fact together with the web address it came from, the day of reading and a brief quotation from that page. Sources never include directories, the news, booking platforms, social media or reviews.
Source labels
Three labels mark where a fact came from. “Published by the place” is the provider’s own website, “Google listing” is its entry on Google Maps, and “federation list” is the member list of a sport governing body or a league.
A provider’s page puts the label and the reading date next to each fact, so you can tell who stated it and how fresh it is.
Missing facts
When the pages we read do not state a fact, the provider’s page says “not published” and the table shows a dash. That only describes the pages we read.
We never fill a gap with a guess. A grade is not turned into an age, and a fee keeps the period the provider gives. The one sum we do is the ≈ fee per class: a package or term fee divided by the number of classes it buys.
Class times and opening hours
Times live in two columns. Class times hold the days and hours of a class, an after-school program or a camp day, in the provider’s own terms; opening hours hold when the doors are open, which often comes from the Google listing.
A building may be open at an hour when no group for your child’s age is running. Rows with nothing but opening hours move below the line, under a heading saying why.
On the after-school pages the window is 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays: from dismissal through to supper time. A class qualifies if any of its groups starts within it; after-school care qualifies if its hours, late pickup included, last the whole window.
What we do not judge
- We rate, score and rank no provider, instructor, coach or program.
- No one from the directory visits providers; we work only from what they publish.
- Teaching, coaching and care are not judged for quality.
- We cannot see whether a class still has spaces; ask the provider.
- We do not check licensing under Ontario’s Child Care and Early Years Act, vulnerable sector checks, insurance or any other permit.
- Fees appear as published, with their period and reading date, and are not confirmed with the provider.
Right of reply
If you run a listed provider and something is wrong, missing or out of date, use the update form and link to the page that shows the right fact.
Once your own pages confirm the correction, it goes in with the next update and shows up under directory changes. When a provider closes, its page stays up with a closed notice and it leaves all the tables.
You can also have a provider taken out: choose “Take a provider off the list” on the update form and give a contact that shows you run it. Within a month we delete the provider’s page, its rows in every table and its records in the data files.
Dates and updates
We reread each provider’s sources no later than 6 months after the previous reading. A fee tied to a period that is over remains on the provider’s page, period and all, but the filters and the summary line ignore it.
How the site is funded
Listing is free for providers, and money cannot change what a row says or where it appears.
A provider’s page can hold a single, labelled link to Zartrace, a service connected with this directory. We count clicks on contact buttons only as totals, without any personal data.
Open data
The full directory is open data: get it as JSON, a record for each provider, or as CSV, a row for each program. Each file keeps the sources, labels and dates and names its licence.
Areas, distances and the map
Inside the City of Toronto an area is a group of the City’s official neighbourhoods under the name parents use, such as Leslieville, The Annex, Leaside or Willowdale; Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough are split the same way. Mississauga, Vaughan and Markham are divided into sectors named after the communities in them, Thornhill is one area on both sides of Yonge Street, and Richmond Hill is one area. A location in Brampton is filed under Brampton.
We measure distance as the crow flies from your chosen point to the provider’s closest location and round it to half a kilometre. Only the location button asks for your position, and the answer never leaves your browser.
Points placed from a street address are approximate. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. The neighbourhood boundaries of the City of Toronto come from City of Toronto Open Data. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Toronto.