Daycare Cleaning in Ontario: What Child Care Rules Expect

The law: the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014

Licensed child care in Ontario is governed by the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014, and its general regulation, O. Reg. 137/15. The Ministry of Education licenses child care centres and inspects them for compliance. The regulation covers many areas, including health and safety, and it expects centres to have written policies and procedures that staff follow.

The Act and regulation do not spell out a cleaning checklist room by room. The detail comes from public health guidance and from the centre's own policies.

Public health guidance in Durham Region

Public health units inspect child care centres and give them infection-prevention guidance. In Durham Region, that is the Durham Region Health Department. Its inspections focus on areas such as handwashing, diapering, food handling, toy cleaning and how surfaces are cleaned and disinfected.

Public health also leads during outbreaks. When an outbreak is declared, the centre follows public health's instructions, which usually include more frequent disinfection of high-touch surfaces, washrooms and toys until the outbreak is over. If you use a cleaning contractor, they need to be able to step up their routine on short notice when that happens.

Think in zones

A child care centre has areas with very different risks. Organizing cleaning by zone keeps germs from moving between them and makes the routine easier to check.

Diapering areas and washrooms carry the highest risk and need their own cloths, mops and buckets, never used anywhere else. Colour-coding equipment by zone is a simple way to enforce this. Food preparation and eating areas come next, followed by play areas, sleep rooms and offices.

• Diapering stations and washrooms: cleaned and disinfected often, with dedicated equipment
• Kitchens and eating areas: cleaned and sanitized before and after meals
• Play rooms and toys: cleaned daily, with mouthed toys handled separately
• Sleep rooms: cots and mats cleaned between children, linens laundered by the centre
• Offices and entrances: routine cleaning, with door handles and sign-in areas disinfected

Toys and play equipment

Toys are where daycare cleaning differs most from other workplaces. Toys that children put in their mouths are usually set aside after use and cleaned and sanitized before another child gets them. Hard plastic toys can be washed, rinsed, sanitized and air-dried. Soft toys and dress-up clothes are laundered. Toys that cannot be cleaned properly are often removed from rooms during outbreaks.

Many centres do toy cleaning with their own staff during the day, because toys are in constant use. Others ask their cleaning contractor to do a full toy disinfection after hours. Either way, the scope should say who does it and how often.

Products: follow the label

Disinfectants sold in Canada must be authorized by Health Canada and carry a Drug Identification Number (DIN). The label gives the dilution, the contact time the surface must stay wet, and whether a rinse is needed, for example on surfaces that contact food or that children may mouth.

Stronger is not better. Using more product than the label says can leave residue on surfaces children touch. Using less, or wiping it off too soon, means the disinfection does not work. Products are also hazardous products under WHMIS 2015 when used at work, so they must be labelled, stored away from children, and backed by safety data sheets.

When to clean

Routine cleaning during the day, such as wiping tables after meals and checking washrooms, is part of the staff's work. The deeper daily clean is best done after the children leave, so floors can dry, products can sit for their full contact time, and nobody is exposed to fumes.

Periodic work, such as carpet extraction, floor refinishing and window cleaning, is scheduled for weekends or closure days. Daycares have heavy fingerprints on glass at child height, so interior windows and doors are worth adding to the routine.

Keep records

Simple cleaning logs help a centre show what was done and when, which is useful during an inspection or an outbreak. A log can be a checklist per room with the date, time and initials. If a contractor cleans, their log should match the scope and be available to the centre's supervisor.

Cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting

These three words are often used as if they mean the same thing, but they do not. Cleaning removes visible dirt, food and most germs using soap or detergent and water. Sanitizing reduces germs on a surface to a safer level and is often used for food-contact surfaces and toys. Disinfecting kills a wider range of germs on hard surfaces and is used for washrooms, diapering areas and high-touch surfaces.

In each case, the order matters: a surface must be cleaned first, because dirt and residue stop sanitizers and disinfectants from working. And each product's label says which use it is approved for. A product approved as a disinfectant for hard surfaces is not automatically suitable for food-contact surfaces or toys without a rinse.

A sample daily routine

Every centre's routine is different, and it should come from its own policies and public health guidance. But most daily routines follow a similar pattern.

During the day, staff clean and sanitize eating tables before and after meals, clean and disinfect diapering surfaces after each use, check and clean washrooms several times, and set aside mouthed toys for cleaning. After the children leave, a deeper clean covers every room: floors vacuumed and mopped, washrooms and diapering areas fully cleaned and disinfected, high-touch surfaces such as door handles, light switches, cubbies and railings disinfected, tables and chairs cleaned, garbage removed, and toys cleaned according to the centre's schedule.

• Before and after meals: tables and high chairs cleaned and sanitized
• After each diaper change: diapering surface cleaned and disinfected
• Several times a day: washrooms checked and cleaned
• After closing: all floors, washrooms, high-touch surfaces and furniture
• Weekly: cubbies, shelving, low windows and door glass, cot frames
• Periodically: carpet extraction, floor refinishing, exterior windows

During an outbreak

When public health declares an outbreak at a centre, the centre follows public health's instructions for that outbreak. These often include disinfecting high-touch surfaces more often, sometimes switching to a disinfectant that is effective against the specific illness, removing soft toys and items that are hard to clean, and cleaning washrooms more frequently.

If you use a contractor, agree in advance how the routine changes during an outbreak: more visits, a different product, extra areas. Write it into the scope so it can start immediately. Our daycare cleaning services include an outbreak level for this reason.

Laundry and soft items

Bedding, bibs, cloths and dress-up clothes are usually laundered by the centre on a set schedule and whenever they are soiled. Each child's bedding should be kept separate. Cloth items used for cleaning should never be reused between zones; colour-coding helps here as well.

Carpets and rugs in play areas collect dirt and spills. Daily vacuuming handles the surface, and periodic hot-water extraction cleans deeper. Spills of body fluids should be cleaned up right away following the centre's procedure, not left for the evening clean.

Hiring a daycare cleaner

Ask any cleaning contractor for a written scope by zone, the products they use with their safety data sheets, proof of commercial liability insurance and a current WSIB clearance certificate, and confirmation that staff are background-checked. The centre may also have its own screening requirements for anyone who enters the building. Bluestone provides its WSIB clearance certificate and certificate of insurance on request, and our staff are police-checked; contact us to ask.

Bluestone Janitorial cleans licensed child care centres in Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa and Clarington after hours. See our daycare cleaning services, or our school cleaning services if your centre is inside a school.