Privacy policy

Last updated: [date]. This policy applies to www.childrens-kingdom.com and to Children’s Kingdom Early Learning & Child Care as an organisation. We follow Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and the record-keeping duties placed on licensed child care agencies by Ontario’s Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014.

1. What we collect

If you only browse the website

Almost nothing. We do not use tracking cookies, advertising pixels or third-party analytics. Our web host keeps standard server logs (IP address, browser type, pages requested, timestamps) for security and troubleshooting. Fonts and images are served from our own domain, so visiting this site does not report your visit to any other company.

If you send us a form

Only what the form asks for: your name and contact details, your postal code area, your child’s first name and date of birth, the care you need, and anything you choose to write in the notes. Our application forms deliberately do not ask for medical details, custody arrangements, immigration status, income or a full home address. We collect those separately and securely if and when your application proceeds.

If your child is enrolled

Everything a licensed agency is required to hold: enrolment and emergency contact records, health and immunisation information, allergy and medication authorisations, attendance, daily observations and program documentation, incident and serious occurrence reports, and billing and subsidy records.

If you apply to be a provider

Your contact details, information about your home and household, references, and the screening and compliance records the CCEYA requires — vulnerable sector checks and offence declarations for every household member aged 18 or over, medicals, immunisation and TD booster records, first aid certification, home safety inspections and policy reviews.

2. Why we collect it

• To answer your enquiry and process your application
• To place a child safely and appropriately with a provider
• To keep children safe, including responding to allergies, medical needs and emergencies
• To meet our legal obligations as a licensed home child care agency
• To administer fees, subsidies and contracts
• To communicate with you about your child’s day, closures and program news

We do not use your information for advertising, we do not sell or rent it, and we do not share it with data brokers.

3. Cookies, analytics and tracking

This website sets no cookies of its own and loads no third-party scripts. There is no Google Analytics, no advertising tag and no social media tracking pixel. If we ever add analytics, we will choose a privacy-respecting, cookie-free option, say so here, and update the date at the top of this page.

4. Photographs and video

Photographs and video of children are only taken and used with the written consent of a parent or guardian, and consent is requested separately for each purpose — internal documentation, sharing with your own family, the website, or social media. You may refuse any or all of these without any effect on your child’s place, and you may withdraw consent at any time.

We do not publish a child’s full name alongside their photograph, we do not tag children in social media posts, and we ask providers and other families not to photograph children who are not their own.

5. Who we share information with

• Your child’s provider — the information they need to care for your child safely.
• The Ontario Ministry of Education — during licensing inspections and as required by the CCEYA.
• The City of Ottawa — where you apply for a fee subsidy, and only with your consent.
• Public health and emergency services — in a medical emergency or a reportable outbreak.
• A Children’s Aid Society — where the law requires us to report a suspicion that a child may be in need of protection. This duty exists whether or not you consent, and we will not tell you first if doing so could place a child at risk.
• Service providers we rely on — for example our web host and email provider, under agreements that limit them to processing data on our instructions.

Where a service provider stores data outside Canada, that data may be subject to the laws of that country. [Name the countries where your host, email and platform data are stored.]

6. How long we keep it

• Enquiries and unsuccessful applications: [12 months], then deleted.
• Waiting list entries: until you ask us to remove you, or [24 months] of no contact.
• Enrolment and child records: for the period required by the CCEYA and our licence, then securely destroyed. [Confirm your retention period with your licensing consultant.]
• Provider screening and compliance records: for the period required by the CCEYA.
• Financial records: seven years, as required by the Canada Revenue Agency.
• Server logs: [30 days].

7. How we protect it

• The whole website is served over HTTPS, and form submissions are encrypted in transit.
• Paper records are kept in locked storage at our office; provider homes hold only the minimum needed for daily care and emergencies.
• Access to our records platform is limited to staff who need it, with individual accounts and multi-factor authentication.
• We do not send personal information about children over unencrypted email or personal messaging apps.
• If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected families and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as PIPEDA requires.

8. Your rights

You may ask us to:

• tell you what personal information we hold about you or your child;
• give you a copy of it;
• correct anything that is wrong;
• delete information we are not legally required to keep;
• withdraw a consent you previously gave, such as photograph consent.

Write to our privacy officer using the details below. We respond within 30 days. Some records we are legally required to keep, and some information about a third party may need to be withheld or redacted — we will tell you if that applies and why. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.

9. Children’s information

Children cannot give meaningful consent to the collection of their own information, so we rely on the consent of a parent or guardian. This website is written for adults and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information submitted by a child. If a child has sent us something through a form, tell us and we will delete it.

10. Contacting our privacy officer

[Privacy officer name]
Children’s Kingdom Early Learning & Child Care
[Street address], Gloucester, Ontario [Postal code]
privacy@childrens-kingdom.com
613-555-0134