Justice Field is a young mother of two in her final year of university.

She’s studying early childhood and development, and hopes to one day open her own day care.

But if she wants to finish school, she might have to run one herself before even completing her degree.

That’s because the Teen Parent Centre, which offers services to young parents pursuing their education, might be in jeopardy of losing its day care by the end of the year unless someone steps up to operate it.

And that someone might be the students themselves.

The Teen Parent Centre (TPC), on the F.H. Collins Secondary School campus, is run by the Teen Parent Access to Education Society, a board of community volunteers.

However, the Department of Education says the society is not in good standing with the Societies Act.

Essentially, they’re behind on paperwork and have delegated some of the managing operations beyond their board members since the COVID-19 pandemic began. And that risks its operating licence and its access to government funding.

A Sept. 15 letter from the department obtained by the Star says the centre’s operations had been taken over at some point by Kris Bruneau, a department team leader at the centre.

The licence for the day care is under the society’s name, not the department’s.

The letter from Clara Northcott, the director of Early Learning and Childcare, ordered the society to take back operations from Bruneau and get back in compliance with the act.

The Star asked the Education department for interviews with Bruneau and Northcott.

Those requests were denied. 

Field, 24, says the day care will not be offered in January unless the society can catch up and meet its requirements under the Societies Act – or if the students take over themselves.

She said the department has suggested the students who use the centre, and its day care, form their own society to keep the facility running.

But she and five other student parents who use the centre wrote a letter to Education Minister Jeanie McLean on Monday, saying students do not want that responsibility.

“We are at the TPC to finish our education,” reads the letter. “It should not be our responsibility to take this task on in addition to being full-time single parents and full-time students. 

“It is imperative that child care be available at TPC for those of us currently there, as well as for future students who are also parents, to complete our education.

“If it were not for the wrap-around support we receive at the TPC, we could not be successful.”

The centre offers more than day care services. Baby supplies, meals, academic help and a range of other supports are available.

But Field, who has used the centre’s day care since she was 14, says the day care would be a big loss for student parents.

“I don’t think that it will be possible for me to complete my last field placement as that requires 240 hours and a day care setting,” she said.

“And if I don’t have my own childcare, I can’t do that. I would have to put my last two or three courses on hold (and) not graduate this year after three, four years of hard work.”

In an email to the Star, spokesperson Clarissa Wall only said there are no plans to close the Teen Parent Centre, but did not mention the day care services it provides.

“The Teen Parent Access to Education Society is not currently in good standing with the Societies Act,” the email reads. “We are supporting the society to work through these licencing matters.”

David Knight sits on the society board. He said the board is currently two members short, and the members who are there have been looking for replacements.

The stresses of operating the day care in the pandemic, he said, have tired them out.

At some point in the last two years, he said, the board began leaning on Bruneau to help manage more of the day care.

He said the board thought the new set-up was working until it received the order letter from Northcott in September.

Now they have until Dec. 16 to get their financial reporting and paperwork in order, fill empty board positions and become compliant with the Societies Act.

Otherwise, he said, the society will be dissolved before school resumes in January. He said the board is looking for five new members to fill empty seats and replace the others.

“It’s time for some fresh blood and some fresh interests,” he said in an interview. 

Knight said all parties involved – the government, students, centre staff and board members – are working to keep this day care open.

NDP Leader Kate White wants to see that work led by the government. 

“Why, for 25 years, have they made a not-for-profit society be respon-sible for hiring and maintaining and doing all that organization?” she asked in an interview.

“We’re not talking about creating a dozen new positions; we’re talking about them absorbing the two staff that work there right now.”

White asked McLean in question period Monday whether she would guarantee the day care’s continuation.

McLean told the legislature, “there has been no change to the support available to teen parents,” and they can also access free childcare at other licensed Yukon facilities.”

But day cares off campus aren’t necessarily an equal alternative for students, even if they’re free.

Rachel Daigneault Krahn, 20, has a 2 1/2-year-old in the centre’s day care. She’s been using the facility since she was 17.

She said it’s essential a day care remains at that location.

“We can do our schoolwork, we can take care of our kids, we can see them at lunchtime,” she said in an interview.

Mothers who want to breastfeed their children during the day can also pop into the day care without it interfering with schoolwork, she said.

“If we were to put our children in any other day care,” she added, “we would have to be… driving from one place to another constantly throughout the day. And not all mums are fortunate enough to have a vehicle.”

Those students might have to bus from home to another day care, then to school, then back to that day care and finally home every day, she said.

“I can almost 100-per-cent guarantee that those students would not come.”

Daigneault Krahn said she wouldn’t be in university right now if it weren’t for the day care on the F.H. Collins campus.

But as much as she and Field want to see it remain open, they’re wary about taking on the role of running it themselves.

Though they say Northcott has assured them the Education department will help them financially and guide them through the process, they feel it’s too much.

Licensing, inspections, insurance, hiring staff: it takes serious time and effort. 

“It’s pretty hard to do when we’re both full-time university students and full-time single moms,” Daigneault Krahn said.

On top of that, they worry the government would take too long reimbursing any costs they pay out of their own pockets.

“The timeline that they have given us isn’t appropriate for the amount of stuff that we need to get done,” she said.

Just like the Teen Parent Access to Education Society, a new society would need to be ready by Dec. 16, she said.

But Daigneault Krahn and Field say they have started the process. Despite their reservations, they feel the day care is too important for its future to be left to chance.

Still, they say a student-led society is a last resort for the day care, even as they’re in the process of forming it. They just can’t afford to risk losing the facility.

“The amount of work and people that need to be involved in (forming a new society) for it to be successful – it just doesn’t look like that’s going to work out,” said Field.

“December 16 is not that far away.”