After-School Programs in Fredericton: Every Option for K to Grade 8, With Costs and Waitlists

How After-School Care Works in Fredericton (Read This First)

The school day ends somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00 pm, the work day does not, and closing that gap is the whole problem. Fredericton solves it the way most Canadian cities do: not with a single school-board program, but with a patchwork of licensed operators who either set up inside a school, or collect kids from specific schools and bus or walk them to a nearby site. The public system does not run after-school care itself. Anglophone School District West (ASD-W) and the District scolaire francophone Sud (DSF-Sud) hand the kids over at the bell, and a licensed provider takes it from there. That means your choice is mostly decided by which school your child attends, because every program serves a fixed list of schools and no others.

Three things set the rhythm of the year. First, Wednesday is early dismissal at ASD-W elementary schools, which is why both the YMCA and Go-Go tell you to pack a lunch on Wednesdays. Second, the ASD-W calendar has a full-day closure roughly once a month, and whether your program covers those days (and charges for them) is the biggest hidden difference between providers. Third, every program in town closes at 5:30 pm, and every one of them charges late fees that are not negotiable: the YMCA's handbook is blunt that it is $10 for every 15 minutes with no grace period.

The other thing nobody tells you until it is too late: the spots are allocated in the spring. BGC opened its 2026-27 registration to the public on April 27, 2026. Go-Go tied its summer-camp bundle to registering by October 1 of the previous year. The YMCA keeps a standing waitlist form. If you arrive in August expecting to sign up for September, you will very likely be on a list. Our childcare and daycare guide makes the same point about the years before school, and the habit carries straight through to kindergarten.

All of the programs below are licensed by the province and appear in the New Brunswick Childcare Finder, which you can filter by "Currently attending school," by language and by available spaces. It is the closest thing to a master list that exists, and the availability flags are updated by the operators themselves, so they are a decent read on who has room.

YMCA of Fredericton: The Downtown Hub

The YMCA of Fredericton runs its after-school program out of its own building at 570 York Street, on the south side a few blocks from downtown, and it serves four schools: Connaught Street School, Priestman Street School, Garden Creek School and Kingsclear School. Connaught Street kids walk over with staff (it is a short trip); Priestman Street, Garden Creek and Kingsclear kids are bused, and the Y contracts that run to C.W. Guthrie & Son. The program runs from dismissal to 5:30 pm on regular days, and on ASD-W professional development days and storm days it opens at 7:30 am and runs to 5:30 pm for families who have opted in.

The pitch is the building itself. Kids get the pool, the gym, the indoor climbing structure and outdoor play, plus science experiments, read-alouds, crafts and Y-wide events. If your child is a mover, that is a genuine advantage over a church-basement site. Snacks come from home every day, and lunch on Wednesdays and full days. Everything packed must be nut-free.

Cost: the Y lists two rates, $195 bi-weekly including PD-day and storm-day care, or $190 bi-weekly without it. Those were the figures on the page when we checked in September 2026, and they are the same numbers in the Y's 2023-24 handbook, so the price has held for at least three school years (the page does not label the year, and the Y confirms placement by phone, so confirm the number when they call). March Break and Christmas Break care is extra: the 2023-24 handbook listed it at $60 a week, and the current page says only that there is an additional fee. The handbook also sets a one-month written notice to withdraw, and mentions the provincial Daycare Assistance Program as a way to offset the fee.

Registration: fill in the online application form on the program page and a staff member calls to confirm a placement; if nothing is open, there is a separate "Join Our Waitlist" form. Contact is (506) 462-3000 ext. 110 or [email protected]. One note for families who remember the Y's Park Street site from a few years ago: it is no longer on the Y's school list, and Park Street School is now served by Go-Go.

BGC Greater Fredericton (the Boys and Girls Club): South Side and North Side

BGC Greater Fredericton, which everyone still calls the Boys and Girls Club, is the other big non-profit, and it is the one with a proper north-side site. It runs two after-school locations for 2026-27. Skyline Acres, at 499 Canterbury Drive on the south side, takes kids from Forest Hill Elementary, Liverpool Street School and Bliss Carman Middle. Gibson-Neill Memorial Elementary (GNMES) on the north side runs in the school itself, listed at 248 Medley Street, and serves Gibson-Neill students. The older Devon site at Henry Park, which used to take Cuffman Street and Devon Middle kids, stopped offering after-school care in September 2025; the Devon programming office at (506) 472-4528 now handles PD-day and storm-day questions only, and Cuffman Street families have moved to Go-Go's Maple Street site.

The program is for ages 4 to 12, kindergarten through grade 6, from 2:00 to 5:30 pm on school days and 7:30 am to 5:30 pm on PD days, Winter Break and March Break. The mix is recreation, creative arts, cultural and learning activities and homework support, and a nutritious snack is provided daily, which puts it one up on the Y and Go-Go where the snack comes from your kitchen.

Cost for 2026-27: $195 bi-weekly, with a $10 bi-weekly family discount for each additional child. Crucially, PD days, Winter Break camps and March Break camp are included in that fee rather than billed on top, which makes BGC the cheapest of the three big programs once you count a full year. The site says the provincial daycare subsidy may apply for those who qualify.

Registration: 2026-27 forms went up on the site and spaces opened to the public on April 27, 2026, with a wait-list form for anyone who missed it. Skyline's number is (506) 454-9237. The Skyline site also runs Raise the Grade, a free-to-low-cost after-school tutoring and homework space for middle and high school youth with tutors, quiet space and internet, which is worth knowing about once your kid ages out of the K to 6 program.

Go-Go After School: The Big Private Network

Go-Go After School is the largest single provider in the region by a wide margin. It grew out of Kara Angus's mobile gymnastics business, Go-Go Gymnastics, and by 2018 the Go-Go Group was running 21 locations across New Brunswick with more than 600 kids a day. Its head office is at 80 Two Nations Crossing on the north side. Every site runs school dismissal to 5:30 pm, and each one is tied to a named school or two, so find yours on the locations page:

• North side: Barker's Point (39 Carman Avenue, for Barker's Point Elementary); Main Street (87 Main Street, for Sunset Acres and Royal Road, by Go-Go bus); Nashwaaksis, at Nashwaaksis Baptist Church, 104 Edgewood Drive (also Sunset Acres and Royal Road); Maple Street (318 Maple Street, for Park Street and Cuffman Street); Two Nations Crossing (80 Two Nations Crossing, for Gibson-Neill).
• South side: Canterbury Drive (523 Canterbury Drive, for Liverpool Street, Montgomery Street and Forest Hill); Connaught Street (536 Northumberland Street, for Connaught Street School); Park Street Elementary (111 Park Street, in the school); UNB Lady Beaverbrook Gym (2 Peter Kelly Drive, for Priestman Street); Woodstock Road (861 Woodstock Road, for Garden Creek); Silverwood (2385 Woodstock Road, for East Coast Leadership Academy students).
• Outside the city: Hanwell Road (1717 Hanwell Road, for Hanwell Park Academy); High Point Plaza (283 New Maryland Highway, for New Maryland Elementary); Restigouche Road (66 Miramichi Road, Oromocto).

Programming is built around five "pillars" (science, leadership, entrepreneurship, arts and culture, physical activity) with daily outdoor play, monthly special events, and building, reading and dramatic-play stations. The FAQ sets ratios at one leader per 15 kids in grades K to 5, requires a daily snack (plus lunch on Wednesdays), and asks for two weeks' written notice to withdraw, which is friendlier than the Y's month.

Cost: the site listed full-time care at $249 bi-weekly for 2025-26, Monday to Friday, K to 5, with PD-day care, storm-day care, the holiday camp and the March Break camp all included, and summer camp included too for families who registered by October 1, 2025. Go-Go had not posted a 2026-27 rate when we checked in September 2026, so budget for something at or a little above $249 and confirm through the inquiry form, [email protected] or (506) 455-5496. For families not on the full-time plan, the camps are sold separately: the 2026 holiday camp (December 29 to January 2) was $169 a week, March Break 2026 was $199 a week, and summer 2026 weeks were $199 each.

Why parents pick Go-Go over the non-profits: it is the only option at most schools, and it swallows every closure day without an extra invoice. Why some do not: it is the most expensive on paper, the sites are often rented halls rather than purpose-built rec centres, and the Childcare Finder flagged several Go-Go sites (Barker's Point among them) as full when we looked, so the waitlist is real.

Daycare-Run and School-Attached After-School Care

Beyond the big three, a handful of full-day daycares hold a separate school-age licence and run an after-school room. These are smaller, they usually serve one or two nearby schools, and their availability changes with every kindergarten intake, so treat the Childcare Finder as the live source.

Sunny Days Children's Center, at 510 and 520 Brookside Drive on the north side, has run an after-school program since 2010 for about 43 kids an afternoon, licensed for ages 6 to 12 in a standalone building with a wooded play area, weekly canteen and monthly hot lunch. It lists $441 a month for the school year with PD days, March Break and Winter Break included, and $175 a week in summer, and it runs a "Sunny Days Shuttle" from Royal Road Elementary for a small extra fee. The year on those prices is not labelled; call (506) 472-3297 to confirm.

Northside Daycare Centre, at 262 Saint Marys Street on the north side, is licensed for ages 0 to 12 and is a designated centre, but the Childcare Finder showed no school-age spaces when we checked; (506) 458-9470. Fredericton Christian Academy, at 778 MacLaren Avenue on the north side, runs an "Early Childhood & After School Centre" licensed for ages 2 to 12; whether it takes public-school kids or only its own students is not stated online, so ask at (506) 458-9379. The Multicultural Association of Fredericton's Rainbow of Cultures Childcare Centre is licensed for ages 2 to 12 with after-school spaces ([email protected]), and MCAF separately runs after-school programs with a homework club, STEM, drama, dance and free music lessons for newcomer kids ([email protected]).

On the private-school side, East Coast Leadership Academy (sometimes mis-remembered as "East Coast Learning Academy") at 2385 Woodstock Road does not publish an after-school care program of its own; its students are served by Go-Go's Silverwood site at the same address. Our private schools guide has the tuition picture. And a caution on the phrase "NB Early Learning centre attached to a school": the province's designated-centre program is a preschool thing. Designated centres exist at Sunny Days, Northside Daycare and FCA, but their school-age rooms sit under separate licences, and, as the provincial child care report notes, school-age spaces are not designated, which matters for the subsidy math below.

The City of Fredericton and the Free Options

The City of Fredericton does not run an after-school care program, and it is worth saying that plainly because a lot of newcomers go looking for one. What the City does run, through its seasonal programs, is summer: the free Zig Zag Playground Program (ages 6 to 12, 8:30 am to noon, weekdays June to August, supervised visits to neighbourhood playgrounds) and the free Afternoon Adventure Crew (ages 6 to 12, 1:00 to 4:30 pm, outdoor games, water play and crafts). Neither is licensed childcare and neither runs during the school year, but for a parent working from home in July they are a gift. Registration and the rest of the City's youth programming sit on its Amilia store, and Service Fredericton at (506) 460-2020 will answer the phone.

The Northside Youth Centre at 605 Cliffe Street, beside Willie O'Ree Place, is the City's drop-in for older kids and teens (skateboarding lessons and day camps, ping pong, games), but its page listed it as closed for the 2026 season when we checked, so do not build a plan around it without calling. The Fredericton Public Library (12 Carleton Street) and the Nashwaaksis branch (324 Fulton Avenue) run free children's programs that shift term to term; they are not supervision, but for a grade 7 or 8 kid who can walk there, an afternoon at the library is a legitimate after-school plan. Our library guide has the details.

For the older end of the K to 8 range, BGC's Raise the Grade at Skyline Acres and the Fredericton Regional Family Resource Centre's "Get Active After-School" program (ages 5 to 12, physical-literacy focused, (506) 472-9323) round out the low-cost list; the FRC post is undated and we could not confirm it is running this year, so phone before you count on it. And a final free option that half the city uses without calling it a program: the after-school sports and activities in our activities guide, which for a kid in grade 5 and up can cover two or three afternoons a week if you can manage the pickups.

Homework Clubs, Tutoring, and Sport and Arts-Based Programs

None of the tutoring centres in Fredericton is licensed childcare, and none of them collect kids from school. They are a second stop after your after-school program, or an alternative to it for an older kid who can get there. Two things they have going for them: they run in exactly the 4:00 to 7:00 pm window, and they give a restless grade 6 or 7 kid somewhere structured to be.

Kumon Math and Reading Centre of Fredericton is at 281 Queen Street, Unit 3, downtown, run by Rhonda Connell, who has been a Kumon instructor for 30 years. In-centre classes are Monday and Thursday from 4:00 to 8:00 pm, with a virtual session Tuesday 4:00 to 7:00 pm. Tuition is $135 per subject per month plus an $80 enrolment fee, and the worksheet-a-day model means it is a daily commitment at home too. Kumon takes kids from about age 3 up.

Sylvan Learning of Fredericton is at 900 Hanwell Road on the south side, open Monday to Thursday 9:00 am to 7:00 pm and Saturday mornings, covering K to 12 math, reading, writing, French support, homework help and study skills. Sylvan does not post prices on its own page; a third-party directory listed personalized tutoring at about $50 a session and its STEM and academic camps at $200. Book the assessment and get a written quote before you commit. SchoolTutoring Academy offers in-home tutoring across Fredericton, listed at roughly $200 a month for one elementary session a week. Oxford Learning has no Fredericton centre that we could find.

The free homework help lives with the non-profits: BGC builds homework support into its regular program and runs Raise the Grade for older kids at Skyline Acres, MCAF runs a homework club for newcomer families, and L'acAdo's après-classe (below) includes devoirs time in French. If your only goal is "the homework gets done before supper," ask your after-school program how they handle it before you pay a tutoring centre to do the same thing.

On the sport and arts side, Fredericton has exactly one martial-arts school we could verify that runs a licensed-style after-school program, and it is on the north side. T G Roy's Taekwondo Academy & After School Program, at 38 Main Street, (506) 455-5425, teaches taekwondo fundamentals inside an after-school setting, with black-belt instructors who are CPR and first-aid certified, family rates and payment plans. Its listing does not name the schools it collects from or post a price, so that is a phone call. For every other dojo and studio in town, see our martial arts guide; they run evening classes, not care.

Go-Go is the crossover case. It was a gymnastics company first, and the after-school program leans on that: physical activity is one of its five pillars, and the summer weeks are themed around it. If your kid wants to tumble, Go-Go After School is the closest thing to a sport-based care program at the K to 5 level. For a dedicated gym, our gymnastics and cheer guide covers the clubs.

Dance studios and music schools in Fredericton do not, as far as we could confirm, offer after-school pickup or supervised care. What they offer is a class that starts at 4:30 or 5:00 pm, which works if your after-school program lets you pick up early (all three big ones do; you just do not get a refund for the hour) or if a grandparent does the run. The YMCA's own youth dance and gymnastics streams and its summer Youth Program camps at the Nashwaaksis Field House are the exception, because they sit inside the same organization as its after-school care. Our dance guide lists the studios and the evening timetables, and the Multicultural Association's after-school music classes (guitar, piano, theory) are free for newcomer kids.

The honest summary: here, "sport-based after-school program" mostly means a care program that gets the kids outside every day, with a sport layered on top in the evening. The sports registration calendar says when each of those opens.

For Francophone Families: L'acAdo, the CCSA and the DSF-Sud Schools

If your kids are in the francophone system, your after-school world is centred on one address: 715, rue Priestman, the Centre communautaire Sainte-Anne (CCSA), on the south side. It is a Crown corporation and the first combined school-and-community centre in Canada (opened 1978), and under one roof it houses École des Bâtisseurs (maternelle to 5e année, about 485 students), École Sainte-Anne (6e to 12e), the Bernard-Poirier theatre, two gyms, the Dre-Marguerite-Michaud public library, C90 community radio, a health centre, the garderie Au p'tit monde de franco and the Maison des jeunes L'acAdo. The CCSA's main line is (506) 453-2731 and the building is open until 10:00 pm on weekdays. Our schools guide covers who is eligible for the francophone system.

The after-school program is the Service après-classe de la Maison des jeunes L'acAdo. L'acAdo is the francophone youth organization that has run the youth centre for 12 to 18-year-olds at the CCSA since 2008, and its après-classe is a licensed, French-language school-age program for ages 5 to 12 (the provincial licence reads 6 to 12), based at École des Bâtisseurs and run in partnership with Au p'tit monde de franco. It includes homework time, a range of parascolaire activities, and camps hivernaux et estivaux plus a March Break camp, so the closure days are covered. Contact is (506) 444-2057 or [email protected]; L'acAdo does not publish its fees or hours online, and it had not posted 2026-27 rates when we checked, so email them directly and ask for the tarifs and the inscription form. Because the program operates in the school building, there is no bus: your kid walks down the hall.

For families at École Les Éclaireurs, DSF-Sud's other Fredericton elementary school, the after-school option is Service de garde L'Envolée, a francophone centre that takes infants from three months, runs a school-age program for Les Éclaireurs kids who join in the afternoon, and offers French summer camps for school-age children from across the region. L'Envolée does not post fees or hours either; the CCSA's directory lists it alongside the Centre de la petite enfance Les Matelots as the capital's francophone childcare services. Families at École Arc-en-ciel in Oromocto should ask the school directly, since we found no French-language school-age program listed there.

Two calendar warnings for francophone parents. DSF-Sud publishes a separate calendar per school community, and its journées pédagogiques and semaine de relâche do not always line up with ASD-W's; download your school's PDF from the DSF-Sud calendriers page rather than trusting the anglophone dates below. And if you are a mixed-language household with one child at Bâtisseurs and one at, say, Priestman Street, note that L'acAdo and the YMCA are a ten-minute drive apart on opposite ends of the south side, and their closure-day policies differ, which is exactly the kind of thing to sort out in May rather than on the first PD day in September.

How to Choose: A Short Decision Tree

Start with your school, because that decides almost everything. Most Fredericton elementary schools are served by exactly one licensed program, and where there are two, the choice is usually between a non-profit and Go-Go:

• Connaught Street: YMCA (walk to York Street) or Go-Go (536 Northumberland Street).
• Priestman Street: YMCA (bus to York Street) or Go-Go (UNB Lady Beaverbrook Gym).
• Garden Creek: YMCA (bus) or Go-Go (861 Woodstock Road).
• Forest Hill and Liverpool Street: BGC Skyline Acres or Go-Go Canterbury Drive.
• Montgomery Street: Go-Go Canterbury Drive.
• Park Street: Go-Go, in the school or at Maple Street.
• Gibson-Neill: BGC (in the school) or Go-Go Two Nations Crossing.
• Sunset Acres and Royal Road: Go-Go Main Street or Nashwaaksis; Royal Road also has the Sunny Days shuttle.
• Barker's Point: Go-Go Barker's Point. Cuffman Street: Go-Go Maple Street. Kingsclear: YMCA (bus).
• Hanwell Park Academy, New Maryland Elementary, Oromocto: Go-Go. École des Bâtisseurs: L'acAdo. École Les Éclaireurs: L'Envolée.

Where you do have a choice, weigh four things. Closure days: BGC and Go-Go include PD days, storm days and March Break in the fee; the YMCA charges $5 more per fortnight for PD and storm days and bills March Break and Christmas separately. If both parents work full time, that difference is worth several hundred dollars a year. Facility: the Y has a pool and a climbing structure; BGC Skyline is a purpose-built club; Go-Go sites range from a school gym to a church hall. Visit. Snack: BGC provides it, the others do not. Notice period: Go-Go asks for 14 days, the Y for a month.

Then think about the bridge. If you live on the north side and work downtown, a south-side program means a rush-hour crossing before 5:30 pm, and the Westmorland Street Bridge at 5:10 on a snowy Tuesday is not where you want to be with a $10-per-15-minutes clock running. Pick the program on the side of the river where you will be at 5:00 pm, not the side where the school is. And for middle-schoolers (grades 6 to 8), the licensed programs mostly stop at grade 5 or 6, so the realistic menu is BGC's Bliss Carman intake at Skyline (to age 12), Raise the Grade, tutoring centres, the library, or a sport. Most families with a grade 7 kid have quietly moved to a house key and a phone by then, and that is fine.

What It Costs in 2026-27, and the Subsidy That Helps

Every program bills bi-weekly, so translate to monthly before you compare to your daycare bill. BGC's $195 bi-weekly works out to roughly $420 a month, and that includes PD days, March Break and Winter Break. The YMCA's $195 is about the same monthly, but March Break and Christmas care are extra (the last published figure was $60 a week). Go-Go's $249 bi-weekly is about $540 a month for 2025-26, with every camp bundled, and 2026-27 was not posted when we checked. Sunny Days lists $441 a month, camps included. For a family with two kids at BGC, the $10 sibling discount trims it to about $820 a month for both. Add roughly $700 to $800 a month of summer camp for the weeks you need (Go-Go $199 a week, Sunny Days $175), unless your program bundles it. Tutoring is on top: Kumon is $135 per subject per month.

The subsidy is the Childcare Assistance Program, run through the province's Parent Portal (formerly the Daycare Assistance Program, and several operators still use that name). It covers children aged 5 to 12 enrolled in a licensed school-age program, for households with a gross annual income of $80,000 or less, on a sliding scale that depends on your income and the fee the centre charges. This is the important distinction: the headline "free childcare under $37,500" and the capped designated-centre fees you may have enjoyed at daycare belong to the Parent Subsidy Program for designated preschool spaces, and school-age spaces are not designated. After school, you are in the older sliding-scale program.

What that scale pays is not published in plain sight. The Department of Social Development's policy manual, and the 2024-25 national child-care report, both list the maximum daily subsidy for a child aged 2 to 13 in a licensed centre at $24.25 for a full day and $12.75 for a part day at the lowest income band, stepping down as income rises. After-school care is a part day, so at the very best you are looking at roughly $12.75 a day, and you pay the difference between that and the centre's actual daily rate. Full PD days and camp weeks can be approved at the full-day rate. It is not free, but on a $195 fortnight it can be the difference between manageable and not.

To apply, you complete one application on the Parent Portal with income documents and the centre's enrolment confirmation, and the money goes to the operator. The provincial line is 1-833-221-9339 (weekdays 8:30 to 4:30); Go-Go's FAQ points parents to 1-866-444-8838 for the same program. Apply as soon as you have a confirmed spot, because approval is not retroactive to September if you file in November. KidSport NB and Canadian Tire Jumpstart, which we lean on in every sports guide, do not fund childcare; they fund sport registration, so they help with the taekwondo or the dance class you add on top, not the care itself.

The Registration Calendar: When to Do What

The year for after-school care starts in the spring, and the whole ASD-W calendar for 2026-27 is worth pinning to the fridge. Here is how it runs:

• January to March: kindergarten registration for the following September opens at ASD-W and DSF-Sud. The moment you know which school your child is going to, get on that school's after-school list. Go-Go and the Y take applications year-round.
• Late April: BGC opens its next-year spaces to the public (April 27 in 2026). This is the single hardest deadline in the system. Existing families usually get first crack in the weeks before.
• May to June: confirm your spot, file the Childcare Assistance application on the Parent Portal, and book summer camp weeks (the City's free Zig Zag and Afternoon Adventure Crew run June to August for ages 6 to 12).
• September 8, 2026: first day of classes for K to 12 at ASD-W. After-school programs start the same day. September 18 is the first full-day closure (School Improvement Planning Day).
• October 1: Go-Go's deadline last year for locking summer camp into the full-time rate; watch for the 2026 equivalent.
• Full-day closures to plan for (ASD-W, K to 8): November 2, November 20, December 18, March 12, April 9, May 7 and May 17. Programs that include PD days open at 7:30 am; the Y needs you on the $195 opt-in plan.
• December 21 to 31, 2026: Christmas break. BGC and Go-Go run camps within the fee; the Y charges extra; Go-Go's stand-alone holiday camp was $169 the week of December 29.
• March 1 to 5, 2027: March Break. Included at BGC, Go-Go (full-time) and Sunny Days; extra at the Y; L'acAdo runs a French camp. Our camps guide covers the stand-alone March Break options.
• June 25, 2027: last day for students. Summer camp starts the following week; Go-Go's 2026 season ran June 22 to September 3, and the Y runs licensed camps at York Street (completed K to grade 5) and youth camps at the Nashwaaksis Field House (completed K to grade 8).

Storm days are the wild card. Fredericton closes schools for weather a handful of times most winters, and the Y, BGC and Go-Go all open at 7:30 am on those days for enrolled families, which is one of the strongest arguments for a licensed program over a patchwork of neighbours. DSF-Sud families: your dates differ, check the school's PDF calendar.

What Nobody Puts in the Brochure

The bus is the weak link. Every bused program (the Y from Priestman, Garden Creek and Kingsclear; Go-Go from Sunset Acres and Royal Road; Sunny Days from Royal Road) relies on a kindergartener getting onto the right vehicle at dismissal, and the Y's handbook is explicit that if your child misses the bus, you are picking them up at the school. Tell the classroom teacher, in writing, which program your child goes to, and for the first two weeks confirm each afternoon. It settles down fast, but the first week of September is when the wires cross.

Part-time is rare. The published rates at all three big programs are full-time, five days a week. If you only need Tuesdays and Thursdays, ask, but do not expect a pro-rated fee; the spot is the spot. Families who need one or two days a week often do better trading with a neighbour or paying a high-school student, which is unlicensed and unsubsidized but flexible.

The programs stop where the schools stop. Nearly all licensed after-school care in Fredericton ends at grade 5 or 6. Middle-school parents (Bliss Carman, Devon, Nashwaaksis Middle, George Street, Albert Street, École Sainte-Anne's 6e to 8e) are mostly on their own, with BGC Skyline's Bliss Carman intake, Raise the Grade, the library, L'acAdo's youth centre from age 12, and the after-school sports as the realistic options. Plan the transition in grade 5, not the August before grade 6.

And the waitlist is not a rejection. Every operator in this guide keeps a list, spots come free in October when families reshuffle, and the Y and BGC both call down the list in order. Stay on more than one, keep your Parent Portal subsidy application current, and if a spot opens at the program that is not your first choice, take it and keep the other list active. In a city this size, the after-school room is where your kid will make half their friends; the program name on the door matters less than the fact that they are in one by the second week of September. For the wider picture of raising kids here, see the activities and programs guide and the recreation programs guide.