Start with the need, not the name. If your baby is under 18 months, only the six centres with infant rooms can take them now. If you want a language at home, go straight to Leroux Froebel, Jingbao, Good Shepherd or Sadochok. Each entry ends with a link to the centre’s DaycareOn listing, where you can save it to your tracker.

Kinder College runs a 20-space infant room on Richmond Street West, double the usual single group of ten, with babies taken from three months. For parents working in the core, that is one of the larger infant rooms within walking distance of King and Spadina.

It also runs a corporate partnership and priority enrolment program, so ask whether your employer is part of it. Its DaycareOn listing has the thickest parent feedback on this list, and it is consistently positive about teacher communication.

A parent-run non-profit near Queen’s Park, a short walk from the University Avenue hospitals. It has an infant room, a full-time in-house cook, and music and yoga instructors every two weeks.

It holds a fee subsidy agreement with the City, which not every downtown centre does. Ask about the infant list early; ten infant spaces serve a busy part of the city.

A French-English bilingual school on Main Street in the east end that starts with an infant room and runs through before- and after-school care. That makes it one of the few places a child can stay in French from infancy to school age.

Parent feedback on its listing is strong and mentions smooth moves between rooms. The waitlist was temporarily closed when we checked, so confirm before you plan around it.

Jingbao combines Montessori classrooms with a bilingual Mandarin program, inside Ryerson Public School near Kensington Market. Children start in Pre-Casa at 18 months and can continue to its after-school Mandarin program.

Parents on its listing single out real Mandarin progress. It is a non-profit in CWELCC, so the fee cap applies.

Many Toronto Montessori schools sit outside CWELCC. Yorktown, in Willowdale, is in it, so its preschool fees follow the provincial cap.

It serves ages 2.5 to 6 with both half-day and full-day options, which is rare for a CWELCC centre. It is registering for 2026–2027 now.

A 36-space non-profit off Overlea Boulevard with a ten-space infant room and a Montessori approach. Small centres like this often feel calmer for babies, and parent feedback on its listing is near-perfect.

It accepts City fee subsidy. Its site lists a special child session, so ask what support looks like for your child if you have concerns about development.

Sunburst has a written inclusion policy: it cares for children with special needs in an integrated setting and supports its staff to do so. It is a workplace centre in the Environment Canada building on Dufferin, giving priority to federal employees, then opening spaces to the community.

It has an infant room and parent feedback describes long-tenured staff. If you work for the federal government, say so when you apply.

Among the centres we considered, Isabella Walton has the strongest combination of high scores and volume of parent feedback on DaycareOn. It is a training site for Centennial, Seneca and Toronto Metropolitan early childhood students, and runs weekly music with a musician and weekly storytelling.

Staff speak Tamil, Bengali, Burmese and Hindi. It tells families to expect a one- to two-year wait and to check in every six months, so join early.

Good Shepherd in Agincourt runs a pre-kindergarten program with an early start on phonics and math, plus Chinese and sign language lessons. It is church-affiliated and hosts parent club events through the year.

Parent feedback on its listing is thick and strongly positive. It starts at toddler age, so it suits a second or third choice while you wait for an infant space elsewhere.

The Munchkin Manor sends daily reports with pictures and offers live video monitoring. For parents returning to work for the first time, being able to check in can make the first weeks easier.

Near Bloor and Sherbourne, it uses a play-based program with Reggio-inspired lessons, and has 25 toddler spaces.

Not every family needs full days. Humbercrest is a parent co-operative nursery school at Runnymede with morning, afternoon, and extended 9-to-2:55 classes for 14 children.

Families take on a volunteer role, such as treasurer or newsletter, to offset fees. Morning classes were full when we checked; afternoons had room.

Sadochok describes itself as the first full-time Ukrainian-language child care centre in Ontario. It sits inside Joseph Cardinal Slipyj school in Etobicoke, and parents mention meals cooked on site.

Toddler and preschool rooms follow a play-based program with Ukrainian language, culture and celebrations built in.

Pick three from this list and three near home, then:

• Open each listing and save it to your DaycareOn tracker.
• Ask each centre which room your child would join on your start date, and how many spaces open then.
• Get the daily fee in writing. All twelve are in CWELCC, so under-6 fees should be at or below $22 a day.
• For a baby under 18 months, read our Toronto infant guide: most infant rooms hold only ten babies.