Full-day kindergarten could spell trouble for many Richmond's daycare and pre-school operators.

Expected to be rolled out over two years, beginning with the 2010/2011 school year, trustees, district officials and school staff will be scrambling to find the space needed to accommodate these young students. The province's plans were mentioned in the throne speech and then confirmed during Tuesday's budget announcement.

Currently, a single kindergarten classroom is capable of serving two groups of children on two schedules, one in the morning, the other at the start of the afternoon.

When these classes become full-day next year, an extra classroom will be needed in schools with sufficiently large student bodies.

Christine Hui, who operates Kiddyland Preschool at Ferris elementary, said she currently accommodates 28 children in two classrooms, and could easily fill two more classes were they made available to her. Her waiting list is 50 names long, and some parents sign their children up at six months, hoping a spot will eventually open up.

"Of course," Hui said when asked if she's worried about being squeezed out of the classrooms at Ferris. "They need to let us know and give us notice."

Trying to find alternate locations that are sufficiently centralized will be difficult, and likely be more expensive, and that would translate into higher prices for parents.

Even when kindergartens go to full days, working parents will still need before- and after-school care.

Richmond board of education chair Linda McPhail said the district currently has some 50 daycare and preschool operators using classes in elementary schools with vacant rooms.

Aside from assisting two-income parents, and giving children an early educational start, the rentals generate a lot of revenue for the district.

How exactly this will impact these daycare operators is unclear, as information from Victoria is only now slowly rolling out.

Further complicating matters is the announcement that only some students will get access to full-day kindergarten during the first year.

But the mechanism for determining who is going to be accommodated during the first year hasn't been revealed.