Langley Forest School licence deemed expired, staff layoffs planned

Langley Forest School is laying off staff and helping families after learning its child-care program would not return in September because Fraser Health deemed its facility licence expired. Board president Carol LaJeunesse said the school had exhausted legal options to change the decision and that she must lay off 10 staff. The program had been fully booked with 32 children for 2026-27.

The registered non-profit charity has provided outdoor child care since 2014. Fraser Health says it is not requiring the school to close. Zahra Alani, the health authority’s senior public affairs consultant, said expiry of the facility licence does not prevent the school from operating a lawful outdoor education program that does not amount to a community care facility.

LaJeunesse said a Fraser Health inspection branch told the school in 2025 that it needed to use indoor space more, without defining how much time or who must use it. Fraser Health says the Community Care and Assisted Living Act provides for automatic expiry when licensed premises have not operated as a community care facility for 12 consecutive months. Alani said the expiry was not due to a documented safety incident or concern involving children, but to the licensing status and use of the premises tied to the licence.

The school has administration space in Fort Langley, a yurt built in Williams Park in 2015, and uses a park in South Langley. LaJeunesse said requiring families to take children first to Fort Langley and then to the parks would add significant time and cost. Operating as a recreation program would limit it to two hours a day, which she said is not economically feasible.

Families started a Change.org petition Aug. 26 that had more than 2,100 signatures by Aug. 31. Parent Ashley Lindbo said the loss is particularly difficult for her autistic son, Beckett, who was about to begin his fifth year. Alani said licensed child care may include outdoor programming, but operators must still provide an appropriate and safe facility when children need one. LaJeunesse said the school could operate unlicensed, but that would defeat its aim of delivering quality child care.