Hellobee Boards

@regberadaisy: I don't know off hand what they all are but I am surprised there are ratios for under 6 weeks - around here they wont take a baby younger than 6 weeks!

Was literally just having this conversation today!

I just looked up Georgia's ratios - they're awful!

6 weeks - 1:6
9 months - 1:6
18 months - 1:8
27 months - 1:10
3 years - 1:15
4 years - 1:18
5 years - 1:20
6 years and older - 1:25

Okay taking a cue from @Mrs.KMM: here's Florida's

For licensed child care facilities:

Children under 12 months: 1 to 4
Children age 12 to 23 months: 1 to 6
Children age 24 to 35 months: 1 to 11
Children age 36 to 47 months: 1 to 15
Children age 48 months to 59 months: 1 to 20
Children age 60 months (5 years old) or older: 1 to 25

A family child care provider may care for one of the following groups of children:

1 to 4: from birth to 12 months of age
1 to 6: if no more than three are under 12 months
1 to 10: as long as at least five children are school-age and no more than two are under 12 months of age
2 to 8: if more than 4 children under 24 months old
2 to 12: if no more than 4 children are under 24 months old

@lawbee11: wow those numbers are high!!!

DD is in the 4yr old room and its 1:10 - I cannot imagine 1:18!

In Pennsylvania:

Infant 1: 4 max group 8 (birth - 1)
Young toddler 1: 5, max group 10 (1-2)
Older toddler 1: 6, max group 12 (2-3)
Preschool 1:10, max group 20 (3-K)
Young school-age 1: 12, max group 24 (grades K-4)
Older school-age 1:15, max group 30 (grade 4- age 15)

ETA: that you can have multiple "groups" in the same room. There's a formula for the maximum amount of kids per square feet.
Also, every daycare i've had my kids in is really good about the ratio - in fact, they oftenhave better-than-mandated ratios.

Here are the ratios for Ontario (keep in mind we have a year-long mat leave, which explains why infant care isn't broken down further)

I'm also in NY, so our ratios are already up there. In our daycare, there are always at least two adults in the room, but they increase the number of children there.

In the baby room, there are 8 with 3 adults. Toddlers have 8 with 2 adults at times, but mostly 3. I don't know exactly how many for 2 and 3 year olds, but I know that 4 year olds have 16 kids and 2-3 adults.

Iowa:
Limit of 6 preschool children with a maximum of 4 aged 24 months or younger. Of these no more than 3 can be 18 months of age or younger. They can also care for 2 school-agers for less than 2 hours at a time.

My in-home is within these, 2 infants, 1- 1 yr old, 1- 2 yr old and 1- 3 yr old.

@lawbee11: I can't imagine 1 person watching 9- 18 month olds! That's crazy!

@Mamaof2: @lawbee11: This is why I put LO (4) in a public school setting for pre-K. Her class is 20 kids, but there is a teacher (with a college degree!) and a "para-professional". Essentially it brings the ratio back to 10:1. That's lower than the ratio that our daycare operates their private Pre-K program at (with uniforms and all, yo!).

@regberadaisy: We're in NY too. At my son's daycare there are sometimes 3 teachers to 10 two-year-olds. I love it!

Infants (6 weeks - 18 months) - 1:5
Toddlers (12m-24m) - 1:5
Toddlers (24m-36m) - 1:7
Preschoolers (3y-4y) - 1:10
Preschoolers (4y-5y) - 1:12
Kindergarten (5y+) - 1:15
Mixed age (2.5y-6y) - 1:10

Maximums allow 2 teachers to double the amount of kids.

In California, infant is defined as anyone under the age of 2. Our rules are different based on large centers and in-home providers.

At a center, its 1:4 for 0-2.

If its a small in-home daycare with a license for up to 6 children, its 1:4 if its all infants under 2, or 1:6 if there's a mix but there cannot be more than 3 infants.

If its a small in-home daycare with a license for up to 8, there cannot be more than 2 infants, 2 of the children must be over the age of 6, and all the parents have to be notified of this mix.

If its a large in-home daycare for up to 12 kids, there must be 1 provider and 1 assistant, and a max of 2 infants.

If its a large in-home daycare for up to 14 kids, there must be 1 provider and 1 assistant, a max of 3 infants, and 2 of the other kids must be over the age of 6. And all parents have to be notified of this mix.

What's crazy to me is that once they hit 2 years old, the ratio is 1:12 (but there are classroom and space requirements!) My son is on a waitlist for a 2's program at a local preschool and when we toured, the teacher said the state ratio is 1:12, but that based on classroom size, they are only certified for 11 and that the director generally does not like to have more than 10 kids in the class. Luckily, she said that she's averaged more like 8 or 9 in the past, so hopefully that keeps up!