Hiring high school students and under-18 aides at a childcare center

The federal floor comes from the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) enforces at 29 CFR 570: 16 is the general minimum age for non-agricultural employment.

A childcare center is non-agricultural employment, so federal law does not by itself stop you from hiring a 16-year-old.

Federal rules also cap hours for 14- and 15-year-olds — no more than 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours in a school week — but our research did not confirm whether federal child labor rules permit childcare work at a center at 14 or 15, so check with the DOL or your state labor agency before you consider anyone that young.

What federal law does not settle is what a 16- or 17-year-old may actually do in your building.

Your state's child-labor law and your state's childcare licensing minimum ages decide that, and our research did not confirm the states' ages for this page — so the number that matters for your center is your own state's.

Separate three different ages, because licensing and labor rules treat them differently:

• The age to be employed at all — the federal floor, with your state labor agency's child-labor rules on top of it.
• The age to count in ratio — your state child care licensing agency sets the minimum age for a staff member to be counted toward a room's required staffing.
• The age to be alone with children — a supervision question, and in licensed care it also runs through background-check clearance, covered below.

Confirm both numbers before you post the job: ask your state child care licensing agency for the minimum age to count in ratio and to supervise children, and your state labor agency for the child-labor rules and any work-permit requirement that applies to minors.

A 16-year-old you hire on the federal floor may still be under your state's age for the parts of the job that touch ratio and supervision.

Counting in ratio means being the staff member a room's required staffing level rests on — the person your state's staff-to-child rule counts for that group of children.

It is the hinge question for under-18 hiring, because an aide who does not count in ratio is extra help in the room, not one of the adults the room's staffing math runs on.

The age that decides it is your state's: your state child care licensing agency sets the minimum age to count in ratio.

Our research did not confirm the states' ages or verify a state-by-state table for this page.

Treat the number your licensing agency publishes as the only one that counts for your center.

Until you have that answer, plan the room's coverage without counting the aide toward the required staffing level, and treat the shift as a supervised placement.

If your state's rule does let a 16- or 17-year-old count in ratio, ask your licensing consultant how it interacts with supervision and background-check clearance before you build shifts around the answer.

The seat itself is the teacher aide role — the guide to hiring aides covers the role's scope, screening and pay.

Which staff members count toward a room's required staffing carries its own detail; your state child care licensing agency's ratio pages are the authority for your center.

Federal law draws the hour lines by age.

Under the FLSA child labor rules the DOL enforces:

• 14- and 15-year-olds: no more than 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours in a school week. The caps run on the school calendar. Our research did not confirm whether federal child labor rules permit childcare work at a center at 14 or 15 — check with the DOL or your state labor agency before you schedule anyone that young.
• 16- and 17-year-olds: federal law sets no hour limits for this age in non-hazardous jobs. Your scheduling constraint for a high-school junior or senior is their availability and your state's rules, not a federal cap.

State child-labor laws sit on top of the federal rules.

A state labor agency may cap hours for 16- and 17-year-olds, restrict work during school hours, or require a work permit or age certificate before a minor starts — our research did not confirm which states do which, so get your state's current child-labor rules from your state labor agency before you publish a shift schedule for a minor.

Hours are paid time.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour for employers covered by the FLSA; your state may set a higher rate, so confirm the current figure with your state labor agency.

Required training is generally paid work time too — under the FLSA's training-time rule, training the employer requires, such as state-mandated licensing training, is generally paid because attendance the employer requires is not voluntary.

A career and technical education (CTE) co-op placement is a work experience a high school arranges with a local employer as part of a student's career pathway — the details (credit, hours, paperwork) are set by the district that runs the program.

For a center, a placement relationship with a high school's early-childhood pathway is a way to meet future teachers early — the student learns your rooms, and you see them work before anyone talks about a post-graduation offer.

Before you sign a placement agreement, clear the same gates a hire clears:

• Age against your state's licensing rule. A co-op student is an under-18 staff member like any other: ask your state child care licensing agency how your state treats students for ratio counting and for being alone with children.
• Background checks. Under the federal CCDF background-check rules at 45 CFR 98.43, which cover child care staff members at the providers those rules reach (licensed, regulated or registered programs, and programs receiving subsidy), a new hire may begin work after a qualifying fingerprint check result and works under constant supervision until every component clears — and some states are stricter, barring any work before full clearance. We found no student exception where those rules apply — confirm with your licensing agency how your state applies the fingerprint gate to minors and to school placements.
• Training. The CCDF framework requires states to set pre-service or orientation health-and-safety training completed within three months, plus ongoing annual professional development, for caregivers, teachers and directors in subsidy-receiving programs. The federal topic list runs from safe sleep and pediatric first aid and CPR to child abuse recognition and reporting — ask your licensing agency which requirements reach a student aide in your state.
• Hours. If the student is 14 or 15 and the placement is employment, the school-day and school-week caps count placement hours the same as any other work hours. Students 16 or 17 have no federal hour cap in non-hazardous work, but your state may.
• Pay. A paid placement owes at least the applicable minimum wage. If the school proposes an unpaid placement, raise it with employment counsel first — how pay rules apply to a CTE student is not something this page can settle.

Two agencies to call before the agreement is signed: your state child care licensing agency, on how under-18 students are treated for ratio and supervision in your state's rule, and your state labor agency, on child-labor permits and hour rules.

The school district runs the program; your state's agencies make the rules your center answers to.

Supervision for an under-18 aide runs on two tracks: the background-check gate new hires pass in the programs the CCDF rules cover, and your state's own rules on what a minor may do once cleared.

The first track is federal.

Under the CCDF background-check rules at 45 CFR 98.43, a new hire at a provider those rules cover may begin work after a qualifying fingerprint check result, and stays under constant supervision — someone with a qualifying background check with them at all times — until every component clears.

Some states are stricter and bar any work before full clearance.

The rule carries no age distinction we found: a 17-year-old hire starts on the same gate, with the same supervised window, as any adult you onboard.

The second track is your state's.

Your state's child-labor law and its childcare licensing minimum ages decide what a teen can do in a program; supervision conditions for under-18 staff, if your state sets any, are in that licensing rule.

Ask your state child care licensing agency two questions: what a cleared 16- or 17-year-old may do in a room, and whether your state adds supervision conditions for staff under 18.

While you wait on those answers, a simple pattern keeps the arrangement conservative: pair the aide with an adult staff member for every shift, give them tasks with clear edges — room prep, cleanup, small-group support under the lead teacher's eye — and never leave the room relying on the aide as its required adult.

That is not a substitute for your state's rule; it is how you run the seat until the rule is confirmed.

This page is employer information, not licensing or legal advice. Child labor rules are enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor and state labor agencies, and staff age, ratio and supervision rules are set by your state child care licensing agency — confirm the current requirements for your state with those agencies before you hire or schedule anyone under 18.