Alabama Daycare Ratios: Staff-to-Child Ratios and Group Sizes by Age

There is no single federal daycare ratio: federal CCDF rules set no numeric ratios, and each state describes its ratios and group-size limits by age in its CCDF Plan.

Alabama's numbers sit in Alabama Administrative Code r. 660-5-26-.04, administered by DHR's Child Care Services Division.

The center ratios run 1:5 from birth up to 18 months, 1:7 from 18 months up to 2 1/2 years, 1:8 from 24 months up to 36 months, and 1:11 from 2 1/2 years up to 4 years.

From age 4 they widen further: 1:18 from 4 years up to school age, 1:21 from school age up to 8 years, and 1:22 for children 8 and older.

The figures on this page come from the adopted 660-5-26 and 660-5-27 rules; DHR has also posted proposed new licensing and performance standards for centers and homes, and those drafts are not law.

Alabama's center rule sets no fixed maximum group size for any age band.

Instead, the rule says group size is determined by the capacity of the room, the age of the children, the number of staff and the amount of equipment.

That makes the staff-to-child ratio the number a center plans its rooms around, together with each room's capacity; in the table above, the Maximum group size column reads Not set for every band.

Mixed-age rooms have a twist: the ratio follows the youngest child's age only when children in the youngest age category make up more than 20% of the group.

If the youngest category is 20% or less of the children present, the staff-child ratio is set by the next highest age category.

The rule also separates ages as a default: children under 2 1/2 are generally grouped separately from older children.

Nap time runs on its own table: Alabama's center nap-time ratios are 1:5 from birth up to 18 months, 1:14 from 18 months up to 2 1/2 years, and 1:36 for children 2 1/2 and older, and a qualified staff person must be in every napping room.

A staff person counts in the staff-child ratio only if they meet child care worker qualifications and are giving full attention to the direct supervision of the children.

Alabama's child care worker minimums are at least 18 years old with a high school diploma or GED.

Aides and assistant teachers do not count toward the ratio: Alabama lets them work from age 16 with at least an 8th-grade education, but they assist under the direct supervision of a qualified teacher.

For a director building a schedule, that means every person counted toward a ratio has to be a qualified caregiver whose full attention is on the children.

Home daycares in Alabama are licensed under a different chapter, Alabama Administrative Code ch. 660-5-27, with two tiers.

A family day care home is a family home caring for no more than 6 children during the day; a group day care home serves 7 to 12 children and needs a separate license, and more than 12 children makes the home a day care center.

Group homes carry their own staffing numbers: at least two adult caregivers must be present whenever 7 or more children are present, a group home may be licensed for no more than 6 infants under 12 months, and the rule requires at least one caregiver present and supervising each 3 children younger than 12 months.

Our research did not establish a separate infant cap for family day care homes; DHR's Child Care Services Division publishes the current rule.

The ratios translate directly into caregivers per room.

An infant room with ten children from birth up to 18 months needs two qualified caregivers on the floor at the 1:5 ratio.

A toddler room of fourteen children aged 18 months up to 2 1/2 years needs two caregivers at 1:7.

A room of sixteen four-year-olds sits inside the 1:18 band with one qualified caregiver, and at nap time the same room runs on the 1:36 nap ratio with one qualified staff person present.

Every person counted has to meet the child care worker qualifications and give full attention to supervision, and aides do not count.

This is an illustration of how the adopted ratios work, not a staffing plan for any particular center; confirm a room against r. 660-5-26-.04 with DHR's Child Care Services Division.