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

Alaska centers are staffed from one table in 7 AAC 57.505(c), the child care facilities licensing chapter.

Outside Anchorage, the State of Alaska Child Care Program Office administers child care licensing; in Anchorage, the Municipality of Anchorage Child Care Licensing does.

Through 18 months, one caregiver cares for at most 5 infants, in a group of up to 10.

Toddlers 19 to 36 months are staffed at one caregiver for every 6 children, in groups of up to 12, and children 3 and 4 years old at one caregiver for every 10 children, in groups of up to 20.

The oldest bands are one caregiver for every 14 children at ages 5 and 6, in groups of up to 28, and one caregiver for every 18 children at ages 7 through 12, in groups of up to 36.

A child in care who is 13 or older counts as school age for ratio purposes.

Group size caps how many children form one group, separately from the ratio that sets how many caregivers those children need.

Alaska sets each maximum group size at twice the per-caregiver ratio: 10 through 18 months, 12 for toddlers, 20 for ages 3 and 4, 28 for ages 5 and 6, and 36 for ages 7 through 12.

The two rules shape different decisions: the group size decides how many groups an enrollment splits into and how many rooms a center opens, while the ratio determines how many caregivers each group needs on the floor.

When infants, toddlers and preschoolers share one mixed-age group, the child-to-caregiver ratio for the youngest child applies, so a single infant in the group pulls it to the infant ratio of one caregiver for every 5 children.

Nap time changes the group-size math, not the ratio: Alaska's group-size limits do not apply during nap times, lunch, outdoor play, field trips or special occasions, while the ratio still applies throughout.

For staffing, the ratio is the number that still applies when the group-size limits pause.

Alaska's rule counts caregivers, and a caregiver must be at least 18 years old to count in ratio.

In centers only, 16- and 17-year-olds may count in ratio when they are trained or judged competent, supervised by an adult, within sight or sound of an adult, and when caregivers younger than 18 make up no more than one-fourth of the total caregiving staff on duty.

That last limit is measured against all caregiving staff on duty, so it constrains how much of a shift roster 16- and 17-year-olds can fill, not just a single room.

Alaska licenses three facility types by size: a child care home for up to 8 children, a child care group home for 9 to 12, and a child care center for 13 or more.

A child care home may care for up to 8 children under 13, including the caregiver's own children, with no more than 3 under 30 months and no more than 2 who are nonambulatory.

A group home generally needs two caregivers, one of them the administrator, for up to 12 children under 13, with no more than 5 under 30 months.

Licensing starts at 5 unrelated children: a facility regularly caring for 5 or more children who are not the caregiver's relatives must be licensed unless an exemption applies, and the rule exempts facilities that regularly care for 4 or fewer unrelated children and homes where the caregiver is a relative of every child.

Take a small center with three rooms open at once: an infant room with 10 children through 18 months, a toddler room with 12 children ages 19 to 36 months, and a preschool room with 18 children ages 3 and 4.

The 10 infants need 2 caregivers at one caregiver for every 5 children; the 12 toddlers need 2 at one caregiver for every 6; and the 18 preschoolers need 2 at one caregiver for every 10 — 6 caregivers on the floor, each room at or under its group-size cap of 10, 12 and 20.

Two rules sit outside those room counts: a mixed-age group is staffed to its youngest child's ratio, so a toddler who joins the preschool room pulls it to one caregiver for every 6 children, and at nap time the group-size caps pause while the ratios still hold.

This is arithmetic on the licensing table — an illustration of how the numbers combine, not a staffing plan for a particular center; enrollment shifts through the day, and centers confirm their coverage with their licensing office, the Child Care Program Office or, in Anchorage, municipal Child Care Licensing.