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

CCDF, the federal child care funding rules, set no numeric ratios and leave it to each state to describe its ratios by age in its CCDF plan.

Hawaii runs on two charts.

In a group child care center, Chart I of the group center chapter sets 1:8 for two-year-olds, 1:12 for three-year-olds, 1:16 for four-year-olds and 1:20 for children five and older, and it marks children under 24 months as not permitted.

Care for children under 24 months instead runs in an infant and toddler center under its own chapter, effective November 3, 2023, where infants 6 weeks to 12 months are staffed at 1:3 or 1:4 and the toddler bands reach 1:5 or 1:6.

Each ratio pairs with a maximum group size, and the two limits are separate: a room has to satisfy both.

In group child care centers the caps are 16 children for two-year-olds, 24 children for three-year-olds, 32 for four-year-olds and 40 for the five-and-older band.

In infant and toddler centers the smallest cap is a group of 6 children on the 1:3 infant pairing, and the largest toddler group the chart lists is 12 children.

In the 12 to 24 months band the chart lists four pairings: 1:3 with a group of 6 children, 1:4 with a group of 8 children, 1:5 with a group of 10 children, and 1:4 with a group of 12 children.

The pairing a center chooses sets both its ratio and its group cap.

In a Hawaii group child care center, the number of children assigned to a staff member is set by the age of the youngest child in the group.

When a curriculum requires a mixed-age group, the rule allows an averaged ratio instead, for no more than 3 hours a day.

At nap time or during night care with a mixed-age group, the averaged ratio applies.

That rule sits in the group center chapter; our research did not confirm a parallel mixed-age or nap-time rule in the infant and toddler center chapter, so ask Hawaii DHS child care licensing how it treats those rooms.

Start with age: in a group child care center, staff other than aides, volunteers and clerical or maintenance staff must be at least 18 years old, and a child care aide must be at least 16 years old to count in ratio.

Directors have their own counting rules.

In a group child care center with fewer than 50 children the director may teach and count in ratio; at 50 or more children the director may still teach but is not counted, except for emergencies of up to 10 hours a week and the first and last hour of a full-day program.

In an infant and toddler center the director counts in ratio only when total infant and toddler enrollment does not exceed 16 children.

Hawaii registers family child care homes rather than licensing them: a registered home may care for three to six unrelated children at a time.

The home caps at six children, and the provider's own children aged 6 and older are not counted toward it.

No more than two children under 18 months may be in the home at once, or up to four with additional adult help.

A home serving seven to twelve children is a group child care home, licensed under the same chapter as group centers instead of registered.

The charts turn into hiring math like this — an illustration of the ratio arithmetic, not a compliant schedule for any real center.

A group child care center room of 16 two-year-olds runs at 1:8, which puts two staff on the floor; the same arithmetic puts two staff in a room of 24 three-year-olds at 1:12 and two in a room of 32 four-year-olds at 1:16.

In an infant and toddler center, a group of 8 infants on the 1:4 pairing means two caregivers, and so does a group of 6 on the 1:3 pairing.

The director rule matters as a center grows: once a group child care center reaches 50 or more children, the director teaches but does not count in ratio outside the emergency and first-and-last-hour exceptions, so the floor count has to come from other staff who count in ratio.

In an infant and toddler center, the director counts only while total enrollment stays at 16 children or fewer.

Coverage questions a schedule raises — breaks, transitions, a mixed-age afternoon — are ones to take to Hawaii DHS child care licensing.

The oldest band in the Hawaii group center chart is 5 years and older, and that is where school-age children in a licensed group child care center sit: one staff member to 20 children, with a maximum group of 40 children.

Our research did not confirm a separate Hawaii ratio for before-school and after-school programs, so ask Hawaii DHS child care licensing how the rules apply to a program that runs outside the full-day schedule.