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

Idaho does not set staff-to-child ratios with a fixed age-by-age table: Idaho Code 39-1109(4), amended 2025, caps every staff member at 12 points and gives each child a point value by age.

A child under 24 months counts 2 points, a child aged 24 to 36 months counts 1.33, a child aged 36 months to under 5 counts 0.923, and a child aged 5 to under 13 counts 0.48.

Worked out from the cap, one staff member covers 6 children under 24 months, about 9 two-year-olds, 13 children aged 36 months to under 5, or 25 school-age children.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare's Daycare Licensing program administers the rule.

The statute also requires at least one adult employee to be present at all times when children are in attendance.

Idaho state law sets no maximum group size.

The statute's 12-point cap per staff member is what limits how many children one caregiver covers, and the same section allows facilities to operate with child:staff ratios more stringent than the point system sets.

Some Idaho cities have their own daycare ordinances; the state-level research behind this page did not cover city ordinances, so a center operator should confirm local rules with the city where the facility operates.

Because Idaho counts points rather than fixing one ratio per room, the same 12-point cap governs a mixed-age room: one staff member's 12 points can combine children of different ages as long as the values add up to 12 or fewer.

At the cap, one staff member covers 6 children under 24 months, 13 children aged 36 months to under 5, or 25 school-age children — or a mix of ages within the same 12 points.

Our research recorded no separate mixed-age point schedule in the statute.

At nap time, the statute's supervision language applies: sleeping children must be within sight and normal hearing range of a provider, and at least one adult employee must be present at all times when children are in attendance.

The research recorded no provision that lowers the point count while children sleep.

Idaho defines staff as anyone 16 or older employed by a daycare facility to provide care and supervision, and state law sets no education requirement for daycare teachers or caregivers.

At Idaho daycare centers, every staff member counted in ratio must hold current pediatric rescue breathing and pediatric first aid certification.

Separately, at least one adult employee with current pediatric rescue breathing and first aid certification must be on the premises whenever children are present at any licensed daycare facility.

Idaho statute defines a family daycare home as one serving 6 or fewer children, a group daycare facility as 7 to 12 children, and a daycare center as 13 or more; a daycare facility serving 7 or more unrelated children needs a basic daycare license.

Homes caring for 6 or fewer children do not need a license, but a home caring for 4 or more must complete a criminal history check, and homes with fewer than 7 may opt in to a license.

Providers who want Idaho Child Care Program (ICCP) subsidy payments must complete licensing requirements and 12 hours of ICCP training a year.

The point system on this page is the staffing rule for licensed daycare facilities — the statute's term for facilities serving 7 or more unrelated children — so a licensed group daycare facility or center staffs under it.

Say a small center runs four rooms: eight children under 24 months, ten children aged 24 to 36 months, twenty children aged 36 months to under 5, and thirty children aged 5 to under 13.

Six children under 24 months fill one staff member's 12-point cap, so the infant room of eight needs 2 staff members.

Ten two-year-olds sit above the 9-per-staff mark for one caregiver, so that room takes 2 as well.

Twenty children aged 36 months to under 5 exceed the 13-per-staff figure, and thirty school-age children exceed 25, so each of those rooms takes 2 staff members.

Across the four rooms the point system works out to 8 staff members on the floor — an illustration of the arithmetic, not a staffing plan for a specific center, so confirm a real schedule with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.