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

Illinois sets both a staff-to-child ratio and a maximum group size for every age band a center serves.

Under 23 IAC 2008.190, the ratios are: infants (6 weeks through 14 months) 1:4; toddlers (15 through 23 months) 1:5; two-year-olds 1:8; three-year-olds 1:10; four-year-olds 1:10; five-year-olds 1:20; and school-age children 1:20.

The table below gives each band's ratio next to its group-size ceiling.

The agency that administers these rules is the Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC), the state's child care licensing lead agency since July 1, 2026.

The group-size ceiling is the number of children one classroom group may include, however many staff you add; the ratio is what sets the staff count for that group.

Illinois ceilings run from 12 in an infant room to 30 for school-age: 12 infants, 15 toddlers, 16 two-year-olds, 20 three-year-olds, 20 four-year-olds, 20 five-year-olds and 30 school-age children.

For a staffing plan, group size is what fixes the group count: 32 three-year-olds cannot sit in one group of 20, so they form two groups, each staffed at 1:10.

When a center combines age groups, the staff-to-child ratio and the maximum group size follow the youngest child in the room.

The combinations the rule allows are infants with toddlers and twos, ages 2 through 5, ages 4 through 6, and all ages during the first and last hour of a program that runs 10 or more hours.

Nap time relaxes direct supervision for older rooms: except for infants and toddlers, children may be supervised during nap by 50% of the qualified staff the ratio requires, as long as the full ratio is maintained on the premises.

A full room of 16 two-year-olds, for example, needs two staff at 1:8 — at nap, one of the two can be the staff member in the room while the full ratio remains on site.

Among the classroom titles the rule's staffing provisions name are the early childhood teacher and the early childhood assistant.

An assistant aged 18 or older may hold a room where every child is 2 or older without a teacher for up to 3 consecutive hours, and the rule adds that those hours cannot make up a majority of the hours an individual classroom is open in a single day.

For a room that includes children under 2, the same 3-hour solo window is limited to assistants aged 18 or older with 1 year (1,560 hours) of experience and the DHS Child Development, Health and Safety Basics training.

The assistant rule states no minimum age for assistants, but only an assistant aged 18 or older may supervise a room alone.

Students in a vocational child care program count in ratio once they are 16 or older, at least five years older than the oldest child in the group, and have completed a year of the program.

Day care homes do not use the center table; their capacity rules sit in 23 IAC 2007.

A caregiver alone may care for up to 8 children under 12, and the caregiver's own children under 12 count in that total, with caps on the age mix — for example, up to 5 children under 5, of whom up to 3 may be under 24 months, or up to 6 children under 5, of whom up to 2 may be under 30 months.

With an assistant aged 18 or older, a home may add 4 full-time school-age children for a total of 12, or care for 8 children under 5 with up to 5 of them under 24 months.

Illinois licenses a second, larger home type, the group day care home, for more than 3 and up to 16 children under a separate chapter (23 IAC 2009); our research did not confirm staffing figures for that chapter, so confirm them with IDEC.

Take a center that runs five rooms, one each for infants, toddlers, twos, threes and school-age children.

An 8-infant room staffs at 1:4 with two caregivers on the floor, a 10-toddler room at 1:5 with two, a full 16-child two-year-old room at 1:8 with two, an 18-child three-year-old room at 1:10 with two, and a 24-child school-age room at 1:20 with two — ten floor staff across five rooms, before nap-time supervision or the first-and-last-hour mixing window changes who must be in each room.

Separate from the room ratios, Illinois requires any center licensed for more than 50 children to employ a full-time director on site in a non-teaching capacity, except during the first and last hour of a 10-plus-hour day or when attendance is under 50.

These figures are arithmetic on the rule's numbers, not a schedule the department has reviewed — work through a real staffing plan with IDEC before you hire against it.

The rule's school-age band staffs at 1:20 with a maximum group size of 30.

Illinois also writes in a two-adult exception: an early childhood teacher aided by an early childhood assistant may supervise a group of up to 30 children if all of the children are at least five years of age.

Two staff for 30 children is one adult per 15, and the exception only applies when every child in the group is at least five — one child under five puts the group back on the age-band table.

On July 1, 2026, the Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) became the lead agency for child care licensing, replacing DCFS Day Care Licensing.

The rules moved with the agency: centers are now 23 IAC 2008 (formerly 89 IAC 407), day care homes 23 IAC 2007, group day care homes 23 IAC 2009, and background checks 23 IAC 2010, recodified under P.A. 103-0594.

The ratio and group-size figures on this page are the Title 23 numbers, and IDEC administers them; confirm any figure you staff to against the current rulebook before you hire.