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

The Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) licenses early learning centers under Bulletin 137, and the ratio table sits in the center rule at LAC 28:CLXI.1711.

Ratios are child-to-staff: infants under 1 year are staffed at 5:1, one-year-olds at 7:1, two-year-olds at 10:1, three-year-olds at 13:1, four-year-olds at 15:1, five-year-olds at 19:1 and children 6 and up at 23:1.

Each band also carries a maximum group size, covered in the next section.

Two rules sit underneath every age band: a center must have at least two staff members present whenever more than four children are present, and in a mixed group that includes a child younger than age two, the youngest child's ratio governs the whole group.

Every age band carries a maximum group size alongside its ratio, set in LAC 28:CLXI.1711: 15 for infants under 1 year, 21 for one-year-olds, 20 for two-year-olds, 26 for three-year-olds, 30 for four-year-olds, 38 for five-year-olds and 46 for children 6 and up.

The two caps measure different things: the ratio sets how many staff the children require, while the group size sets how many children one group can hold at all.

A center planning rooms therefore works against both numbers at once, and the two do not move in lockstep — the two-year-old maximum of 20 is smaller than the one-year-old maximum of 21 even though two-year-olds are staffed at a looser ratio.

Louisiana allows ratios to be averaged for mixed groups of 2- to 5-year-olds, so a center can blend ages within that range without staffing each age to its own band.

Averaging stops at age two: when a mixed age group includes children younger than age two, the age of the youngest child determines the child-to-staff ratio for the whole group — one one-year-old among four-year-olds puts the room on the 7:1 ratio.

Rest time has its own provision: children ages one and older may be grouped together at rest time with one staff member in each room supervising the resting children, as long as enough staff remain on the premises to meet the ratios.

Our research captured the rest-time provision for children ages one and older; ask LDE how it treats rooms that include infants under 1.

Age and supervision decide who counts in ratio.

Staff age 18 or older may be included in the child-to-staff ratio and may work without the direct supervision of another adult staff member.

Staff aged 16 and 17 may be included in ratio only when they work under the direct supervision of an adult staff member, so a schedule that uses a 16- or 17-year-old keeps an adult staff member directly supervising them.

Directors feel the rule at scale too: when more than 42 children are present, the director's duties must be administrative only, or another person must handle administration exclusively.

Counting in ratio is one question; the training and credential rules for each classroom role are separate requirements in the same rulebook.

The home path in Louisiana is the registered family child care provider: care in a residence for no more than six children under age 13, or children with special needs under age 18, registered and CCAP-certified by LDE under Bulletin 139 rather than licensed as a center.

Registered family child care carries a maximum group of six and a 6:1 child-to-staff ratio, so by the ratio's arithmetic a home at its six-child maximum needs at least one caregiver for its six children.

The line to the center rules is definitional: care for seven or more children not related to the caregiver, on a regular basis for at least 12.5 hours in a continuous seven-day week, meets Louisiana's early learning center definition — and from there the center ratios and group sizes in the table above apply.

As an illustration of the rule's arithmetic, not a staffing plan: an infant room at the maximum group of 15 needs three staff on the floor at 5:1, and a two-year-old room of 20 needs two at 10:1.

A four-year-old room of 30 needs two at 15:1.

Mixed groups of 2- to 5-year-olds may average their ratios instead of staffing each age to its own band.

The two-staff floor applies to the whole center: whenever more than four children are present, at least two staff members must be present at the center, so even a center whose only children are five infants, which the 5:1 ratio would cover with one caregiver, needs a second staff member present.

Field trips carry the minimum ratio plus one additional adult — a trip taking fifteen four-year-olds, one staff at 15:1, adds one more adult for two.

Every figure here is the rule's own; the schedule that applies them is each center's to confirm with LDE.