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

Minnesota's Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) licenses child care centers and monitors them for compliance.

The staff-to-child ratios a center must staff to are set in Minnesota Rules chapter 9503, the center licensing rule known as Rule 3: one staff member for every four infants, seven toddlers, ten preschoolers or fifteen school-age children.

The table below gives each band with its maximum group size.

A 2026 session law repeals Rule 3 and replaces it with new statute chapter 142H on July 1, 2027, and the new ratio section keeps the same numbers, so the table holds for the current rule and for the rule that takes over in 2027.

Each ratio band also carries a maximum group size: 8 infants, 14 toddlers, 20 preschoolers and 30 school-age children per group.

The ratio decides how many staff a room needs; the maximum group size caps how many children one group holds, even if the center adds staff.

Under current Rule 3, the maximum group size does not apply during meals, outdoor activities, field trips, naps and rest, and special activities.

A Minnesota mixed-age group may not include infants, may span no more than 36 months in age unless every child in it is school-age, and must use the ratio and group size of the youngest child present.

A room that mixes toddlers and preschoolers therefore staffs to the toddler numbers.

Naps get separate treatment: under current Rule 3, the maximum group size does not apply during naps and rest, and from July 1, 2027 the new rule also lets the staff-to-child ratio double for up to two hours during nap time in groups without infants.

Under current Rule 3, only staff who qualify as a teacher, an assistant teacher or an aide, and who work directly with children, count toward Minnesota's ratios.

Aides must be at least 16, and an aide under 18 must be directly supervised by a teacher or assistant teacher except when helping with sleeping children or with washing, toileting and diapering.

Rule 3 also dictates the mix of titles: the first staff member needed to meet the ratio must be a teacher, the second at least an aide, the third at least an assistant teacher and the fourth at least an aide, with the pattern repeating from there.

For a center's hiring plan, that makes a qualified teacher the anchor hire in each room, and it rules out counting anyone who is not both qualified as one of those three titles and working directly with children.

Family child care homes do not use the center table; they are licensed under Minnesota Rules chapter 9502 with capacity limits of their own.

A family day care license currently allows 10 children with one adult, no more than 6 of them under school age, and of those no more than 3 infants and toddlers combined, of whom no more than 2 may be infants; a group family day care license allows up to 12 children with one adult or 14 with two adults.

From July 1, 2027, homes move to a class system under new chapter 142I: Class A keeps a capacity of 10 with one adult, and the C classes run up to a C5 license allowing 18 children with two adults; a C5 license requires extra experience or credentials and a large-group training.

Take a small center with an infant room, a toddler room and a preschool room, each at its maximum group size, and staff it under current Rule 3.

The infant room holds 8 children, and at 1:4 that takes two staff on the floor, the first a teacher and the second at least an aide.

The toddler room holds 14, which at 1:7 takes two staff, again teacher first; the preschool room holds 20, which at 1:10 takes two staff, teacher plus aide.

That is six staff across the three rooms, and none of the slots can be filled by anyone who is not both qualified as a teacher, assistant teacher or aide and working directly with children.

From July 1, 2027, nap time changes the math: a toddler room of 14 without infants can run on one staff member for up to two hours, because the doubled 1:7 ratio reaches 14.

This is the rule's arithmetic, not a schedule to copy — a center confirms its own staffing with DCYF.

Minnesota's 2026 session law repeals the center licensing rule, Minnesota Rules chapter 9503, and replaces it with new statute chapter 142H on July 1, 2027; until then Rule 3 applies.

For staffing, the new ratio section keeps the infant, toddler, preschooler and school-age numbers and adds the nap-time doubling for groups without infants.

Family child care changes more, moving from the current capacity rule to Class A and C1-C5 licenses under new chapter 142I.

The rewrite also repeals the staff-qualification parts of Rule 3 along with the ratio parts, including the staff distribution pattern, so from July 1, 2027 a center's qualification requirements come from the new chapter.

Our research did not confirm whether chapter 142H keeps the teacher-first distribution pattern or the current aide rules; confirm them with DCYF as the switch approaches.