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

Texas sets its child/caregiver ratios — the teacher-to-child staffing numbers, in everyday terms — by age in the Minimum Standards that the Child Care Regulation department of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) administers.

In centers with 13 or more children in care, the ratios are 1:4 for infants 0–11 months, 1:5 for 12–17 months, 1:9 for 18–23 months, 1:11 for two-year-olds, 1:15 for three-year-olds, 1:18 for four-year-olds, 1:22 for five-year-olds and 1:26 for children 6–13.

The ratio is not set by the youngest child in the room: Texas lists the group youngest to oldest and takes the age of the child at the midpoint, rounding .5 up, as the group's 'specified age' (26 TAC §746.1603).

Centers with 12 or fewer children in care follow a separate mixed-age ratio chart under 26 TAC §746.1701.

Alongside the ratio, 26 TAC §746.1609 caps how many children may be in one group in centers with 13 or more children in care, even when more caregivers are present: 10 for infants 0–11 months, 13 for 12–17 months, 18 for 18–23 months, 22 for two-year-olds, 30 for three-year-olds, and 35 for children 4 years and older.

Group size and ratio are different limits.

The ratio counts children per caregiver; the group cap holds no matter how many caregivers are added.

Texas is explicit that adding a second caregiver does not simply double the ratio — the maximum number of children two or more caregivers may supervise is limited by the maximum group size (26 TAC §746.1607).

Texas limits how rooms combine ages.

In centers with 13 or more children, infants may be grouped with older children only when the oldest child in the group is no more than 18 months older than the youngest (26 TAC §746.1605).

At naptime, a center with 13 or more children in care may reduce the child/caregiver ratio for children 18 months and older by 50% when groups are combined in a central sleeping location and extra employees are in the building (26 TAC §746.1613); the reduction is scoped to children 18 months and older.

The standards also allow a combined grouping twice a day: children 18 months and older may be grouped one caregiver per 16 during the first 45 minutes after opening and the last 45 minutes before closing, and there is no matching adjustment for children under 18 months (26 TAC §746.1615).

In a licensed Texas child-care center, a caregiver who counts toward the ratio must be at least 18 years old and hold a high school diploma, a high school equivalent or a high school certificate of coursework completion (26 TAC §746.1107).

Sixteen- and 17-year-olds can be counted in ratio only within narrow limits: they need a diploma or enrollment in an approved child-care career program, and a center may count them in ratio only if they are never left alone with children and work in the same room as a qualified caregiver (26 TAC §746.1109).

Training gates counting too — a new caregiver must complete the first 8 hours of the 24 clock hours of pre-service training before being counted in the child/caregiver ratio, with the remaining 16 hours due within 90 days of employment (26 TAC §746.1301).

Every caregiver and the center director must also hold current pediatric first aid (with rescue breathing and choking) and pediatric CPR certificates — not just one certified person per site; first aid is due within 90 days of employment and before unsupervised access to children.

Home capacity runs on different rules from centers.

Texas statute distinguishes a listed family home, which cares for three or fewer unrelated children for compensation, from a registered home, which is required when a family home cares for four or more unrelated children (HRC §42.052).

The statutory definition of a family home caps care at six children under 14, excluding related children, plus up to six additional after-school elementary children, and no more than 12 children total at any time (HRC §42.002(9)).

A licensed child-care home — the group day-care home — is care in the operator's residence for seven or more children under 14 (HRC §42.002(8)).

The detailed capacity charts for registered and licensed homes (26 TAC §747.1701 and §747.1801) are published as graphics our research could not read, so this page does not state home capacities beyond the statutory definitions; ask HHSC Child Care Regulation for the current chart.

Here is how the numbers convert into headcount on the floor, as an illustration of the rule rather than a staffing plan for any particular center.

An infant room with eight babies needs two caregivers at 1:4; a full infant group of ten sits at the group cap, and at 1:4 it takes three caregivers.

A room of ten children aged 12–17 months needs two caregivers at 1:5 and stays under the group cap of 13.

Among three-year-olds, a group of twenty-four needs two caregivers at 1:15 and remains under the cap of 30 — and no number of extra caregivers lifts that cap, because two or more caregivers are limited by the maximum group size.

At naptime, that same three-year-old group may run with one caregiver instead of two under the 50% reduction, but only when groups are combined in a central sleeping location and extra employees are in the building.

During the first and last 45 minutes, children 18 months and older may be grouped one caregiver to 16.

For children 6–13, the center ratio is 1:26, with a maximum group size of 35 (26 TAC §746.1601, §746.1609).

These are the figures for centers with 13 or more children in care.

In a family home the school-age allowance works differently: the statute lets a home add up to six additional after-school elementary children on top of the six children under 14, within the 12-child total.

The Minimum Standards for child-care centers (26 TAC Chapter 746) carry a December 2025 revision date, and the ratios and group sizes on this page are the figures in that current edition.

Rules are revised from time to time, so confirm the current figures with HHSC Child Care Regulation before you staff a room or set a schedule.