9.2: Determining Staffing Needs

Determining staffing needs is one of the most important administrative tasks in an early childhood education program. Staffing decisions affect children’s safety, supervision, continuity of care, instructional quality, family communication, and the program’s financial stability. Administrators must therefore think beyond simply “meeting ratio.” Effective staffing plans take into account:

• the ages of children served,
• group size,
• hours of operation,
• daily schedules,
• required staff qualifications,
• supervision demands,
• inclusion needs, and
• the non-classroom responsibilities necessary to keep the program functioning well.

A strong staffing plan begins with a realistic analysis of what the program must provide throughout the day, not just what is required at the busiest or most visible times. Programs need enough staff to maintain safe supervision during arrival, departure, toileting, meals, outdoor play, transitions, breaks, staff absences, and emergencies. They also need to account for administrative, family communication, health and safety, and support functions that may not occur directly inside the classroom but are still essential to program quality and compliance.

Staff-to-Child Ratios and Group Size

The starting point for determining staffing needs is compliance with applicable staff-to-child ratio and group size requirements. State licensing regulations establish the legal minimums programs must meet, and some settings may also be subject to additional standards through Head Start, accreditation, or other funding and oversight systems. When multiple standards apply, programs generally must follow the most stringent requirement.

Ratios and group size are closely related but not identical. Ratio refers to the number of children assigned to each adult, while group size refers to the total number of children allowed in the group. Both matter. Lower ratios and smaller group sizes support safer supervision, more responsive interactions, and better opportunities for individualized attention. Adequate and safe group sizes and child-to-staff ratios are fundamental structural features of program quality. Programs must also maintain appropriate ratios during all hours of operation, not only during core instructional periods.

Programs should not plan staffing solely around the legal minimum. Minimum ratio may not be sufficient for all classrooms or times of day. For example, classrooms serving children with significant behavioral, medical, developmental, or mobility needs may require more adults than the minimum ratio suggests. Similarly, staffing patterns that appear compliant on paper may not be workable during transitions, toileting, outdoor time, or staff breaks.

Ages of Children Served

Staffing needs vary substantially depending on the ages of the children enrolled. Infant and toddler programs generally require lower ratios and smaller group sizes than preschool or school-age programs because younger children need more intensive supervision, caregiving, and individualized routines. In infant and toddler settings, staffing plans should also support continuity of care, consistent relationships, and predictable primary caregiving responsibilities whenever possible.

Mixed-age groupings also affect staffing decisions. When age ranges are combined in one classroom, the staffing pattern may need to reflect the needs of the youngest children present or the age composition required by the governing standards. Administrators must review the specific regulations and standards that apply to their setting rather than assuming a single ratio fits all mixed-age arrangements. In addition, staffing needs differ depending on whether a program serves children in full-day, part-day, before- and after-school, or extended-hour models. A staffing plan that works for a short preschool session may be insufficient for a full-day program that includes meals, naps, multiple transitions, and longer family contact periods.

Hours of Operation and Daily Coverage

Programs must determine staffing needs across the entire operating day. This includes opening time, arrival, instructional periods, meals, rest time, outdoor play, late afternoon coverage, and closing routines. Programs often discover that staffing challenges are greatest not during the core classroom block, but at the margins of the day, when children arrive gradually, classrooms combine temporarily, or fewer staff are scheduled at the beginning or end of the day.

Daily coverage plans should also account for staff breaks, lunch periods, release time, planning time, and meetings. If staffing is planned too tightly, even routine events can put the program at risk of falling out of ratio or compromising supervision. Programs need procedures to ensure ratios and class size maximums are maintained during all hours of operation and in all settings, including indoor spaces, outdoor spaces, and field trips.

For this reason, administrators usually need more staff than a simple ratio calculation would suggest. A classroom that requires two adults to operate safely may need access to floaters, substitutes, or staggered schedules to remain compliant and functional throughout the day.

Classroom, Administrative, and Support Staffing

Determining staffing needs also requires looking beyond classroom teaching positions. Programs need to identify the full range of roles necessary to operate effectively. Depending on the size and structure of the program, this may include a director, assistant director, curriculum or education coordinator, office or enrollment staff, family support staff, cooks, janitorial staff, bus or transportation staff, health personnel, or classroom aides. Even when some of these duties are combined into fewer roles, they still need to be accounted for in workload and staffing plans.

Smaller programs may have staff who perform multiple functions, while larger programs may divide responsibilities more formally. In either case, administrators must be realistic about how much non-teaching work occurs each day. Tasks such as greeting families, supervising medication procedures, managing records, handling billing, supporting licensing compliance, covering classrooms, or responding to parent concerns all require staff time. If these tasks are not accounted for, directors and teachers may become overextended, and program quality may suffer.

Floaters, Substitutes, and Flexible Staffing

A sound staffing plan includes provisions for absences, coverage, and changing daily needs. Floaters and substitutes are especially important because staff illness, training, vacations, family emergencies, and turnover are unavoidable in early childhood settings. Programs that rely entirely on fixed classroom assignments without backup coverage are more vulnerable to supervision lapses, staff stress, and last-minute disruptions.

Substitute staff should be trained, oriented to center procedures, and integrated into program safety systems rather than treated as interchangeable last-minute coverage. Flexible staffing can also help programs respond to higher-need classrooms, difficult transitions, toileting support, challenging behavior, and other situations where the minimum number of classroom staff may not be adequate.

Therefore, programs should determine in advance how they will provide:

• break coverage,
• planning time,
• support during arrivals and departures,
• support during outdoor play and transitions,
• substitute coverage for absences, and
• additional staffing during emergencies or unusually demanding situations.

Inclusion, Family Needs, and Program Priorities

Staffing needs should also be shaped by the program’s mission and the needs of the children and families served. Programs that prioritize inclusion, dual language support, family engagement, or trauma-informed practice may need staffing patterns that allow for more individualized attention, closer collaboration with specialists, or stronger communication with families.

For example, a program serving children with disabilities may need to coordinate more closely with therapists, early intervention personnel, or special education staff. A program serving many dual language learners may place a high priority on bilingual staffing. A program with intensive family partnership expectations may need staff time dedicated to conferences, referrals, and relationship-building beyond what is visible in the classroom schedule. These program priorities are not extras; they have real staffing implications.

Using Data to Plan Staffing

Determining staffing needs should be an ongoing process, not a one-time calculation. Administrators can use enrollment data, attendance patterns, classroom observations, licensing requirements, incident reports, and staff feedback to assess whether staffing patterns are working. If teachers consistently miss breaks, classrooms become difficult to supervise during transitions, or directors are pulled into classroom coverage every day, these are signs that staffing plans may need revision.

Programs should also review staffing patterns when enrollment changes, age groupings shift, operating hours expand, or children with new support needs enroll. A staffing plan should be revisited whenever the reality of the program changes.

Example \(\PageIndex{1}\)

The vignette described below illustrates that determining staffing needs involves more than calculating the legal minimum number of adults. This example demonstrates how administrators must plan for the program's actual daily flow.

We Were in Ratio on Paper!

A child care center believed it had planned staffing carefully for the new school year. Each classroom met the required ratio, and the weekly schedule looked efficient. However, within the first month, problems began to appear. Arrival time was chaotic because children entered gradually while only a small number of staff were scheduled early in the morning. Teachers struggled to take breaks without pulling administrators into classrooms. Outdoor play became difficult to supervise when one staff member had to take a child inside to use the restroom. Late in the afternoon, classrooms were combined to save staffing costs, but the transitions created confusion and stress for children and staff.

The director eventually realized that the staffing plan had been built around minimum ratio rather than actual daily operations. The program revised the schedule to add earlier coverage, assign a floater during peak transition periods, and create a more reliable substitute plan. Although these changes increased staffing costs, they improved supervision, reduced staff frustration, and made the daily routine more manageable.