Hi All. Is it common for a home daycare to have 2 providers?? And if so, what is the ratio for 2 providers. Is it the same as if it was only 1 provider, or is it based on square footage? Any ideas, thoughts, or suggestions?

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For which state?

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Some daycares by choice choose to have two providers for various reasons. Unless you are licensed as a center or a group it probably would not be necessary to have two providers. If you do have two providers it also doesn't automatically mean you can double the number of children in your care either. Getting a license is also based on square feet, but if you had more than enough square feet and enough providers you most likely will not be able to be licensed as a center unless you live in a certain "zone" in the city. You need to check with your state regulations on how many children and what ages one person alone is allowed to have.

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Depends on the state. Here in MN you can have a license for anywhere from 6-12 kids with one provider (depends on experience, education, and ages of kids.) With two providers I think you can have 14. You also have to have a certain amount of square feet per child that you have both inside and outside.

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I have just myself usually but for outtings I do take more assistants (mom a friend etc) Just because it's safer with more eyes on the kids in public. I can have 6 kids based on the size of my home. I think that's the highest with 1 provider because I was marked as having a large home on the monitors paperwork. I know a lady that does daycare out of her apartment in a high rise! Yep the elderly apartments. She is only in her 50's though. She is permitted 2 children. My back up lives in a duplex and is permitted 4 children. So I think it's pretty much set on the square footage here. HTH

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I am a family provider and I have a full time assistant. Im my state they just changed the ratio that we can have more infants under the age of 2 if we hired someone else. We are still only able to have so many children just more younger ones.

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In Utah you can watch up to 8 kids (only 2 under age 2) or 6 kids with 3 under age 2 with one provider. You can tend up to 16 with 2 providers (only 4 kids under age 2)

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In Iowa we can have 14 with two providers (includes SA) we are reg as a "C" provider each person has to have five years experiance.

I think the max is 6 kids for just on person and they would be reg as a 'A' or 'B' provider based on years exp.

We also had to have the area around our home re-zoned to be able to keep teh daycare open. LOTS of City planning and zoning meetings but it once we convinced them we were a value to the city they changed it no problem. We only have ONE Daycare center and 10 reg providers in a city of 10,000. That means a MAX of 100 kids were being cared for by reg providers!!

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Sorry...it's been a few days since I posted this message. Thank you for all the replies. I live in MA. I am going to a potential providers meeting in June and I'm sure they will answer it for me...but have already started to plan everything and Im a little nervous that the plan we have for 2 providers is going to back fire...
The room I plan to have the daycare in is just under 600 sq ft. I live in a new construction house and this room is the only room that is left to do...so I am going to be doing it from scratch (which I think is really exciting seeing as my husband is the carpenter). The two of us who plan to open the daycare are both in school right now working towards either an ECE degree or infant/toddler certificate. I will be getting my Associates degree in ECE next year. From everything I've read online, you don't need schooling to open a family daycare, which is great, but I am also getting mixed messages that in order to have 2 adults...one needs to be an Assistant and have so many years of experience? All I am hoping for is to be able to have 2 adults with at least 6 - 8 kids.
Does anyone have any suggestions or able to point me in the right direction?
Thanks!

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