I want to advocate against increasing teacher:child ratios on behalf of both teacher and child wellness. There is already a shortage of people willing to work in childcare, given most centers staff to maximum ratios and pay minimum wages. More children per teacher will lead to increased teacher burnout and worsen the shortage. It will decrease the quality of care children receive, and lead to more accidents and injuries. 

The Office of Regulatory Management claims that this change in the standards will net centers $35,902.40 in additional revenue. However, centers have already been able to opt into these increased ratios, and fewer than 10% of centers have done so. The economic benefit is blatantly misleading. 

Imagine being alone, caring for 5 babies, 6 toddlers, or 8 two-year-olds. Imagine being alone with 16 two-year-olds during nap time when suddenly, 9 of them wake up at the same time and refuse to stay on their mats (because yes, that happens). I have to believe that these standards are being proposed by people who have never worked in childcare, or they would know how absurd and ridiculous this idea is. Children feel the stress of their adults, and if childcare workers are more stressed and burned out due to higher ratios, it will lead to less emotionally healthy children since they will feed off of that stress.

You can read more about this on ONCDC’s Substack here.