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At my daycare center, we drop our infant off in the mornings in the toddler room. I thought infants were supposed to be kept separate since that room requires more sanitation, etc. Yet, here we are exposing our infants to toddlers unnecessarily just so they can cut down on staff required in the mornings. I believe the ratio is still okay. Is this an issue?
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I don't believe a room full of strictly infants is any more sanitary than a room full of strictly toddlers :confused:
If it bothers or doesn't make sense to you though your best bet is going to be to bring it up to the staff or director.
I run a home based daycare and have primarily infants and toddlers. I cannot fathom a reason to keep them apart. -
I agree with Willow.
Yes, they do it to keep staff costs down, but that's a huge factor in what you pay for childcare. If they didn't do it, they'd have to charge each family a lot more just to make payroll.Comment
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Every center we have here is infant/toddler. Together.
One age group is definitely NOT any more unsanitary than another.
Just different types of "yucky".
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I think it's completely standard. I'd be more worried about older kids being in the infant room for part of the day, but not the other way around.
I think this is perfectly normal and I don't think it would bother me as a parent. If you could perhaps arrange a later dropoff, maybe they would be in their infant room and you could avoid the whole transition.Comment
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I work in a center. We can have toddlers in the infant room at the beginning or end of the day when numbers are lower and it does not make sense to have both rooms fully staffed. The ratio for the room is then set to the one for the youngest child. This is allowed by liscensing as long as the ratio is being followed. That would mean that, while the toddler room can have 1 teacher to 7 toddlers, the ratio in the infant room would be 1 to 5 kids because of the infants in the room. I believe the disinfecting and cleaning rules are the same for infants and toddlers.Comment
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Cleaning and sanitizing rules are the same for every room in a daycare facility regardless of the children's ages.Comment
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Saved4always...you can have 5 infants per teacher? Our ratio is 1:4 in Florida. I couldn't imagine five infants!Comment
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yeah...here it's 1:4 until they are 2! Then, it's about 1:8, although in a center, they have a graduated ratio, I think. For family, basically every child under 2 takes 2 spots of the 8.Comment
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Yep, that is the ratio allowed in Ohio. I am the toddler teacher, not the infant teacher so I don't personally have to handle that many infants. We have a seperate sleep room for infants which isn't so great for the bottom line but is nice for the teachers...it means we have to have 2 teachers in the infant rooms when we have more than 1 infant in case 1 is sleeping. We are not full at this point, but, when we are, I am sure staffing will get more complicated.Comment
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Nope, no caging allowed. Ohio's ratio for toddlers aged 18 months to 3 yo is 7 toddlers to 1 teacher. I think we may be able to have 8 to 1 if all are over 2 or 2 1/2 yo, but plz don't quote me on that
. At this point, since we are a newer center, my toddler room is not full. I have 6 total enrolled but 3 are part time so I do not always have 6 at a time. I agree that 7 toddlers to 1 teacher is hard. This is why I am looking forward to having 8+ someday so I can have a helper. 
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In PA our ratios are:
6 weeks to <1 year=1:4
1 year to <2= 1:5
2 years= 1:6
3/4 years= 1:10Comment
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