The Oregon OCC ratio cheatsheet, by room
Every band, every age cutoff, every common mistake. Printable for the office wall.
Oregon's Office of Child Care (OCC) sets the staff-to-child ratios every licensed center must follow. The numbers themselves are simple. The mistakes happen at the edges — kids aging into a new band mid-year, mixed-age rooms, the difference between "in care" and "on the playground."
This is the cheatsheet we run our own centers from. It's not legal advice — for the full rules, see the OCC's published Child Care Division rules. But it's what we keep printed in the breakroom.
The ratios, by age band
| Age band | Max ratio (staff : children) | Max group size |
|---|---|---|
| Infant (under 24 mo) | 1 : 4 | 8 |
| Toddler (24–36 mo) | 1 : 5 | 10 |
| Preschool (3 yr) | 1 : 10 | 20 |
| Preschool (4 yr) | 1 : 10 | 20 |
| Pre-K (5 yr, not in kindergarten) | 1 : 15 | 25 |
| School-age (5+ yr, in kindergarten) | 1 : 15 | 25 |
Where most violations happen
1. Aging up mid-year
A child turning 3 in October doesn't automatically promote to a preschool room. Many centers move them at the start of the next session. Until they actually move, the toddler ratio applies.
2. The bathroom break
If a teacher steps into the staff bathroom and a parent volunteer is "watching" the room, you're out of compliance. Volunteers don't count toward staff ratios unless they meet the same training and background-check requirements.
3. The drop-off / pickup edge
The moment a parent's signature lands on the sign-in sheet (or a tap in your check-in app), the child is in care. If your morning teacher hasn't arrived yet, you're under-staffed.
4. The playground transition
Outside time has the same ratios as indoor time. The "we're going for a walk so I'll just take the whole class" instinct is a violation if you don't have a second adult.
The two-deep rule
Even when ratios technically allow a single staffer (e.g., five toddlers and one teacher), Oregon requires a second adult on premises at all times. This is the rule that catches small home-based providers most often.
How RoundUp helps
Honestly: we built this software because we kept getting these numbers wrong. RoundUp watches every check-in, knows every child's age band, and alerts the director's phone the moment a room is one student away from breaching ratio. Yellow at 80%, red if you'd exceed.
It also keeps a tamper-proof audit log of every ratio reading — the exact thing OCC inspectors ask for first.
Sources. Oregon Administrative Rules Chapter 414, Division 350 (Certified Child Care Centers). Last reviewed: 2026-05-07. Always confirm current rules with your OCC licensor — these change.