Staffing and group size requirements

1. The number of staff members responsible for caring for or teaching children and their responsibilities must reflect program requirements and individual differences in the needs of the children enrolled, and may permit mixed groups, if necessary. Service personnel engaged in housekeeping and food preparation may not be counted in the child to staff ratio for periods of time when they are engaged in housekeeping or food preparation. The operator shall ensure that a child with special needs requiring more than usual care and supervision has adequate care and supervision without adversely affecting care provided to the other children in the school-age child care program. 2. Staffing requirements and maximum group size. a. The operator of a school-age child care program shall ensure that the program is sufficiently staffed at all times to meet the child to staff ratios for children in attendance, and that no more children than the licensed capacity are served at one time. One staff member may care for or teach a maximum of twenty children, with a maximum group size of forty children. b. A staff member may be counted in the required ratio only for the time the staff member is directly responsible for a group of children. c. The director shall ensure that staff members responsible for caring for or teaching children and children under the age of eighteen are supervised by an adult at all times while in the school-age child care program.