Oklahoma

Staff-child ratios (centers)

Requirements

Annual training

Annual professional development is tied to the Oklahoma Professional Development Ladder (OPDL): 12 clock hours per year at Level 1 and 20 clock hours at Level 2 and above; directors must maintain at least 20 clock hours every 12 months for the Oklahoma Director's Credential. The director and master teachers must obtain CPR and first aid certification within 3 months.

Lead teacher

Teachers must be at least 18 with a high school diploma or GED (or be completing one within 12 months) and obtain an OPDL certificate within 12 months of hire. At least one master teacher — with a high school diploma and OPDL Level 4 or higher — is required per 60 children of licensed capacity.

Director

Directors must be at least 21, have satisfactory work experience, and hold a current bronze-level or higher certificate under the Oklahoma Director's Credential (OAC 340 Appendix EE). They must be on site at least 50 percent of operating hours or 30 hours per week, whichever is less.

Worth knowing

Values shown are the single-age group chart for child care centers. Mixed-age groups use separate charts (e.g., groups including infants: 1:8 with no more than 2 children under age 2 per teacher, max group 16).

Compliance

Background checks

Background investigations are required for owners, responsible entities, personnel before hire, anyone with unsupervised access to children, and adults living in the facility (OAC 340:110-3-282): a criminal history review through the Office of Background Investigations including a fingerprint-based national (FBI) records search, an online search of the Restricted Registry (Joshua's List), and screening against the Sex Offenders Registration Act and Mary Rippy Violent Crime Offenders registries. Reviews are resubmitted every five years, and individuals may not have unsupervised access to children until complete results are received.

Mandated reporting

Any person with reason to believe a child is abused or neglected must report promptly to the OKDHS Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline (1-800-522-3511) per 10A O.S. § 1-2-101; failure to report is a misdemeanor, or a felony with prolonged knowledge (OAC 340:110-3-280(b)). Program personnel are explicitly required to report per OAC 340:110-3-284(c)(3), and orientation covers maltreatment prevention.

First aid & CPR

At all times, at least one person with current age-appropriate CPR and first aid certification (from approved sources) must be present with children on-site in each building, off-site, and in each vehicle during transportation; at minimum the director and master teachers must hold certification (OAC 340:110-3-284(d)(6)). Certifications are kept in personnel records and maintained current.

Health & safety training

Within one week of employment and before having sole responsibility for children, personnel must complete a documented orientation covering licensing requirements, infectious disease control, immunizations, injury prevention, childhood emergencies, discipline/maltreatment prevention, transportation safety, premises safety, hazardous materials, diapering, shaken baby, SIDS and safe sleep, child development and program policies (OAC 340:110-3-284(d)(3)). Teaching personnel must complete an approved entry-level training (ELCCT) within 90 days, formal safe-sleep training before caring for infants, annual infection control training, and ongoing professional development hours tied to the Oklahoma Professional Development Ladder / Director's Credential.

Operations

Supervision rule

Supervision means observing, overseeing and guiding children with awareness of and responsibility for each child's ongoing activity, near enough to intervene, maintained at all times, with no distracting non-job activities while counted in ratio (OAC 340:110-3-287). A narrow exception lets five or fewer children aged 5+ do a short on-site activity out of sight/hearing with staff contact at least every 10 minutes; off-site activities require a written supervision plan, and children may never be left unattended in vehicles.

Record-keeping

OAC 340:110-3-281 through -281.4 prescribe posted, program, personnel and child records: a completed child information form before the first day, immunization record or exemption before attendance, medication permissions and administration logs, injury/poison-exposure reports, infant daily eating/diapering/sleeping records, and field trip permissions kept at least 12 months. Personnel records include orientation, professional development verification and CPR/first aid certifications; incident and monitoring documentation must be maintained and certain records (e.g., volunteer records) kept 12 months after last use.

Inspections

Licensing staff conduct a minimum of three unannounced monitoring visits per year to full-year programs (two per year for part-year programs), varying visit times to include lunch observations and evening visits for extended-hours centers (OAC 340:110-1-9). DHS staff must have access to the entire facility at all times, and the most recent monitoring visit forms must be posted (OAC 340:110-3-276, -281.1).

Worth knowing: Primary source is the OKDHS publication 'Licensing Requirements for Child Care Programs' (effective 6/1/2022, OAC 340:110-3-275 through -311); monitoring frequency comes from OAC 340:110-1-9 via Cornell LII. Oklahoma posts provider compliance histories publicly (childcarefind.okdhs.org), but that site was not fetched for this dataset.

Family & home child care

OAC 340:110-3-80 through 340:110-3-97.1 (Requirements for Family Child Care Homes and Large Family Child Care Homes)

Family Child Care Home (licensed)

A family home providing care for 7 or fewer children. The total includes the caregiver's children younger than 5 living in the home and present during care, foster children 12 and younger living in the home, and the substitute's or assistant's children. With one caregiver: 7 children (max 2 under age 2), 6 children (max 3 under 2), or 5 children of any age; beyond that, 2 caregivers are required (OAC 340:110-3-81, 340:110-3-84).With one caregiver: no more than 2 children under age 2 when 7 are in care, or no more than 3 under 2 when 6 are in care; 5 children may be any age (OAC 340:110-3-84(b)).

Large Family Child Care Home (licensed)

A residential family home providing care for 8 to 12 children (total capped at 12). Caregiver numbers scale with ages: e.g., one caregiver for up to 12 children all age 5+; two caregivers for up to 12 children with no more than 6 under age 2; three caregivers for 12 mixed-age children with up to 8 under age 2. Assistant caregivers must be at least 16 (OAC 340:110-3-97.1).Two caregivers may care for up to 8 children under age 2 (alone) or 12 children with no more than 6 under 2; three caregivers for up to 8 under 2 in mixed ages or up to 12 infants alone (OAC 340:110-3-97.1(f)).

Provider training

The primary caregiver must complete 12 clock hours of professional development annually (no more than 6 hours via videos or position-related reading), plus maintain age-appropriate CPR and first aid certification (OAC 340:110-3-84.1(h) as published in OKDHS Pub. 86-104, eff. 11-1-2024).