South Dakota

Staff-child ratios (centers)

Requirements

Annual training

Each director and each provider counted in staff-child ratios must complete 10 hours of annual training in the federally required health and safety topic areas (ARSD 67:42:17); pediatric CPR renewal may not be counted toward the annual hours. Orientation covering 13 health/safety topics (including pediatric first aid and CPR) is required before unsupervised care.

Lead teacher

Providers (caregivers) must be at least 18 years of age and demonstrate and maintain the ability to provide care that attends to children's physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs; assistants may be 14+ but only under direct supervision.

Director

The program administrator/director must be at least 18 and have one of: a bachelor's degree in education or human development; a two-year degree in early childhood education; a CDA or comparable credential; certification in a child learning philosophy plus 1 year of experience; a child development technician diploma; or 4 years of experience in a center or school-age program (ARSD 67:42:17:09).

Worth knowing

SD uses only three ratio tiers for centers (67:42:17:21): 1:5 for children under 3 (no separate infant/toddler tiers), 1:10 for ages 3–4, 1:15 for 5 and over. No fixed maximum group sizes: group size is limited by approved room capacity. A center serving 20 or fewer children in a mixed-age group may use 1:10 (max four children under 2, no more than two under 1). Rules per DSS licensing handbook effective March 2026.

Compliance

Background checks

All registered and licensed providers (and CCDF-funded informal/in-home providers) must complete, per federal law 45 C.F.R. 98.43, in-state screenings — SD criminal registry via fingerprints, SD sex offender registry, SD child abuse and neglect registry, NCIC, and an FBI national fingerprint check — plus, for each state of residence in the past five years, that state's criminal, child-abuse-registry, and sex-offender checks. In-state background screenings must be repeated every five years, and DSS pays required fees.

Mandated reporting

A child care provider must immediately report any suspected abuse or neglect to Child Protective Services, law enforcement, or the State's Attorney's office and cooperate fully in any investigation (ARSD 67:42:17:47); recognition and reporting of abuse is a required orientation topic and staff files must include a signed acknowledgment of the duty to report.

First aid & CPR

Every provider must complete pediatric first aid training every five years and hold current pediatric CPR certification that includes a hands-on skills test; until trained, the provider must work under the supervision of someone who is (ARSD 67:42:17:46). Drivers also need the training unless another provider rides in the vehicle.

Health & safety training

Within 90 days of hire — and before caring for children unsupervised — every provider must document orientation in the 13 CCDBG health and safety areas (infectious disease control, safe sleep/SIDS, medication administration, food allergies, premises safety, shaken baby prevention, emergency preparedness, hazardous materials, transportation, abuse recognition/reporting, pediatric first aid, pediatric CPR, and child development) per ARSD 67:42:17:17. Ratio-counted center staff and directors then complete 10 hours of annual training, with advanced Level II health and safety training every five years.

Operations

Supervision rule

A center provider supervising children must be in the same room or on the playground with them and able to see or hear them at all times; in school-age programs the provider must be able to hear or see the children and be close enough to intervene at all times (ARSD 67:42:17:19-22). For infants under one year, providers must follow the safe sleep practices of Caring for Our Children, 4th Edition (67:42:17:26).

Record-keeping

Each child's record must include identity and enrollment dates, parent and emergency contacts, authorized pick-up persons, health information and allergies, a current immunization record (or school name for school-age), medication permissions, and attendance records, reviewed and updated annually and available to the department (ARSD 67:42:17:42). Employee records must document orientation/training and background check eligibility and are kept six months after departure; guidance advises keeping child records six months after disenrollment and Child Care Assistance attendance records four years.

Inspections

Licensing begins with a fire marshal/health floor-plan review and an announced pre-opening facility safety inspection; each subsequent year an unannounced annual inspection is conducted in two parts — a program inspection by OLA licensing specialists and a facility safety inspection by Department of Public Safety staff. Complaints are investigated, corrective action plans are developed, and annual monitoring and substantiated complaint results are public on the OLA constituent portal.

Worth knowing: SD consolidated its child care rules into ARSD 67:42:17 (2023); details above come from DSS's official Licensing Handbook (Guide to Child Care Licensing Rules). SDCL 26-8A-3 (which lists licensed or registered child welfare providers among mandatory reporters) could not be fetched directly because the SD Legislature site blocks automated access; the reporting duty cited is from the licensing rule itself.

Family & home child care

ARSD 67:42:17 (Child Care Licensing); SDCL Chapter 26-6

Registered Family Day Care (family day care home)

A family day care provider may care for up to 12 children in the provider's home; the provider's own children under age 6 count toward capacity and ratio (own children 6 and older do not) (ARSD 67:42:17:23). Up to 2 additional school-age children are allowed before/after school or in emergencies (SDCL 26-6-15.1). Registration, not licensure; registration is voluntary unless the provider receives public funds.If only one provider is present, no more than 4 of the children may be under age 2, and no more than 3 of those may be under age 1. If a family day care assistant is present, no more than 8 children may be under age 2 (ARSD 67:42:17:23).

Group Family Day Care Home (licensed as a center program)

Care above the 12-child registered family day care level requires a group family day care home license; group family day care homes are licensed 'center programs' under SDCL 26-6-14(5), must be licensed before operating regardless of funding, and are inspected annually.

Provider training

Each family day care provider counted in staff-child ratios must complete 6 hours of annual training; orientation in 13 health-and-safety topics is required within 90 days and before unsupervised care; advanced (Level II/III) health and safety training is required at 5 and 10 years (ARSD 67:42:17:17 and 67:42:17:18).

Worth knowing

The commonly cited statutory capacity range for group family day care homes (13 to 20 children, SDCL 26-6-14) could not be confirmed directly from a fetched official page (the SD Legislature statute site was inaccessible), so the group-home infant limits and exact 13-20 range are left out; DSS's licensed-programs guide confirms the category and its licensed 'center program' status. DSS's family child care rules were consolidated into ARSD 67:42:17 (guides effective 2026).