Tennessee

Staff-child ratios (centers)

Requirements

Annual training

Center educators must complete 12 total hours of professional development annually, including at least 6 hours in health/safety and 3 hours in pre-literacy; directors of single-site centers must complete at least 24 total hours annually. First aid and CPR training are also required (initially during the first licensure period).

Lead teacher

A child care center educator must be at least 18 years old; a high school diploma or equivalent is required when the educator serves as the only educator for a group or is counted to meet group requirements.

Director

Directors must qualify by one of several pathways, e.g., a 4-year college degree (or RN) plus one year of group-setting experience; 36 hours of coursework (at least 30 in business management or child/youth development) plus two years of full-time experience; or a high school diploma plus a TECTA certificate and four years of full-time experience.

Worth knowing

Ratios shown are from Chart 1 of rule 1240-04-01-.22; other rows: 12–30 months 1:6 (group 12); 3-year-olds 1:9 (group 18); 5-year-olds 1:16 (group 20); school-age has no maximum group size. Alternative Charts 2 and 3 allow different age groupings. Ratios/group sizes may be exceeded by up to 10% no more than 3 days per week, but never for infant/toddler groups. Verified against the Cornell LII mirror of the current rule text (official TN SOS PDF, revised November 2025, was not directly accessible).

Compliance

Background checks

Owners/operators, employees, substitutes serving more than 36 hours a calendar year who count in ratio, and residents 15 or older must complete a background check no more than 90 days before having access to the agency, comprising fingerprinting and criminal/juvenile and abuse-registry disclosures per T.C.A. § 71-3-507 and the CCDBG Act, including out-of-state registry and criminal checks (rule 1240-04-01-.07). Checks must be repeated at least every 5 years and after any separation from Tennessee child care employment longer than 180 days, and no one may contact children before a Final Clearance or supervised Conditional Letter issues.

Mandated reporting

Every operator, owner, licensee, director, educator, staff member, substitute, or volunteer is individually responsible for immediately reporting any reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect to the Department of Children's Services and/or law enforcement or the juvenile court, pursuant to T.C.A. §§ 37-1-403 and 37-1-605 (rule 1240-04-01-.10). Agencies may not delay reporting to investigate or attempt to validate allegations, and abuse detection/reporting is a required orientation topic.

First aid & CPR

All staff must obtain first aid training within 90 days of employment and all on-duty staff CPR training within 90 days, with certification appropriate to the ages present (infant/child, plus adult if children over 12 attend); at least one staff member with current first aid certification and at least one with current CPR certification must be on-site at all times (rules 1240-04-01-.12(9)-(10)). Drivers' records must verify CPR and first aid certification.

Health & safety training

Before unsupervised contact with children each new employee must receive orientation in 14 areas (program policies, emergency procedures, behavior management, abuse detection/reporting/prevention, safe sleep, food allergies, high-risk-activity supervision, disease control, licensing overview, CMV risks, etc.) and complete shaken baby/abusive head trauma training plus Department-recognized pre-service training with all federally required components (rule 1240-04-01-.06(3)). Staff cycle through the CCDBG health and safety topics every three years (drop-in staff every four).

Operations

Supervision rule

Staff must be within sight and sound of the children in their care at all times, aware of their activities and able to intervene; when children ages 6 weeks-9 years are not in direct sight and sound, the adult must still be able to hear them, see them with a quick glance, and respond physically at once, with direct sight-and-sound required at mealtimes for ages five and under (rule 1240-04-01-.11). Staff must visually inspect the building and grounds at closing, account for children before leaving and on returning from field trips, and release children only to authorized, identity-verified persons — a child left unattended anywhere subjects the agency to enforcement.

Record-keeping

Agencies must keep a file for each child — information form (contacts, disabilities/allergies with physician-endorsed action plans, emergency medical consent), release authorization, immunization certificate before care, and daily attendance with time in/out — retained one year after the child leaves (rule 1240-04-01-.08). Staff files must document orientation, pre-service training, physicals, background check clearance, and (for drivers) license, drug screen, and CPR/first aid verification; specified incidents must be reported to parents and the Department (rule .09).

Inspections

New agencies must receive four satisfactory in-person monitoring visits during the provisional licensure period, and maintaining a license requires ongoing compliance history and submission of required annual inspections (rule 1240-04-01-.04). TDHS guidance calls for quarterly monitoring visits, including at least one during non-traditional hours where applicable, plus complaint investigations.

Worth knowing: Rule chapter 1240-04-01 (revised effective November 20, 2025) applies to all licensed classes, with class-specific rules at .20-.23; the quarterly-visit expectation comes from TDHS's licensing rules guidance page rather than the rule text.

Family & home child care

Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 1240-04-01 (Licensure Rules for Child Care Agencies), Rules .20 (Family Child Care Homes), .21 (Group Child Care Homes), .06 (Staff)

Family Child Care Home (licensed)

No more than 7 children may be present at any one time, except up to 12 may be present if every child above 7 is related to the primary educator; the educator's related children under age 9 count toward the maximum, and related children 9 and older do not count if they have separate space (Rule 1240-04-01-.20).Staffing depends on children under age 2: with 7 or fewer children, 1 educator if no more than 4 are under 2, but 2 educators if 5 or more are under 2; with more than 7 children, 2 educators (3 educators if 5 or more are under 2) (Rule 1240-04-01-.20).

Group Child Care Home (licensed)

Serves 8 to 12 children (maximum 12 present), plus up to 3 additional school-age children before/after school, on school holidays and vacations. With 12-15 children present: 1 educator if all are age 3+; 2 educators if up to 9 are under 3 (max 4 under 2); 3 educators if 10 or more are under 3 (Rule 1240-04-01-.21).No more than 4 children under age 2 with the two-educator configuration; if four or more infants/toddlers are enrolled, they must have a separate, distinct space and their own educator (Rule 1240-04-01-.21).

Provider training

The primary educator of a family or group child care home must complete 18 clock hours of annual training; other educators must complete 12 clock hours, including at least 6 hours in health and safety and at least 3 hours in pre-literacy/literacy (Rule 1240-04-01-.06).

Worth knowing

Both home types are licensed child care agencies under TDHS. A 10% attendance variance (up to 15 children, max 3 days per week) exists for group homes but never for infant/toddler groups. When a group home's enrollment drops to 7 or fewer, family child care home ratios apply.