[mod]

I used to work in child-care. We charged $14/day for after-school care (4-5 hours), and the staff-to-child ratio was about 20:1. Counselors made < $10 hour. This was 2001-2007 or so.

Child care was the biggest money maker at my organization, which was a fully-featured ymca with seasonal sports, fitness, olympic pool, gymnastics, rock wall, skate park, and 10 million in the bank. We had a pre-school, after-school, and summer camps. I can't speak to the % of net income that came from child care, but I think it was very large.

I think given multiple children, it becomes very likely that it's better for one parent to stay home. They get to spend a lot more time with the kids at a very small financial difference.

[protomyth]

You can only have a 20:1 with older kids. Infants and toddlers need more staff. The age mix is an important cost component.

[edit http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/teaching/eecd/L... has space and staffing rules for EHS and HS which states tend to copy]

[mod]

We were allowed to have 30:1, actually (with 4 and 5 year old kingergarteners, any school-age kids).

We typically kept about 20:1 until a time when we were trying to qualify for a higher standard, which required a 15:1 maximum.

And occasionally my co-counselor would be gone and I'd have 50+ kids for the day. It went okay for me, but many of the counselors could not have managed that whatsoever. In fact, many of my later co-counselors couldn't handle any amount of children by themselves.

Hard to work ability into a standard, of course.

[protomyth]

You are damn lucky you didn't have a fire or other emergency. I also recommend checking the insurance and local laws to find your personal liability in those situations.

[mod]

We had multiple groups and plenty of other staff, they just wouldn't be assigned to my group.

For instance, I might have the soccer field for a given rotation (we had several each day), and on the playground nearby was another group or two, supervisors inside, etc.

Any kind of non-herding-children emergency would have been handled without issue. Fire could be an issue, though I'm not sure an additional staff member would improve the situation much--the problem would be the doorways creating choke points.

[leesalminen]

Colorado requires a 15:1 ratio for dogs:humans in group play style dog care facilities.

[mod]

I'd take 15 humans over 15 dogs ANY day.

Little humans are typically very controllable and well-behaved, and even more so after a few days in a good system.

[vidarh]

> typically very controllable and well-behaved

I went to my sons school the other day - parents were invited to attend for half an hour. He's 6. The children sat down quietly when the teacher asked. One of the parents took a phone call (!), at which point one of the kids immediately turned around, gave her the most incredibly stern look and went "shhh!" - it was quite amusing to see a bunch of 6 year old kids behaving better than their parents.

Conversely, though, I had teachers as a kid that wouldn't have been able to get anyone to behave... My class drove more than one teacher to run crying from the class room. In primary school.