[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.