Description:
The following article is part of a larger project, 'Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care'. The project is a multi-year effort to highlight state policies that support the healthy growth and development of infants and toddlers in child care settings, and to build an online resource to help states implement these policies. In the project's first year, CLASP and ZERO TO THREE developed a Policy Framework with four key principles that babies and toddlers in child care need and 15 recommendations for states. CLASP is writing research-based rationales to support each of the 15 recommendations.
The focus of this report is centre-based ratios and group sizes. It supports the project recommendation number six to: Ensure that babies and toddlers in centers are in small groups with sufficient numbers of providers. Issues addressed in the article include: what the research says about babies and toddlers in centers and their need for small groups with sufficient numbers of providers; how state child care licensing, subsidy and quality enhancement can ensure this and recommendations, and; potential state policies.