Idaho day cares have strict ratios for providers, kids. That could change for some
Idaho Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, on Tuesday proposed a change to state laws governing the provider-child ratio for in-home day cares.
State law limits the number of children a day care can supervise based on the number of providers it has available. Ehardt’s bill would keep those limits, but would allow in-home day cares to exclude their own children from the count if they are over 5 years old.
That could include providers’ adopted or foster children, Ehardt told committee members in response to a question.
In 2025, Ehardt co-sponsored a bill that would have removed ratios altogether — in a bid to increase the number of in-home day cares available by decreasing their regulation. That brought dozens to the Capitol to give emotional testimony against the proposal in hearings.
During one of those hearings, Sabrina Dunn, the owner of Kuna’s Little Beans child care center, shared her experience of working at a day care center that was understaffed. There, she said, she watched the owners cut corners and spread their workers as thin as possible to save money.
“I understand freedom. I understand wanting to give the decisions directly to child care centers,” Dunn told lawmakers. “But the actual truth of the matter is that child care centers will push the ratio. Please, please know that if this bill passes, the children of Idaho will suffer.”
The 2025 bill was amended to keep provider-child ratios intact, and Gov. Brad Little signed it into law. On Tuesday, Ehardt said her new bill was intended to “essentially clean up a couple of things that we wanted last year in the day care language that somehow didn’t quite make it.”
Tuesday’s hearing was only a brief introductory hearing, and the bill is set to receive more discussion and debate in a full committee hearing at a later date. Ruth Brown, a spokesperson for advocacy group Idaho Voices for Children, told the Idaho Statesman by email the organization was not taking a stance on the bill.
