Daycares in Minnesota

Minnesota scores licensed daycares through Parent Aware, the state's quality rating program. Parent Aware scores providers on a 1 to 4 star scale across four research-based standards: physical health and well-being, teaching materials and strategies, tracking learning and development, and professional development supports.

Minnesota's minimum legal requirements for adult-to-child ratios largely meet the standards published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the leading professional accreditation body for early-childhood programs and the most widely cited benchmark for high-quality care, and the state requires a higher staff credential than most. Minnesota requires a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential at minimum for lead teachers in licensed centers, where most states require only a high school diploma; NAEYC's professional standard is a bachelor's degree. The state caps infant ratios at 1:4 (matching NAEYC), preschool ratios at 1:10 (matching NAEYC), and toddler ratios at 1:7 (NAEYC: 1:6). Infant group sizes match NAEYC's recommended cap of 8; toddler groups can hold up to 14 children, above NAEYC's recommended 12, and preschool groups are capped at 20, matching NAEYC. Required pre-service training is 1,560 hours, below NAEYC's recommended 2,080, and required ongoing professional development is 24 hours per year, close to NAEYC's recommended 25.

These minimum legal requirements apply to every licensed daycare in Minnesota, regardless of its Parent Aware rating. They are one of the Structural inputs in every Childery rating shown above. The rating distribution above combines that Structural input with Parent Aware scores and other Process inputs to produce the Overall scores. For the full breakdown, see the Minnesota methodology page.