Daycares in Oregon

Oregon scores licensed daycares through Spark, the state's quality rating program. Spark uses a 5-level scale, but only the top three levels — Star 3, Star 4, and Star 5 — come from a scored portfolio review across five quality domains: health and safety, learning and development, family engagement, workforce qualifications, and continuous quality improvement. The two lower levels are participation tiers: Level 1 ("Engaged") and Level 2 ("Committed to Quality"), not portfolio star ratings. Spark is also in transition: after June 30, 2026, programs can no longer submit portfolios for a star rating, and Spark moves to a new framework called the Quality Improvement Cycle.

Oregon's minimum legal requirements for adult-to-child ratios and group sizes meet or exceed 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. The state caps infant ratios at 1:4 (matching NAEYC), toddler ratios of 1:4 for younger toddlers (under 24 months) and 1:5 for older toddlers (stricter than NAEYC's 1:6), and preschool ratios at 1:10 (matching NAEYC). Group sizes are similarly tight: infant groups at 8 (matching NAEYC), toddler groups of 8 to 10 (stricter than NAEYC's 12), and preschool groups at 20 (matching NAEYC). The state's minimums for staff qualifications, however, are less strict. Oregon requires only a high school diploma for a lead teacher in a licensed center, where NAEYC's professional standard is a bachelor's degree. Oregon does not set a pre-service training hour requirement for lead teachers. State rules require only an orientation within the first 10 days of hire (and before unsupervised access to children), plus short safety trainings within 30 to 90 days, well below NAEYC's professional benchmarks. Required ongoing professional development is 15 hours per year, below NAEYC's recommended 25.

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