Montana child care, camp and ratio rules

Child care licensing

Any provider regularly caring for seven or more children must be licensed or registered. Child care centers (16 or more children in an out-of-home setting) must be licensed. Group homes (9-15 children) and family homes (7-8 children) must register (ARM 37.96.102).

After-school and recreation programs: School-age care facilities, which serve only school-age children during out-of-school time, and drop-in facilities may choose to be licensed but are not required to be (ARM 37.96.102(3)(a)(i)). DPHHS says before-school, after-school, drop-in and preschool programs do not need a license.

Licensing agency: Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS), Early Childhood and Family Support Division, Child Care Licensing Program

Sources: DPHHS Child Care Licensing; ARM 37.96.106 Child-to-Staff Ratios (Montana Secretary of State); ARM 37.96.102 Types of Licenses and Registration; DPHHS Become a Child Care Provider; DPHHS Child Care Rules and Regulations (ARM 37.96)

Staff-to-child ratios in licensed centers

Rule: ARM 37.96.106. Centers use a single 3-through-5-years band (10:1, group of 20) and 20:1 (group of 40) for age 6 and over. Licensed school-age care providers may use 20:1 (group of 40) for children 5 and over. In a mixed-age group, the youngest child sets the ratio. Group sizes may be exceeded at meals, outdoor play, rest and large assemblies. New rules effective May 1, 2025; they replace the old ARM 37.95.623.

Work out your staffing with the ratio calculator

Summer camps

Montana licenses 'youth camps' under Title 50, Ch. 52, MCA and ARM 37.111 subchapter 12. A youth camp is land with buildings, tents or other structures used as living quarters for 10 or more people, mainly for minors' education or recreation. The license covers sanitation (water, sewage, solid waste and food service), not staffing or programming, and applications go through the local environmental health office. Day programs without living quarters don't appear to be covered. Programs for school-age children may choose to be licensed as school-age care.

Camp agency: Montana DPHHS, Environmental Health and Food Safety Section (with local environmental health offices)

Sources: DPHHS Trailer Courts, Campgrounds, Youth Camps and Work Camps; MCA 50-52-101 (youth camp definition); MCA 50-52-201 (license application)

Background checks

Directors, owners, teachers, substitutes, trainees, support staff, volunteers with unsupervised contact and adults living in the facility need satisfactory checks before working (ARM 37.96.1002). The checks are a Montana DOJ/FBI fingerprint check, the national (NCIC) and Montana sex offender registries, child protective services checks, and name-based criminal checks for Montana and every state lived in during the past five years. State checks are repeated every year and national checks every five years. We found no separate background check rule for youth camps.

Sources: ARM 37.96.1002 Fingerprint and Background Checks

Giving medication

Staff may give medication only with the parent's written authorization, which must list the child's name, how long it applies, dosage amount and time, and the parent's signature. Medicine must be labeled, and prescription medicine kept in the original pharmacy-labeled container. All medicine is stored out of children's reach with child-protective caps, and expired medicine can't be used. Programs that give medication keep a log of the date, time and dose (ARM 37.96.502).

Free medication administration log

Sources: ARM 37.96.502 Medication Administration

Reporting child abuse

MCA 41-3-201 lists required reporters, including teachers and school employees, operators and employees of registered or licensed day-care and child-care facilities, health and mental health professionals, clergy, social workers, law enforcement, and employees of groups that contract with DPHHS to serve children. They must report promptly to DPHHS. Anyone else may report.

Montana child abuse hotline: 1-866-820-5437 (how to report). In an emergency, call 911.

Sources: MCA 41-3-201; DPHHS Child and Family Services contacts (hotline); Child Welfare Information Gateway, Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect (current through May 2023)