Georgia childcare licensing: the DECAL ratios, the 20% mixed-age rule, and two unannounced visits a year

By Del Peck · July 5, 2026

If you run a child care learning center in Georgia, your regulator is Bright from the Start: the Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), and your rulebook is Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 591-1-1 — most recently amended June 4, 2025, so anything you read that predates last summer is already missing the new CPR and literacy-training requirements.

I went through the current rules while building a childcare platform, so this is the version I wish existed: the requirements that actually come up, with citations, so you can verify everything against DECAL’s published compilation. This isn’t legal advice; it’s a map. When in doubt, the rule wins.

(Disclosure: I’m the founder of TinyGuard, a childcare platform. The requirements below are the state’s, not ours — they’re true whether you track them on paper or in software.)

Ratios and group sizes (Rule 591-1-1-.32(1))

Georgia runs the loosest ratios in this series — worth knowing cold if you’re comparing across states:

For scale: a Georgia infant room runs 1:6 where New York and Pennsylvania require 1:4; a four-year-old room runs 1:18 against New York’s 1:8. The group-size caps don’t apply on the playground, during special in-center activities of two hours or less, or in centers licensed for 18 or fewer (ratios still do) — Rule .32(1).

Georgia’s mixed-age rule is its own invention — the fourth distinct rule in this series: in centers licensed for 19+, the ratio follows the youngest group of children making up more than 20% of the mixed group (Rule .32(2)). Not the youngest child (TX/CA/MN/IL/PA), not the largest cohort (FL), not the majority age (NY’s 3–5 rule) — the youngest quintile-plus. Small centers (≤18) use youngest-child for any group containing under-3s, majority-age otherwise (Rule .32(3)). Under-3s must be housed separately from older children in larger centers, with early-morning/late-afternoon exceptions (Rule .32(4)). And nap time allows doubled ratios for children 3+ provided one staffer stays in each room and the full complement stays in the building (Rule .32(5)) — same for evening care once most children are asleep (Rule .32(6)).

Staff qualifications (Rule 591-1-1-.31)

• Director: at least 21, with a credential-plus-experience combination — CDA, a Technical Certificate of Credit, or an associate’s in the field plus six months, up through a bachelor’s or master’s in ECE/child development requiring no experience — and a DECAL-approved 40-hour director’s course before the initial license issues (Rules .31(1)(b), .16(b)).
• Lead teacher (each group, centers 19+): at least 18 with a CDA, TCC, TCD, associate’s, or equivalent credit hours — or hired uncredentialed on a written plan: enroll in a credential program within 6 months, complete within 18 months of enrolling (Rule .31(2)).
• Caregivers/aides: 16+ in larger centers, but 16–17-year-olds may never be solely responsible for children (Rule .31(3)).
• Scheduling floor worth knowing: no staff member may be regularly scheduled for more than 12 hours of child care duties in any 24 (Rule .31(12)).

Training — including the new 2025 requirements (Rules .33, .14)

• 10 clock hours per calendar year after your first year of employment (Rule .33(5)(a)) — and the composition changed in 2025: at least 2 hours of evidence-based language and literacy practices (Georgia’s Early Literacy Act, HB 538, implemented July 1, 2025), at least 2 hours of child development or health & safety, and at most 2 hours of business topics (Rule .33(5)(b)). The rule references first-year training via orientation requirements but states no year-one hour total — so I won’t invent one.
• Orientation before working with children (policies, abuse reporting, SUID/SIDS, fire and water safety — Rule .33(1)-(2)), plus the federal health-and-safety orientation within 90 days (Rule .33(3)).
• CPR and first aid got stricter in June 2025: every direct-care staffer needs pediatric CPR (renewed every 2 years) and pediatric first aid (every 3 years) within the first 45 days of employment — and these hours don’t count toward the annual 10 (Rule .14(1)(a)). When children are present, at least half the caregivers on duty must be trained — and at least one trained staff person must be in each classroom with children, on every field trip, and the director must always be current (Rule .14(2)).
• Safe sleep is prescriptive: backs only, compliant individual cribs, nothing soft in or attached to the crib, no swaddling without a physician’s authorization, and infants asleep in car seats or swings must be moved to a crib (Rule .30).

License and inspections: two unannounced visits a year

A regular license runs one year (Rule .16(c)3), with an annual capacity-based fee ($50–$250 — Rule .16(e)) and a pre-licensure orientation before you open (Rule .16(a)). The rule gives DECAL entry “at any time during operating hours” for scheduled and unscheduled inspections (Rule .37(b)). The cadence comes from DECAL’s published inspection policy rather than the rule text: every licensed center gets two unannounced on-site visits a year — a full rule-by-rule licensing study in one half of the year and a monitoring visit (core rules plus previously cited violations) in the other — with reports posted publicly on DECAL’s website. Two surprise visits a year, one of them comprehensive, with the results published: that’s the operating reality.

Records — Georgia requires the sign-in sheet Pennsylvania doesn’t

Children’s files: identifying info, authorized pick-up persons, emergency contacts, allergies and special-care procedures, emergency-medical authorization — kept while in care plus one year after (Rule .08(1)). Immunization evidence within 30 days of enrollment or the child can’t stay (Rule .08(2)).

Two record rules deserve their own paragraph, because Georgia is the mirror image of Pennsylvania here: centers must keep daily attendance records for the preceding 12 months (Rule .08(5)) and arrival/departure records for the preceding 12 months — written or electronic, with the date, the child’s name, the times, and the signature or initials of the parent or authorized person at both drop-off and pick-up (Rule .08(6)). A year of signed in/out records, producible on request, is not a nice-to-have in Georgia — it’s the rule. Personnel files run employment-plus-one-year (Rule .24(1)), staff attendance/payroll six months (Rule .24(2)), drill logs two years with monthly fire drills (Rule .21(3)).

Background checks (Rule 591-1-1-.09; O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-30 et seq.)

Every director and employee needs a satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination — dated within 12 months before hire — before being present with children: FBI and GBI fingerprint checks, national and Georgia sex-offender registries, Georgia’s child-abuse database, plus the equivalent registries of every state of residence in the past five years. Provisional hires may start on a fingerprint-only determination but must be supervised at all times by cleared staff. Rechecks run at least every five years, and immediately on a covered arrest, a 180-day lapse in industry employment, or DECAL’s request (Rule .09(1)).

One more Georgia-specific reality: Quality Rated and subsidy

Georgia’s star-rating system, Quality Rated, is voluntary in the general case — but if you take CAPS subsidy families, participation isn’t optional: unrated providers can’t receive subsidy payments (CAPS Participating Providers policy §11.4.2). If subsidy revenue is in your model, treat Quality Rated as part of your licensing reality.

The pattern behind all of it

Same two piles, ninth state running. Have the thing: the comprehensive records check, the 45-day CPR certificate, the immunization form, the director’s course. Prove it happened over time: ratio in the infant room at 1:6 every hour of the year, ten documented training hours per person with the right two-hour slices, and — explicitly in Georgia — twelve months of signed arrival and departure records, inspected twice a year without warning, with the report posted publicly. Georgia’s loose ratios come with a tight paper trail.

Where TinyGuard fits (briefly)

(Short, as always.) Rule .08(6) describes a QR check-in kiosk almost verbatim: date, name, time, and the authorized adult’s confirmation, captured at drop-off and pick-up, kept twelve months, producible on request. That record accumulates on its own, the ratio log computes from it, training hours tally per person — and when either of DECAL’s two annual visits arrives, the packet exports that morning. We’re pre-launch and honest about it — no paying-customer testimonial to show you yet, but the export is real and built. The numbers are on the pricing page, no demo required to see them.

The short version

Georgia licenses annually through DECAL, with two unannounced visits a year and public reports. Ratios are the loosest in this series (1:6 / 1:8 / 1:10 / 1:15 / 1:18 / 1:20 / 1:25) with group caps, and the mixed-age rule is the youngest group over 20% of the room. Training: 10 hours a year after year one — now including 2 literacy hours — with pediatric CPR/first aid inside 45 days and a trained person in every classroom. Records: files in-care-plus-a-year, and 12 months of daily attendance and signed in/out records. Checks: comprehensive determination before day one, recheck every 5 years. Keep the “have the thing” documents current, let the “prove it over time” records accumulate on their own — DECAL comes twice a year, and doesn’t call ahead.

— Del Peck Founder, TinyGuard

Every figure above is drawn from DECAL’s official compilation of Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. Chapter 591-1-1 (July 1, 2025 edition, incorporating the June 4, 2025 amendments), DECAL’s published inspection and background-check policies, and the CAPS provider policy. Rules get revised — confirm current numbers against DECAL or your licensing consultant before relying on them.

Running a center in another state? Same breakdown for Texas, California, Minnesota, Florida, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia, Washington, and Massachusetts.

TinyGuard puts cameras, care logging, billing, and compliance on one on-site box. Book a 15-minute demo or see the pricing.