Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Early Care Regulation
Child Care Certification Policy Manual
DCF 202.02(9g) “in care” means a child care provider is responsible for supervision of a child or children. This includes all children attending the certified program who the provider/operator is supervising, whether or not the operator is being paid for the service or not. There may be times when neighborhood children are on the premises visiting the operator’s children. These children are counted in the group size if the child cannot be sent home to a supervising adult. The certification worker may ask the operator for the name and telephone number of parents or caregivers for these children to help determine whether the children are actually in care of the certified operator.
There may be an occasion when a non-resident adult will visit the child care program bringing along his/her own children under the age of 7. Children must be properly supervised when an operator is visiting with another adult. Appropriate consideration must be given to the children’s activities during these visits. Individual situations should be evaluated on a case by case basis.
Certification rules do not permit family child care operators to combine at one certified location for joint activities if the number of children present will exceed the allowable group size. As an alternative to meeting at a family child care premises operators could plan activities for multiple operators/groups of children at a location off premises, such as the public library, local park, etc. These types of activities, off premises of a certified child care program, would be considered a field trip.
The intent of the group size rule is to ensure supervision and safety of children in care. If additional “visiting” children on the premises compromise the care and supervision of children “in care”, the certification worker may place a restriction/condition on the certification regarding “visiting” children.
This page last updated 01/20209.