Ratios
How RoundUp works out whether a room is in ratio, what the alerts mean, and what to do when a room drifts.
How the number is worked out
Open Ratio Monitoring. For each classroom RoundUp compares the children currently checked in against the staff assigned and clocked in to that room, then measures the result against your state's required ratio for the room's age group.
Both halves matter, and the staff half is where centers get caught out. A teacher who is in the building but not clocked in, or not assigned to that room, does not count toward it — because that's how a licensor would read it too.
Compliant, at risk, out of ratio
| State | Means | Do |
|---|---|---|
| Compliant | The room meets the required ratio. | Nothing. |
| At risk | One more child, or one fewer adult, breaks it. | Fix it now, while it's cheap — this is the useful alert. |
| Out of ratio | The room is over the limit right now. | Move a child or bring in an adult immediately. |
The state that earns its keep is At risk. Out of ratio is a problem you already have; at risk is the two minutes before you have it.
Alerts and acknowledging
Alerts can be acknowledged so the team knows someone has seen it and is handling it. Acknowledging records that you saw it — it does not fix the ratio, and the room stays flagged until the numbers actually change.
Moving children
From a ratio alert you can go straight to Move children and move a child to another room. The move is recorded, so the ratio history for both rooms stays honest.
Move children rather than re-assigning staff on paper. A teacher assigned to three rooms at once satisfies the arithmetic and nothing else.
Ratio history
RoundUp keeps a rolling history of ratio violations. This is the screen to open before a licensing visit: it tells you what a visitor could find, while you still have time to explain or fix it.
Sustained violations at the same hour each day usually mean a staffing pattern, not a bad afternoon — the 4pm handover is the classic one.
Mixed-age rooms
Rooms holding more than one age group are governed by the youngest child present, which is why one infant in a preschool room changes the whole room's requirement.
RoundUp applies your state's rule for the room as configured. If your room configuration doesn't match how the room is really used during early drop-off or late pickup, the ratio reading won't match reality either — fix the configuration rather than working around the number.
Ratios follow the Oregon Office of Child Care requirements for each age group. If your center is outside Oregon, check your configured jurisdiction is right before relying on the readings.
More: All director guides