Before Indiana Changes Childcare Rules, Let’s Consider the Combined Impact

By Lisa Glaser, INAEYC Member

Through my work in early childhood education, I have come to deeply value the professionals who care for Indiana’s youngest children. I have seen how their training, judgment, and dedication protect and teach children every day, and I have also seen how quickly an ordinary classroom moment can become a safety moment.

That experience has taught me to appreciate the professionalism, and education teachers need to thrive in the classroom. It has also taught me to value strong regulations, safe staff-to-child ratios, and the importance of addressing difficult questions about safety and risk head-on.

That is why Indiana’s proposed childcare rule changes deserve careful public attention.

Families need access to childcare. Providers need support. Indiana’s workforce depends on stable, available early learning programs. At the same time, access cannot come by lowering the safety floor beneath children.

Right now, Indiana is considering proposed changes to licensing rules for childcare centers under LSA Document #26-159. These changes come shortly after Indiana updated staff-to-child ratio and group-size requirements, which went into effect December 1, 2025. Indiana is now considering additional rule changes that could further affect classroom safety, education expectations, professional standards, and supervision.

That should give all of us pause.

In early care and education, risk is not theoretical. It shows up every day in safe sleep practices, allergies, choking hazards, playground injuries, medication, sanitation, behavioral needs, emergency response, and the judgment required to care for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

I am thankful for the early childhood professionals whose training, education, and experience help them make thoughtful decisions in those moments every day, and for the administrators and directors who coach and support them.

Early care and education also involve teaching. Lead teachers do more than supervise a classroom. They help guide learning, observe development, support behavior, communicate with families, shape the classroom environment, and prepare children for school. Children build language, confidence, social skills, emotional regulation, and early learning habits in these classrooms. The adults leading them need preparation and support.

Workforce challenges are real, and I believe Indiana should continue looking for ways to support providers and strengthen the early childhood workforce. I hope those solutions include greater support for education, credential pathways, coaching, mentoring, professional development, and retention efforts. I am willing, and I know many colleagues are willing to be part of the conversation and help identify thoughtful, sustainable solutions.

When more children are placed with fewer required safeguards, risk increases. When adults responsible for children have less required education and preparation, risk increases again. When safeguards are reduced before the impact of recent ratio changes has been fully measured, risk compounds.

Before additional changes move forward, a formal child-safety, quality, and liability assessment would help ensure the full classroom impact is understood. That review should examine the combined effect of more children per adult, larger group sizes, lower education expectations, reduced professional safeguards, and supervision concerns.

That review should also look beyond the ratios. Since Indiana is using surrounding states as a benchmark for childcare ratios and group sizes, it would be helpful to compare safety outcomes, supervision concerns, education standards, and licensing compliance, too. Published data from nearby states raise important caution flags. Kentucky’s reported serious injuries in Type I licensed childcare centers rose from 466 in 2022 to 764 in 2024, while Ohio reported significant ratio and unattended-child findings. Michigan’s stronger infant and toddler safeguards also deserve consideration.

The point is not that one rule leads to every outcome, but that safety outcomes, staffing rules, education standards, and supervision concerns all deserve careful review before safeguards are reduced.

Families need childcare. But children also need classrooms that are safe, well-supervised, and led by trained adults who understand child development.

Indiana can support access without weakening safeguards, professionalism, and standards.

Please read the proposed changes, submit public comment on LSA Document #26-159, and attend or follow the July 6 public hearing if you are able. Indiana’s children and families are counting on childcare that is not only available, but safe, high-quality, and worthy of their trust.