We had a discussion on the numbers at a workshop I attended back about 2001. What they were proposing was a total of 5 kids per house rather than 5 daycare with all of the providers kids counting. While it sounds right the counter arguement was that it was not logical to think that a mom with 4 kids of her own who presumably had a large enough house/yard to accomodate that many and experience having gone through all of the ages and stages could only handle one more child while a mom home with her six month old baby could suddenly handly 4 extra children in a home where she had never considered childproofing or had toys or resources for. Obviously the notion was defeated and the push was to leave things the way they were.

On the other side of the coin I would be ok with the agency ratios if they were adjusted to be 2 under 18 months not age 2. That was the ratio that annoyed me more than any of them.