Open-source tools that help daycare and childcare centers keep children safe and well cared for.
Small childcare centers rarely have budget for expensive management software, yet the things that protect children most — never losing track of a child, never leaving a group under-supervised, always knowing who is allowed to pick a child up, never missing an allergy — are simple, checkable facts. This project turns those facts into fast, free, offline-friendly tools that a caregiver can actually use on a phone or tablet in a busy room.
Mission: reduce preventable incidents in group childcare by making the basic safety checks (supervision ratios, attendance, pickup authorization, medical alerts) effortless.
Under-staffed groups are one of the most common and most dangerous problems in group care: fewer eyes on more children means falls, wandering, and choking go unnoticed. Ratio Guard lets a caregiver enter, per age group, how many children and staff are present and instantly see:
- the minimum staff required for the children present,
- a clear OK / OVER RATIO status per group and for the whole center,
- how many more staff (or fewer children) are needed to become compliant.
Ratios are fully editable because legal limits differ by country and state/province — you set the ones your license requires (sensible starting defaults are provided).
A running present/absent roster with a live count, so a group leader can do a headcount after every transition (yard → room, before/after a walk) and immediately notice a missing child.
Everything runs entirely in the browser (no account, no server, data stays on the device
via localStorage), so it works offline and keeps children's information private by design.
Open index.html in any modern browser — that's it. No build step, no install.
(Or serve the folder with any static server, e.g. npx serve.)
- Pickup authorization list with photo + PIN confirmation
- Per-child medical / allergy alert cards, one tap from the roster
- Incident & observation log (timestamped, exportable)
- Configurable ratio presets for common jurisdictions (US states, MX, CA provinces, EU)
- Optional multi-device sync for centers with several rooms
- Accessibility pass (screen-reader labels, large-touch mode for gloved hands)
Contributions are very welcome — especially from childcare providers who know what actually helps in the room. See CONTRIBUTING.md. Good first issues: adding an official ratio table for a jurisdiction, or improving the roster UX.
This toolkit is an aid, not a substitute for professional judgment or for your local licensing regulations. Always follow the supervision ratios and safety rules required by your governing authority. The default ratios shipped here are starting examples only and must be replaced with the limits that legally apply to your center.
MIT — free to use, adapt, and share.