The Master Teacher Requirement is Breaking Oklahoma Child Care
Admin User • April 13, 2026
The Master Teacher Requirement is Breaking Oklahoma Child Care
There is a growing disconnect between what Oklahoma requires of child care programs and what is actually realistic to sustain a business that serves families. Programs are being crushed between the power of the OK Legislature and the state agency-DHS. One thing is crystal clear - neither one seems to care about what is happening out here in the real world.
Nowhere is that clearer than in the Master Teacher requirement.
What the Rule Actually Says
Under OAC 340:110-1-8.6, a five-star child care program must have one full-time Master Teacher for every 20 children of licensed capacity - not enrollment.
Let that sink in:
• 1 Master Teacher per 20 children
• Must be full-time, on-site employees
• Based on licensed capacity—not how many children are actually enrolled
And these are not entry-level staff. Master Teachers must meet higher education and training requirements, making them among the most expensive employees in a program.
The Real-World Impact
This rule might look good on paper, but in practice, it’s completely disconnected from how child care actually operates.
1. You Pay for Staff You Don’t Need
Programs are forced to staff based on maximum possible children, not actual attendance. That means:
• A center licensed for 100 children must have 5 full-time Master Teachers
• Even if only 65 children are enrolled
• Even if classrooms are partially empty
No other industry is required to staff based on hypothetical customers and it isn’t required of our colleagues in public education.
Master Teachers are:
• Highly qualified
• Required to be full-time
• Responsible for curriculum, mentoring, and program development
These are leadership-level roles, not flexible or part-time positions. So, programs are forced to carry high salary costs with no revenue to support them.
2. You Can’t Share or Scale Staff
The rules explicitly prevent a Master Teacher from being counted across multiple programs if hours overlap. So even multi-site businesses:
• Can’t share expertise efficiently
• Can’t scale leadership roles
• Must duplicate high-cost positions at every location
3. You Risk Losing Your Star Level
If you don’t meet the requirement, even temporarily you risk:
• Losing your star rating
• Losing higher reimbursement rates
• Losing your financial stability
This creates a system where programs are financially punished for not overstaffing.
The Core Problem: Capacity ≠ Reality
The biggest flaw is that the requirement is based on licensed capacity, not actual enrollment or revenue. Licensed capacity is a ceiling, not a guarantee. Child care enrollment fluctuates constantly due to:
• Seasonal changes
• Family moves
• Economic shifts
• School schedules
Yet programs are forced to operate as if they are always full.
And This Is Happening During Massive Funding Cuts
At the same time:
• Subsidy rates are not aligned with the cost of care
• Programs are losing funding (including the $5/day reduction)
• Families are being pushed out of eligibility
So Oklahoma is effectively saying “Hire more highly paid staff… while we pay you less.” That’s not sustainable. It’s not even logical.
This requirement doesn’t improve quality…it creates instability:
• Programs delay hiring or expansion
• Classrooms stay closed
• Staff burnout increases
• Costs rise for families
• Programs shut down
We are already seeing the consequences across Oklahoma.
There’s a Better Way
If Oklahoma truly wants quality, the solution is simple:
• Base staffing requirements on enrollment, not capacity
• Allow flexibility in how expertise is deployed
• Align requirements with actual funding realities
Because right now, this rule isn’t raising quality, it’s doing the opposite. It’s forcing programs into impossible financial decisions. Child care programs are small businesses operating on thin margins. When regulations require them to:
• Overstaff
• Overspend
• And absorb losses
…it doesn’t create quality. It creates collapse, and Oklahoma cannot afford to lose the very system that supports its workforce.
Let's Talk About Individualized Lesson Plans to Meet QRIS Requirements. You cannot demand individualized education without funding individualized staffing. This is not a quality initiative, it is a paperwork mandate without the resources to implement it. This has created a classic “unfunded mandate” problem and child care businesses and their employees are crushed in the middle. No wonder so many are leaving the industry. It isn’t required in OK Public PreK. Requiring early childhood educators to produce individualized lesson plans for every child on a weekly basis is not aligned with developmentally appropriate practice. Individualized instruction is intended to occur through responsive teaching, observation, and adaptation, not through static, pre-written plans for each child. This requirement reflects a misapplication of individualized education models designed for exceptional learners and shifts teacher time away from meaningful interaction with children toward administrative compliance. As a result, it risks diminishing classroom quality rather than improving it. Requiring individualized lesson plans for every child in early childhood classrooms, while simultaneously reducing funding to those programs, creates an unsustainable and developmentally inappropriate expectation. High-quality individualization is inherently labor-intensive and depends on adequate staffing, planning time, and financial resources. When funding is reduced, programs are forced to operate with fewer staff and less capacity, making compliance with such requirements unrealistic. This results in a shift away from meaningful teacher-child interaction toward administrative documentation, undermining the very quality outcomes the policy intends to promote. In effect, the state has created a mandate that exceeds the operational and financial realities of the system, placing undue burden on educators and small business providers. This is what happens when you shift the model from accreditation to a state regulated QRIS model that isn't required by the federal government. Good luck ever getting it changed. Is anyone out there listening? We need change and fast.
child care is essential infrastructure
The Crucial Role of Child Care in Oklahoma’s Economy
This is a subtitle for your new post
