Step 8 of 26 · Your first day
Count heads
After every transition, tap "Count heads" on your room's card: arrivals, going out, lunch, nap and departures.
Watch out: A count that is short is not hidden: it stays on the record until a supervisor or administrator corrects it or marks it a mistake.
More about this
My rooms is the room tablet: record a head count after every transition (arrivals, outdoor play, lunch, nap, departures), the daily checks, and who is in each room. Everything here is time-stamped and kept for the licensing binder. You record in your own rooms; cover another room, with the reason, to record there. It works offline and sends itself when the Wi-Fi is back.
The regulation requires every child to be supervised by an adult at all times, on or off the premises (O. Reg. 137/15, s. 11), and the ratio of staff to children, the maximum group size and the proportion of qualified staff for each licensed age group to be kept, whether the children are on the premises or on an outing (s. 8(1) and Schedule 1). A head count is how you show it. From January 1, 2027, every centre's written supervision policy must say when, how and how often children are counted (s. 11(2), added by O. Reg. 197/26); your centre's policy tells you the interval it has chosen.
The card shows the last count as "4 children · 1 staff at 9:25 a.m." with a pill beside it: "Ratio met", "Short: needs 2 staff", or "No head count yet".
Your centre's words for people and its policies may differ; the screens are the same. The screen is from KeepCount 0.99.144, captured October 27, 2026 in a demonstration organization: everyone in it is fictional. Section numbers are O. Reg. 137/15 (General) under the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014, read on e-Laws on October 20, 2026. This explains how KeepCount works; it is not legal advice, and the Ministry's program advisors decide compliance.