A home daycare license comes from your state's child care licensing agency, and getting one means completing that agency's application, the training your state requires, background checks for you and every adult in your household, and a home inspection.
How many children trigger licensure, how many training hours apply and what the inspector checks are set state by state.
Here is each step, and where the states diverge.
Do you need a license to run a home daycare?
Home daycare licensing happens state by state: the trigger, the categories and the paperwork all come from your state's child care licensing agency.
What the national data shows is the shape: many states license a larger group category alongside the smaller family child care category, though not every state licenses the group category.
The larger category is the group child care home, defined in the national data as two or more adults caring for children in the provider's residence.
As of December 31, 2020, 38 states including DC licensed group child care homes, and 13 states did not license that category.
The smaller category's threshold is set state by state.
A 2012 federal licensing-trends review found 10 states licensing family child care homes at one or more unrelated children, the most common threshold at 3 or 4 children, and 7 states at 6 or more.
That review is dated and thresholds have changed in a number of states since — treat it as background and check the current rule where you live.
Three states sat outside mandatory licensing entirely as of 2020: Louisiana, New Jersey and South Dakota licensed home-based providers only voluntarily, with requirements attaching when the provider is paid with public funds.
Where your home falls — licensed category, exempt category, or something your state regulates another way — is the first thing to establish with your agency.
Confirm the current rules with your licensing agency
Home daycare license requirements
Wherever the threshold sits, the requirements gather into the same handful of areas, and each state writes its own version of each:
- Who qualifies — the eligibility rules for the person holding the license
- Training — pre-service or orientation hours and annual ongoing training
- Background checks — for you and for the adults in your household
- The home itself — the physical conditions your state expects a licensed home to meet
- Capacity — the maximum number of children each license category may serve
BLS gives a general picture: to qualify for licensure, childcare staff often must pass a background check, have a complete record of immunizations and meet a minimum training requirement, with some states requiring CPR and first aid certification.
Separately, for programs that receive CCDF subsidy, the rules at 45 CFR 98.44 require states to set pre-service or orientation health-and-safety training that must be completed within three months.
Which document covers which item, and in what order your state wants them, is the agency's call.
Request the application packet first — it is the authoritative checklist, and it tells you what to schedule before you spend money on courses or home changes.
Application and home inspection
Licensing runs through your state's child care licensing agency from start to finish.
You apply on the agency's forms, and the agency reviews the application, your training and your background-check clearances.
The inspection sits on that path too: CCDF requires states to inspect licensed child care providers before licensure, and at least once a year unannounced, for compliance with health, safety and fire standards.
The sequence and the forms vary by state, which is why the application packet is the first thing to request.
The review moves fastest when the people-side items are already done — clearances for every adult in the household and documented training — and when the home already matches the rules you will be inspected against.
Ask whether the agency publishes an inspection checklist when you ask for the application.
Licensing is also only one track of the launch.
The business work around it — setup, budgets, rates and the first hire — is covered step by step in our guide to starting a home daycare.
Household background checks
Start here, because the household part of the rule reaches beyond your own checks.
Under the CCDF background-check rules, every household member age 18 or older in a family child care home counts as a child care staff member — and staff members need checks.
Household membership, not employment, is what puts the adults living in your home in scope.
The paid side is broad too.
The definition of a child care staff member covers anyone employed by the provider for compensation, including contract employees and self-employed individuals — so an assistant you hire, a regular substitute or a contracted helper all need the same checks.
The federal material also sets the clock.
Caring for Our Children Basics — the ACF-published national health and safety standards, July 2025 edition — calls for screening on employment and at least every 5 years, with checks completed within 45 days.
And under 45 CFR 98.43(d)(4), a staff member may begin once either the FBI or the in-state fingerprint check returns a qualifying result, working under the constant supervision of someone fully cleared until every component is done.
States administer the checks and may go further than that federal floor.
Confirm who must be screened, and when someone may start work, with your state child care licensing agency.
Training required
Start with the pre-service rule.
For caregivers in subsidy-receiving programs, the CCDF rules require states to set pre-service or orientation health-and-safety training completed within three months, to name the critical topics that must be finished before a caregiver cares for children unsupervised, and to cover child development in the training.
Whether your state applies the same rule to every licensed home is written in its licensing rules.
Then the topic list.
For providers paid with CCDF subsidy, the rules at 45 CFR 98.41 require health-and-safety training across a fixed list of topics — among them pediatric first aid and CPR, SIDS prevention and safe sleep, emergency preparedness, medication administration, and recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect.
Annual hours are where the states diverge.
The federal rules require ongoing annual professional development for caregivers in subsidy-receiving programs, but they set no hour total.
A 2020 national scan of group child care homes found that annual ongoing training ranged from 6 to 30 hours for providers (median 15) and 5 to 24 hours for assistant providers (median 12).
The full training stack — pre-service timing, the federal topic list, CPR specifics and annual hours — is laid out in our guide to required training for childcare staff.
How long it takes and what it costs
Our research did not verify a national figure for home daycare licensing timelines or application fees — both are set state by state.
Your agency's website is the source for its current processing time and fee schedule, and both can change between licensing cycles.
What you can plan around is the shape of the clock.
The application review, your training, background-check clearances for every adult in the household and the pre-licensure inspection are the moving parts, so anything you complete early comes off the critical path.
On cost, make one call to the licensing office and ask for the whole picture: the application fee, fingerprinting and background-check charges, which training courses carry fees, and whether renewal or re-inspection carries its own.
When does a home daycare need a license?
States draw the line with a count of children, and the count differs by category.
For group child care homes — two or more adults caring for children in the provider's residence — 38 states including DC ran a license category as of December 31, 2020, and 13 states did not license the category.
Among the states that do, most set the entry point at 7 or more children as of 2020, and 23 of those 38 states capped group homes at 12 children.
For the smaller family child care category, the national numbers available are old: the 2012 federal review found licensing thresholds running from one unrelated child up to 6 or more, with 3 or 4 children the most common.
States have revised these lines in the years since, so the current threshold in your state is the only one that counts.
Two caveats sit around the thresholds.
As of 2020, Louisiana, New Jersey and South Dakota had no mandatory licensing for any home-based providers — licensing was voluntary, with requirements applying when the provider is paid with public funds.
And license-exempt is not requirement-free: under the federal CCDF rules, a provider paid with subsidy must meet federal health, safety and background-check requirements, with care by relatives of a specified degree the main exception to the health-and-safety rules.
Whether your state separates a small-home license from a group-home license, and what each category allows, is written in your agency's family child care rules — the same rules your inspector will apply.
Who qualifies to be a licensed provider?
BLS gives the common inputs: to qualify for licensure, childcare staff often must pass a background check, have a complete record of immunizations, and meet a minimum training requirement — with some states adding CPR and first aid certification.
Your state's provider rules say which of these apply to you as the license holder, and under the CCDF background-check rules the check reaches every adult age 18 or older in your household.
Each state then adds its own eligibility items for the person holding the license.
Those specifics live in your agency's provider requirements — they are the first thing to read when you request the application packet.
If you are weighing the career itself — what the work involves day to day, how it compares with center teaching, and what the pay data shows — the family child care provider career guide covers the role end to end.
Training, CPR and background checks for you and your household
Before you apply, put the people-side requirements on one list so nothing lands after inspection day:
- Pre-service or orientation health-and-safety training — for subsidy-receiving providers, completed within three months under the CCDF rules, with your state's critical topics finished before unsupervised care
- Pediatric first aid and CPR training — on the federal topic list for subsidy-receiving providers, and required for licensure in some states
- A background check for you — screening at hire, with re-screening at least every 5 years under the national standards
- Background checks for every household member age 18 or older
- The same checks for anyone you pay to help — an assistant, a regular substitute or a contracted helper
Two clocks run underneath the list.
Training runs on your state's clock — for subsidy-receiving providers, the CCDF rules require pre-service or orientation health-and-safety training to be completed within three months, with your state's critical topics finished before you care for children unsupervised.
Screening runs on a second clock: on employment, then at least every 5 years, with checks completed within 45 days — and a start allowed after a qualifying result on one fingerprint check, under constant supervision by a fully cleared adult.
Your state can add topics, hours or recheck intervals on top of that floor.
Confirm the list with your state child care licensing agency before you book training, so the courses you pay for count toward your license.
What the home inspection checks
The inspection is the agency checking your home against the rules your license will be written under.
On the federal side, CCDF requires the inspection of licensed providers to cover health, safety and fire standards — once before licensure, then unannounced at least once a year.
The item-by-item standard is your state's licensing rules.
If your agency publishes an inspection checklist, it is the most useful document in the process.
Ask for it when you request the application, walk your own home against it before inspection day, and take care of what it names before the visit rather than after.
Licenses renew on a schedule each state sets, and the CCDF floor of at least one unannounced inspection a year keeps licensed homes on the agency's calendar.
Ask what the renewal cycle looks like in your state — how long a license runs and what renewal involves — when you pick up the application.
This page is career and employer information, not licensing or legal advice. Confirm home daycare licensing requirements, timelines and fees with your state child care licensing agency.