What Are the Home Daycare License Requirements in Alaska?

Alaska licenses child care under 7 AAC 57, the Child Care Facilities Licensing rule: a facility regularly providing child care for five or more children who are not relatives of the caregiver may not operate without a license unless an exemption applies.

Two exemptions matter for homes: facilities that regularly provide care to four or fewer children who are not relatives of the caregiver, and facilities where the caregiver is a relative of all the children.

Below five unrelated children, the exemption is what applies in the sections of the rule we read — our research describes no lighter registration tier for small homes.

Licenses come from the State of Alaska Child Care Program Office, except inside Anchorage, where the Municipality of Anchorage Child Care Licensing issues them — as Alaska SEED describes the split, and the municipal code was not read, so Anchorage's rules may differ.

7 AAC 57.990 names three facility types by size, and two of them are homes.

A child care home may provide care for not more than a total of eight children younger than 13 years of age, including the caregiver's own children under 13, with no more than three under 30 months and no more than two nonambulatory.

A child care group home serves nine to 12 children, usually in an occupied residence; it shall have at least two caregivers, one of which must be the administrator, and may care for up to 12 children under 13 including the caregiver's own, with no more than five under 30 months.

A child care center is the 13-or-more tier, so a home that grows past 12 children becomes a center under the rule.

Watch the under-30-month and nonambulatory caps as well as the total: they bind before the headline number does.

Alaska's administrator and caregiver rules sit in the same chapter that licenses the home.

The administrator of a child care center, child care group home, or child care home must be at least 21 years of age.

Other caregivers must be at least 18 years of age to be counted toward meeting the child-to-caregiver ratio requirements, and the route for 16- and 17-year-olds is written for centers only.

The chapter's training rules are facility-wide: caregivers complete facility orientation, including approved health and safety trainings such as SIDS and safe sleep and medication administration, within three months of hire, and every administrator and caregiver logs at least 24 hours of annual training relevant to child care and development, including at least one hour on a health and safety topic — part-time caregivers working 15 hours a week or less need 12 hours.

Each caregiver also holds valid pediatric first aid and pediatric CPR certification.

Our research captured no up-front education or credential requirement for home providers — the education rule we read attaches to center administrators — so ask the Child Care Program Office what applies to a home's administrator before you build your application.

Background checks for anyone associated with an Alaska child care facility follow AS 47.05.300–.390 and the barrier-crimes rules at 7 AAC 10.900–.990.

The department may also review child protection and licensing records for each caregiver, employee and other individual age 16 or older (7 AAC 57.315) — wording that reaches individuals in and around a home, not only paid staff.

For an individual applicant, the license application itself must list household members' names and ages.

Our research captured which rules the checks follow, not the conviction lists or how long results take, so ask the Child Care Program Office — or Anchorage CCL inside Anchorage — what to submit and when.

The clearest inspection requirement in the sections we read sits in the application: an Alaska license application must include fire and environmental-health inspection reports.

Our research did not capture the on-site inspection schedule a home can expect before or after licensure, or a checklist of what a licensing visit covers.

Ask the Child Care Program Office, or Anchorage CCL, what an inspection of your home involves and how to schedule the fire and environmental-health reports.

One step sits before the paperwork: applicants for an Alaska child care license must attend an orientation and pre-service training program if one is available within 60 miles by road of the facility — otherwise processing is suspended.

The application itself must include household members' names and ages for an individual applicant, four administrator references, the fire and environmental-health inspection reports, a plan of operation and a staffing plan.

Alaska licenses are provisional or biennial, and the rule's section title pairs the application with biennial renewal.

On cost, our research did not find a license fee in the 7 AAC 57 sections we read, and we captured no processing timeline — ask the Child Care Program Office or Anchorage CCL for the current fee schedule and what to expect.

The group home rule is the concrete trigger: a child care group home shall have at least two caregivers, one of which must be the administrator, for its 12-child capacity.

The child care home rule is written around 'the caregiver' — singular — and eight children; if you hire an assistant, that person meets the chapter's standard caregiver rules.

That means at least 18 to count in the child-to-caregiver ratio, a background check under the barrier-crimes rules, at least three written references — at least two from individuals unrelated to the applicant — before contact with children, facility orientation within three months of hire, pediatric first aid and CPR, and at least 24 annual training hours (12 if the assistant works 15 hours a week or less).

The staffing plan your application files has to describe the number of people who will work at the facility and their qualifications, so an assistant belongs in it — and confirm the current rules with the Child Care Program Office before you post the job.