What Are the Home Daycare License Requirements in Arizona?

Arizona does not issue a single home daycare license; it splits home-based care across two certification tracks.

Small family child care homes are certified by Arizona DES for subsidy rather than licensed by ADHS: DES may certify a provider for up to four children for compensation, or up to six total when no more than four are paid.

A residence providing care for compensation for five to ten children through age 12 is a child care group home, which the statute says shall be certified by ADHS.

Around both tracks sits the ADHS center license: child care facilities are licensed by the Arizona Department of Health Services, and the threshold is written into the definition — a child care facility is any facility regularly providing child care for compensation for five or more children not related to the proprietor (A.R.S. § 36-881).

Our research did not confirm how Arizona treats a residence caring for four or fewer paid children outside DES certification, so confirm your plan with ADHS or DES before enrolling children.

Capacity is written for each format.

A DES-certified family child care home takes a maximum of four children at a time, from birth through age 12, for compensation, or up to six total when no more than four are paid; in a home caring for up to six, no more than two children may be under age 1 unless they are a sibling group.

The ADHS-certified child care group home is a residential facility providing care for compensation for five to ten children through age 12 for periods of less than twenty-four hours per day, and its certificate holder must carry general liability insurance of at least $100,000.

The third regime, the ADHS-licensed child care facility, is the center track for five or more unrelated children and sits outside the home formats.

The tracks set different bars.

A DES family child care certification applicant must be at least age 18, designate a backup provider and give three references.

The provider of an ADHS-certified child care group home must live in the residence, be at least 21 years old, and hold a high school diploma or equivalent or a degree.

Group home staff members each complete at least 12 hours of training every 12 months.

Our research did not confirm a training-hours figure for DES-certified family child care homes, so ask DES what training it requires of a certified provider.

Arizona child care personnel — volunteers included — must hold a valid DPS fingerprint clearance card before starting work.

Health screening reaches the whole household on the DES track: the applicant shows freedom from pulmonary tuberculosis for themselves, all household members and all backup providers, renewed each year.

The federal CCDF floor in 45 CFR 98.43 adds a comprehensive background check for every child care staff member of a licensed, regulated or registered provider, and covers subsidy-eligible providers; how ADHS and DES apply those components to each track is a question for the agencies.

In a family child care home, any individual residing there who is age 18 or older counts as a child care staff member.

The check combines an FBI fingerprint check, a national sex-offender-registry search and state criminal, sex-offender and child-abuse-and-neglect registry checks for the current state and every state lived in during the past 5 years.

It is requested before a person becomes a child care staff member and repeated at least once every 5 years.

States must complete a request within 45 days of submission and publish their background-check policies online, so the agencies' sites are the authority on where to start.

Our research read the statutes and rules that define Arizona's two home tracks — capacity, provider qualifications, training hours and insurance — but did not capture the inspection steps ADHS applies before certifying a group home or DES applies before certifying a family child care home, so this page does not describe a pre-certification visit.

Ask ADHS what its group home certification process includes and DES what its family child care home certification process includes, and what either agency checks after certification.

Those post-certification requirements were not established in our research either.

The application elements our research did capture sit in the DES rules: an applicant at least age 18 who designates a backup provider and gives three references, plus TB-free status for the applicant, all household members and all backup providers, renewed each year.

The DPS fingerprint clearance card is in hand before starting work rather than after.

Our research did not confirm the application forms, fee amounts or a processing timeline for either track, so this page quotes no fee.

Ask ADHS for the group home certification process and DES for the family child care home process, and get each agency's current fee schedule before you budget.

The group home rule writes the assistant trigger into capacity: at least one adult staff member, in addition to the provider, is on the premises when six or more enrolled children are at the child care group home.

Arizona's fingerprint statute covers child care personnel, volunteers included, so an assistant needs the valid DPS fingerprint clearance card in hand before starting work, and group home staff members each complete at least 12 hours of training every 12 months.

On the DES track, the rule our research captures is the designated backup provider rather than a paid assistant; what qualifications DES sets for a paid assistant were not established in our research, so ask DES before you post the job.

Federal CCDF rules let a new hire start work once they have a qualifying result on either the FBI fingerprint check or the in-state fingerprint criminal check, but until every component is complete the hire is supervised at all times by an individual who received a qualifying result on a background check within the past five years.