What Are the Home Daycare License Requirements in District of Columbia?

DC licenses child development facilities through the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) under 5-A DCMR Chapter 1, whose comprehensive rewrite took effect December 2, 2016, and whose staff qualification sections OSSE amended effective August 1, 2025.

In the rule's terms, licensed care in a residence is a Child Development Home — licensed to care for up to 6 children — or, with 2 or more caregivers, an Expanded Child Development Home for up to 12.

A non-residential facility serving more than 12 children is a center under the same chapter.

The rule text our research captured defines these home license tiers but does not describe an exemption for smaller arrangements, so ask OSSE before treating any home-based care as license-exempt.

The rule sets two home license types.

A Child Development Home may be licensed to care for up to 6 children, and the caregiver's own children age 6 and older are not counted toward that number, within limits the rule sets.

An Expanded Child Development Home uses 2 or more caregivers to care for up to 12 children.

Above the home tiers, the same chapter licenses centers: a non-residential facility serving more than 12 children falls under the center sections, not the home sections.

A Child Development Home Caregiver must be at least 18, live in the home, and hold an associate degree in early childhood education (or a related route the rule names) or a current CDA (5-A DCMR 168.1, as amended August 1, 2025).

Annual minimums are at least 12 hours of professional development for Child Development Home caregivers and staff and 15 hours for Expanded Home caregivers and staff.

Staff must also complete pre-service health and safety training within 30 calendar days of hire — child abuse prevention and reporting, emergency preparedness, safe sleep and SIDS, shaken baby syndrome and abusive head trauma, and first aid and CPR — with orientation on further topics within 90 days.

Every staff member at a licensed DC facility must hold current first aid and CPR certification appropriate to the ages served, with at least 2 certified staff on the premises at all times.

A Home Caregiver who held the role on December 20, 2023 and has served continuously for 10 years can apply to OSSE for a continuous service certification that waives the education requirements.

DC's rule treats every adult in the household as staff: any resident of a Child Development Home or Expanded Home who is 18 or older is considered a staff member for background-check purposes.

The check uses fingerprints in an FBI-approved format, is due before someone becomes a staff member and at least once every 3 years, and a pending hire may work only if supervised at all times by someone with a qualifying check.

The federal CCDF floor (45 CFR 98.43, administered by ACF) adds a comprehensive check for every child care staff member of a licensed provider — household members 18 or older included — repeated at least once every 5 years.

It 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.

States must publish their background check policies, so OSSE's site is the authority on where to get fingerprinted.

The rule adds a household health requirement: each resident must have an annual physical certifying freedom from tuberculosis and communicable disease.

A pre-licensure inspection is built into DC's fee schedule: each applicant for a license to operate a facility pays an application and pre-licensure inspection fee, so the home is inspected before a license is issued.

Beyond that, our research read the chapter's licensing and fee sections but did not capture the inspection checklist, its timing, or what OSSE looks for in a home visit.

Ask OSSE's Division of Early Learning what the pre-licensure inspection covers and how to prepare the home for it.

You apply to OSSE, the agency that licenses child development facilities under 5-A DCMR Chapter 1.

The fee schedule in 5-A DCMR 108 sets a $75 application and pre-licensure inspection fee, then $225 for the license itself — a home or expanded home license runs for 3 years, with the same fee schedule on renewal.

Two cautions apply to the money.

The fee amounts our research captured come from the 2016 final rule text; a later proposed rulemaking took up the whole chapter, but our research confirmed no final changes to the fee sections, so confirm the current fee schedule with OSSE before you budget.

And our research did not capture the application forms or processing times, so ask OSSE for the current steps.

One federal guardrail does apply: background check fees charged by a state may not exceed the actual cost of processing and administration.

The rule's structure marks the moments a second adult matters.

An Expanded Child Development Home is by definition a 2-or-more-caregiver setting, and DC's home ratios depend on the number of children under 2 — with 3 or 4 children under 2, the rule sets a 1:3 ratio and requires at least 2 caregivers.

The rule's title for an assistant in a Home or Expanded Home is Associate Caregiver, and an Associate Caregiver must be at least 18 years old, with 60 college credits or an associate degree, a CDA credential, or a high school diploma plus a CDA earned within 2 years of hire.

The staff rules reach them too: current first aid and CPR certification (with at least 2 certified staff on the premises at all times), the annual professional development minimum for home caregivers and staff, and the criminal background check required before someone becomes a staff member.

OSSE amended the staff qualification sections of Chapter 1 effective August 1, 2025.

For homes, the amended rule carries the Home Caregiver education standard described above — an associate degree in early childhood education or a related route, or a current CDA — and the continuous service certification that waives the education requirements for Home Caregivers who held the role on December 20, 2023 and have served 10 years continuously.

A proposed rulemaking that took up the whole chapter was published on the DC register, but our research did not confirm final changes to the training, ratio or fee sections — check OSSE's current rule text for those.