Do You Need a License to Run a Home Daycare in Hawaii?

Hawaii does not license family child care homes — it registers them.

The Hawaii Department of Human Services (DHS), through its Benefit, Employment and Support Services Division child care licensing, registers family child care homes under Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 17-891.2, while a group child care home caring for seven to twelve children is licensed under the center rules in chapter 17-892.2.

Hawaii statute defines a family child care home as a private residence where care may be provided for three to no more than six children unrelated to the caregiver by blood, marriage or adoption, at any given time.

Among the situations Hawaii's child care law excludes are care by close relatives and care for a child less than six hours a week.

Because registration rather than licensure is the system, confirm which rules cover your situation with DHS child care licensing before you open.

The two settings sit side by side in Hawaii law.

A registered family child care home is a private residence caring for three to no more than six unrelated children under chapter 17-891.2; a group child care home of seven to twelve children is licensed under the center rules in chapter 17-892.2.

Capacity in the registered home is six children at a time, and the provider's own children age 6 and older are not counted toward it.

Age skews the count further: no more than two children under 18 months may be in the home at the same time, and the home only reaches as many as four under 18 months with additional adult help.

The registration rule sets the floor: a provider other than a volunteer assisting the provider must be at least 18 years old, and the application includes two written references.

Training runs on two layers.

Within 45 days of hire, each caregiver, substitute and volunteer completes initial health and safety training approved by DHS, covering 11 topics that include safe sleep, medication, abusive head trauma, pediatric first aid and CPR, and child abuse reporting.

After that initial training, Hawaii family child care caregivers complete at least 16 hours of DHS-approved training annually, in at least two of the rule's topic areas.

The registration rules our research captured set the age floor, references and training hours; they do not state an education requirement, so confirm what DHS expects of applicants with the department.

The registration application must include background check results, and it must also include evidence of a satisfactory physical examination and TB clearance for all household members.

Hawaii family child care homes are registered providers, so the federal CCDF rules in 45 CFR 98.43 set the floor: every child care staff member of a licensed, regulated or registered provider must have a comprehensive background check.

In a family child care home, any household member age 18 or older counts as a child care staff member.

That comprehensive 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 the person lived in during the past 5 years.

Checks are requested before the person becomes a staff member and repeated at least once every 5 years; federal rules give states up to 45 days to complete a request, and each state must publish its background check policies online, so DHS's site is the authority on where to submit.

The registration rules our research captured cover what the application contains — household physical and TB clearances, references, background check results and, where the home is in a condominium or townhome, the association's permission — and the decision window, but they do not tell us what DHS inspects.

Whether DHS visits the home before issuing the certificate of registration, and what such a visit covers, were not established in our research.

DHS child care licensing can tell you what to expect for your home before you apply.

A complete application gathers the pieces the rule names: evidence of a satisfactory physical examination and TB clearance for all household members, two written references, background check results and, if the home is in a condominium or townhome, the association's permission.

The timeline is set in the rule: DHS must issue notification of the disposition of a completed application no later than 90 days from the date of the completed application, and an application left incomplete for nine months expires.

What our research did not confirm is cost — no registration fee for Hawaii family child care homes was found in the rule text we read, so ask DHS child care licensing for the current fee schedule and application packet.

The capacity rule is where a second adult matters: a home only reaches four children under 18 months with additional adult help, so the help is what allows the deeper infant mix.

Anyone working in the home as a caregiver, substitute or volunteer completes the DHS-approved initial health and safety training within 45 days of hire.

A paid assistant is a child care staff member under the federal CCDF rules, so the comprehensive background check is requested before they start and repeated at least once every 5 years, and they may begin work once either the FBI fingerprint check or the in-state fingerprint criminal check returns a qualifying result — supervised at all times by a fully checked staff member until every component is complete.

Beyond that, our research did not capture Hawaii rules setting qualifications specifically for home daycare assistants, so confirm those with DHS child care licensing before you post the job.