What Are the Home Daycare License Requirements in Maine?

Maine's family child care rule says no person may provide child care for more than two children who are not the provider's own, or who do not live in the provider's home, without a license from the Department.

Caring for one or two such children is license-exempt.

Cross that threshold and you are a Family Child Care Provider as the rule defines it: a person who provides child care in their home, on a regular basis and for consideration, for 3 to 12 children under 13.

The Maine DHHS Office of Child and Family Services administers child care licensing in Maine.

Maine licenses family child care as one home category: a Family Child Care Provider cares for 3 to 12 children under 13 who are not the provider's own, in the provider's home.

The rule's fee schedule names the license statuses a home can hold — provisional, temporary, full and revised — and a full license renews on a biennial cycle.

Capacity is only one ceiling.

The same chapter also sets staff-to-child ratios by age band, and the provider's own children over age 4 are not counted toward them, so your own household can affect the arithmetic.

In a Maine family child care home, the provider or at least one staff member must be 18 or older, hold adult and pediatric first aid and CPR, and have at least 6 hours of pre-licensing training.

Training does not stop once the license is in hand: providers and staff members complete 12 hours of training annually and must register with Maine's Professional Development Network.

The rule also requires immunization records for providers and staff, covering tetanus, pertussis and diphtheria, and providers and staff members born after 1956 must have MMR documentation available.

The family child care rule reaches beyond the provider: documentation of a background check, in the form of a Provider or Staff Member Letter of Eligibility, must be available for licensing review for anyone 18 or older who lives on the premises, and for others with unsupervised access.

Maine's comprehensive background check under the background check rule includes an FBI fingerprint check (NGI) and the National Sex Offender Registry, plus the state child abuse registry, the State Bureau of Identification and the sex offender registry of the state of residence and each state the person lived in during the previous five years.

Maine licenses family child care homes under 10-148 CMR Chapter 33, but the rule sections and agency pages we read do not lay out the on-site inspection steps: what a pre-licensing visit covers or which premises standards a home is checked against.

Our research did not confirm them, so treat any secondhand checklist with care.

The Office of Child and Family Services administers the licensing process; ask the office what its review of your home involves before you apply.

The family child care rule sets its own fee schedule: $80 for a provisional license, $10 for a temporary license, $160 for a full license or its biennial renewal, and $10 for a revised license.

Our research did not confirm the application steps or a processing timeline for Maine family child care applicants.

Confirm the application materials and current fees with the Office of Child and Family Services before you submit anything.

Family child care staff members may be 16 or older, and any staff member under 18 must be supervised by a staff member who is 18 or older.

The qualification bundle is what shapes a small home's hiring: the provider or at least one staff member must be the person who is 18 or older, holds adult and pediatric first aid and CPR, and has the 6 hours of pre-licensing training.

Staff join the provider in the 12 annual training hours, the Professional Development Network registration and the immunization documentation.

Background checks reach staff too: under Maine's background check rule, a prospective staff member may not start work until they give the provider a Letter of Eligibility showing they are eligible.