What Are the Home Daycare License Requirements in Maryland?

Maryland registers rather than licenses family child care homes, and registration is what the rule requires before you care for children in your home.

Registration is not needed in two cases written into the rule: when the provider is a relative of every child in care, or when the provider is a friend of each child's parent or legal guardian and the care is provided on a nonregular basis of less than 20 hours a month.

The Office of Child Care (Division of Early Childhood) in the Maryland State Department of Education administers the state's child care rules, and family child care homes follow COMAR 13A.15.

A registered family child care home may care for at most 8 children, of whom no more than 4 may be younger than 2 years old.

Caring for more than 2 children under 2 needs Office approval and an additional adult, and the provider's own children under 6 count toward capacity.

For larger homes, Maryland sets a separate rule chapter — large family child care homes fall under COMAR 13A.18 — and our research did not capture its capacity limits or requirements, so ask your regional licensing office before planning one.

Maryland family child care providers must be at least 18 years old, and the home must be the applicant's primary residence.

Before you apply, you need current first aid and CPR and 24 clock hours of approved training completed within 2 years before applying, including 4 clock hours in each of six Core of Knowledge areas; the alternatives are the 90-hour course, a CDA, or a qualifying degree.

The rule adds emergency planning, medication administration, breastfeeding support and 3 hours of ADA training, and Maryland requires a 6-hour Medication Administration Training (MAT), taught by an approved RN, as pre-service training for a family child care registration.

After registration, training continues: 18 clock hours in your first year, then 12 clock hours a year with at least 6 in Core of Knowledge.

A provider who cares for more than two children under age 2 also needs 3 semester hours or 45 clock hours of infant/toddler training, and caring for any child under 24 months requires SIDS training completed within the previous 5 years.

The background-check floor for a registered Maryland family child care home is federal: under the CCDF rules at 45 CFR 98.43, administered by ACF, every child care staff member of a licensed, regulated or registered child care 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 who needs the check.

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

Checks must be requested before the person becomes a staff member and repeated at least once every 5 years.

Each state must publish its background check policies and how to submit a request, so Maryland's state website, starting with the Office of Child Care, is the authority on where to get fingerprinted and what it requires.

MSDE's Licensing Branch runs 13 Regional Licensing Offices, and those offices register family child care homes, so the office for your area handles the registration.

Our research read the rule chapters and the agency's licensing pages but did not capture the inspection steps, checklist or timing Maryland uses for family child care homes.

Ask your regional licensing office whether and how it inspects a home before registration.

You apply through the Office of Child Care: MSDE's Licensing Branch runs 13 Regional Licensing Offices, and those offices register family child care homes, so you start with the office for your area.

Two timing rules shape the application: your 24 clock hours of pre-service training must fall within the 2 years before you apply, and the 6-hour Medication Administration Training is a pre-service requirement for a family child care registration.

On money, our research did not confirm Maryland's registration fee or its processing times, so ask your regional licensing office for the current fee schedule and timeline before you budget.

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

Maryland's capacity rule sets the moment a second adult matters: caring for more than 2 children under 2 needs Office approval and an additional adult.

Our research did not capture what Maryland requires of an assistant or additional adult, so ask your regional licensing office what it requires before you bring one on.

The federal CCDF background-check floor reaches them: every child care staff member of a registered provider needs the comprehensive check, and it must be requested before the person becomes a staff member.