What Are the Home Daycare License Requirements in Montana?

Montana does not issue home daycares a license — the state's instrument is a registration certificate.

Under the Montana Child Care Act, a family day-care home or group day-care home may not operate without first procuring a family day-care or group day-care registration certificate from the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS).

The rules set a floor by size: any provider serving seven or more children on a regular basis must be licensed or registered, and child care centers must be licensed.

The exemption the act draws is size plus subsidy: since 2023, a person providing day care in a private residence for six or fewer children needs no registration certificate as long as they do not receive the state child care subsidy payments the act names.

Accept those payments, and the exemption does not apply.

Montana's rules size each facility type: a family child care facility provides care in a private residence or other structure for three to eight children on a regular basis, a group child care facility cares for 9 to 15, and 16 or more children in an out-of-home setting is a child care center.

Both home types register with DPHHS rather than take a license.

A group day-care home must have at least two caregivers whenever more than eight children are present.

Day-to-day staffing follows the home ratio rules: a facility serving mixed ages may use an 8:1 ratio with no more than three children under two, two staff are required if more than three under-twos are present, and a facility serving only under-twos must use 4:1.

DPHHS may also approve overlap care — for example before- and after-school care: children over three only, at most three hours a day, up to four extra children in a group facility and up to two in a family facility, at a 10:1 ratio, with a written plan submitted to Child Care Licensing (CCL).

The rules set no degree, college-credit or CDA minimum for lead teachers or directors: each qualifies through a combination of education, training, other licensing or experience approved through the Practitioner Registry or by DPHHS.

Registered family and group facility staff and owners working more than 500 hours a year complete 16 hours of Registry-approved annual training; an 8-hour tier covers licensed school-age and registered family, friend and neighbor care.

Within 30 days of hire and before unsupervised care, staff counted in ratio complete hands-on CPR (infant, child, adult), infant choking response and pediatric first aid, plus safe sleep/SIDS where the facility is licensed for infants and abusive head trauma training where it is licensed for infants or toddlers.

Remaining orientation topics — infectious disease prevention and control including immunization, child development, medication administration, food and allergy emergencies, premises safety, emergency preparedness, hazardous materials, bio-contaminant disposal, transportation and mandated reporting of child abuse and neglect — are due within 90 days of hire.

Staff who must take orientation also repeat a DPHHS-approved health and safety refresher at least every three years.

Our research did not confirm a separate education standard for the home provider role; ask DPHHS Child Care Licensing.

Montana's rule requires background checks before working in a child care facility and annually after, except the national checks, which repeat every five years.

The checks are Montana DOJ and FBI fingerprints, the national (NCIC) and Montana sex offender registries, and child protective services and name-based criminal checks for Montana and every state the person lived in during the past five years.

Federal CCDF rules set the floor underneath: every child care staff member of a licensed, regulated or registered provider — and of any subsidy-eligible provider — must be checked, with the request made before the person becomes a staff member and repeated at least once every 5 years.

In a family child care home, any household member age 18 or older counts as a child care staff member who needs the check — and a Montana family day-care home is by definition a private residence.

How that household-member rule maps to a group day-care home operating from another structure is not something our research confirms; ask DPHHS Child Care Licensing, whose website must publish the state's background-check policies and how to submit a request.

What a DPHHS inspection or pre-registration visit for a family or group day-care home involves — when the department visits, what it looks for in the home, and how a provider prepares — is not established in our research.

The page's other sections cover the registration framework, facility sizes, staffing and training rules the vault does record.

Ask the department's Child Care Licensing program what its inspection involves for your facility type before you apply.

The headline cost is zero: Montana law says DPHHS may not charge a fee to issue a license or registration certificate.

Once issued, a license or registration lasts up to three years, and a 3-year term goes only to a provider who has not received notice of any deficiencies.

Renewal carries a rule-stated deadline: complete renewal paperwork is due 60-90 days before the license or registration expires.

Our research did not capture the application form, the processing timeline or the pre-registration steps for a new Montana home; check the department's Child Care Licensing pages for the current process.

The staffing rule that bears directly on hiring: a group day-care home must have at least two caregivers whenever more than eight children are present.

That two-caregiver statute is a group-home rule.

Family homes have their own staffing trigger in the ratio rule: a family or group facility serving mixed ages needs two staff if more than three children under two are present, and a facility serving only under-twos must use 4:1.

An assistant falls under the same staff rules described in the sections above: background checks before working and annually after (national checks every five years), the 30-day orientation block of hands-on CPR, infant choking response and pediatric first aid for staff counted in ratio, the 90-day orientation topics, and 16 hours of Registry-approved annual training past 500 hours a year.

Volunteers sit lighter under Montana's rules: the minimum volunteer age is 15, a background check is required only when the volunteer will have unsupervised access to children, and volunteers do not count toward compliance with required child-to-staff ratios.

Since 2023, a person who provides day care in a private residence for six or fewer children is not required to obtain a family day-care registration certificate and is exempt from the requirements of the act's licensing part.

The condition is subsidy: the exemption holds only while the provider does not receive the state child care subsidy payments the statute references.

Accept those payments, and the exemption does not apply.

Whether the exemption fits a particular home is a question for DPHHS Child Care Licensing.

Montana repealed its old child care licensing chapter and adopted new rules, ARM 37.96, effective May 1, 2025.

DPHHS confirmed that date in a May 9, 2025 supplemental notice after a legislative committee objection delayed the original 2024 adoption.

Rule numbers from the repealed chapter no longer carry current requirements; this page is keyed to ARM 37.96 and to the Montana Child Care Act statutes behind it.