What Are the Home Daycare License Requirements in Nevada?

Nevada law defines a child care facility requiring licensure as an establishment caring for 5 or more children under 18 when compensation is received for the care of any of those children; homes caring only for related children are excluded (NRS 432A.024).

In practice, once a home's enrollment reaches 5 children and any of them are paid for, licensure applies.

Below that line, a home furnishing paid care to up to 4 unrelated children — at least 6 hours a day, 4 days a week, for more than 3 consecutive weeks — registers online with the Division as a small child care establishment rather than being licensed (NRS 432A.0295, 432A.1756).

One Nevada wrinkle comes first: a county or city that has its own child care licensing agency and ordinance licenses facilities there instead of the state Division, and local standards must be no less restrictive than the state's (NRS 432A.131).

Child Care Licensing in the Division of Social Services administers the state process, so which office handles a home's application depends on where in Nevada the home sits.

Nevada's rulebook sorts small facilities into two home types: a family home is a facility in which the licensee regularly provides care, without the presence of parents, for at least 5 and not more than 6 children, a group home covers 7 to 12, and anything over 12 children is a child care center (NAC 432A.050, .100, .110).

The family home license carries its own conditions: one caregiver on duty, no more than two children under 1 year of age or four children under 2 at any given time, and the provider's own children counted toward the limits only while they are under 4 (NAC 432A.534).

With written permission, a family home or group home may also provide before- and after-school care for up to 3 additional school-age children, ages 6 to 15, for up to 3 hours (NAC 432A.538).

And a Nevada home license is single-facility: a licensee who has a license to operate a family home or a group home may not obtain a license for any other family home, group home or other child care facility (NAC 432A.200(7)).

A Nevada family home or group home licensee who is an individual must reside in the facility and provide direct care to the children (NAC 432A.534, 432A.536) — the license is built around a working provider, not an absent owner.

Nevada's caregiver baseline then reads much as it does for center staff: caregivers must be at least 16 years old, join The Nevada Registry within 120 days of starting work and keep an active membership (NAC 432A.306), and complete 24 hours of training each year — at least 12 on the age group served and 2 on lifelong wellness, with no more than 3 of the hours in CPR (NRS 432A.1775).

Pre-service training topics come due within 90 and 120 days of starting (NAC 432A.323).

One caveat matters here: our reading of the rule text ties these caregiver rules to family and group homes, but it rests on a synthesis across provisions rather than a single clause naming licensees, so confirm the exact requirements that apply to your home with Child Care Licensing.

Nevada requires fingerprints and a background investigation for every resident of a licensed facility who is 18 years of age or older, within 24 hours of that person's presence in the facility and every 5 years after (NAC 432A.200).

The same clock covers employees and adult volunteers (NAC 432A.200).

The federal CCDF floor sits underneath: any individual residing in a family child care home who is age 18 and older counts as a child care staff member who needs the check, and a comprehensive check includes 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 (45 CFR 98.43).

What a result means for a pending application is between the applicant and Child Care Licensing; this page describes the rules, not advice on anyone's case.

Before a Nevada license issues, the applicant must show fire, environmental health, building and zoning compliance and submit a certificate of liability insurance (NAC 432A.200) — the clearances that sit behind any license visit.

What our research did not catalog is the walkthrough itself: the sources we read do not describe what Nevada's licensing analysts check room by room in a family home, or how often they visit after licensure, and we will not guess at either.

Where a city or county licenses child care under its own ordinance, that local agency and its standards apply instead (NRS 432A.131).

Child Care Licensing can confirm what its analysts review and on what schedule.

The state's initial application fees are set by licensed capacity in NAC 432A.200: $20 for a facility of 5 to 6 children and $60 for 7 to 12, on a schedule that rises to $300 for the largest facilities.

Local jurisdictions that license under their own ordinance may charge differently (NRS 432A.131).

A Nevada child care license runs 1 year; renewal applications are due 45 days before expiration, and a renewal received later than 30 days before expiration carries a $50 late fee (NAC 432A.220, NRS 432A.141).

The clearances — fire, environmental health, building and zoning compliance, plus a certificate of liability insurance — are required before the license issues (NAC 432A.200).

How long the state takes to process an initial application our research did not establish; Child Care Licensing can give the current timeline.

A family home is licensed with one caregiver on duty (NAC 432A.534), so the assistant question becomes a live one when a provider steps up to a group home: its 7 to 12 children are staffed by caregiver-to-child lines, with one caregiver for every 2 children under 1 year of age and every 4 children aged 1 to 3 — and, in the codified text's own words, '2 caregivers for every 6 children' at 3 years and older.

A group home needs three caregivers when 8 or more children have special needs (NAC 432A).

Whoever joins the home hits the background-check clock immediately: Nevada employees, adult residents and adult volunteers must be fingerprinted and submit a background investigation within 24 hours of hire or presence in the facility, and every 5 years after (NAC 432A.200).

The caregiver baseline — at least 16 years old, Nevada Registry membership, the annual training hours — applies to a hired caregiver under the same reading of the rule text we flagged above, so confirm the details with Child Care Licensing before you hire.

Nevada gives very small paid care a track of its own: a small child care establishment furnishes care to not more than 4 children under 18 and registers online with the Division rather than being licensed (NRS 432A.0295, 432A.1756).

The definition describes a regular paid arrangement — unrelated children, care for compensation, at least 6 hours a day, 4 days a week, for more than 3 consecutive weeks.

Homes caring only for related children are excluded from the licensure definition (NRS 432A.024).

Registered does not mean outside the rules: the federal CCDF background-check requirement reaches providers that are licensed, regulated or registered (45 CFR 98.43).

Confirm what registration currently requires with Child Care Licensing before you open.