Do You Need a License to Run a Home Daycare in New Jersey?

No license is required to care for three to five children in a New Jersey home.

Family child care at that size sits in a voluntary registration system rather than a licensing one: N.J.A.C. 3A:54, effective January 19, 2024, provides for the voluntary registration of family child care providers, handled through county sponsoring organizations, for providers caring for 3 to 5 children in their home for at least 15 hours a week.

Six or more children changes the framework.

Under the state's center rules, a child care center is any home or facility maintained for the care of six or more children under 13 years of age who attend for less than 24 hours a day, and children who live in the home are not counted toward that threshold.

A home at that size is outside family child care registration and needs a child care center license from the Department of Children and Families.

A registered family child care home cares for no fewer than three and no more than five children at a time, and up to three additional resident children under 6 may raise the total to eight.

The age mix is capped as well: without a second caregiver, a provider may have no more than three children under 1 year of age, or four children under 2 with no more than two of them under 1.

Once a home crosses the center threshold — six or more children under 13 attending less than 24 hours a day, with children who live in the home not counted — the registration framework no longer covers it and the home needs a child care center license under N.J.A.C. 3A:52.

The registration manual sets four baselines.

A family child care provider must be at least 18 years old and must live in the home.

Applicants and alternate providers attend 8 hours of pre-service training provided by the sponsoring organization.

Providers also need current CPR and first aid certification, and that training must include an in-person learning component.

Renewal adds 20 hours of in-service training over each three-year registration period, excluding first aid and CPR.

Our research did not confirm an education or experience minimum beyond these baselines in the sections of N.J.A.C. 3A:54 we read, so ask your county sponsoring organization whether anything else applies to your application.

Two layers of checks are in play.

The state layer is the registration manual: household members 14 and older are covered by Child Abuse Record Information (CARI) checks.

The federal layer is the CCDF rules in 45 CFR 98.43, which require a comprehensive background check for every child care staff member of a licensed, regulated or registered provider; in a family child care home, any household member age 18 or older counts as a child care staff member.

That 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 lived in during the past 5 years, and it must be 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 require each state to publish its background-check policies online, so the New Jersey Department of Children and Families' site is the authority on how the state takes a request.

Our research into the family child care registration manual did not record the inspection steps a sponsoring organization performs before a registration is issued or during its three-year term.

Family child care registration runs through the county sponsoring organizations under N.J.A.C. 3A:54, and the New Jersey Department of Children and Families publishes the registration manual, so their guidance is the authority on what an inspection of your home covers.

Registration runs through the county sponsoring organization, which handles family child care registration under N.J.A.C. 3A:54.

The registration fee is $25, and a registration lasts three years.

Renewal requires 20 hours of in-service training over the three-year period, excluding first aid and CPR training.

Our research did not capture a published processing timeline or the application steps themselves, so the sponsoring organization is where to confirm what to submit and how long it takes.

The manual's capacity rules are written around a second caregiver: without one, a provider may have no more than three children under 1, or four children under 2 with no more than two of them under 1.

If your assistant will also serve as your alternate provider, they attend the same 8 hours of pre-service training as the applicant.

On the federal side, 45 CFR 98.43 requires the comprehensive background check for every child care staff member of a registered provider, so an assistant you hire needs it: the check must be requested before they start and repeated at least once every 5 years, and a new hire may start work with a qualifying result on either the FBI fingerprint check or the in-state fingerprint criminal check, supervised at all times by a fully checked staff member until every component is complete.

Our research did not record qualification rules for a hired assistant beyond these, so confirm current requirements with your county sponsoring organization before you post the job.

The family child care registration rules in N.J.A.C. 3A:54 took effect January 19, 2024, and the center manual that applies once a home crosses six children, N.J.A.C. 3A:52, took effect December 20, 2023 and expires December 20, 2030.

Our research did not record what changed from earlier versions of either manual, so check the Department of Children and Families site for the current text.