What Are the Home Daycare License Requirements in Oregon?

Oregon draws the home child care line at three children.

A person does not need a license when the person provides care for three or fewer children, in addition to any children who reside with the person, or when the care is for children from only one family.

Past those exemptions, a home operates as a Registered Family Child Care home or a Certified Family Child Care home, the two programs the rest of this page describes.

Both sit under the Child Care Licensing Division (CCLD) of the Department of Early Learning and Care (DELC), the agency that licenses Oregon child care; the exemption above sits in the general rules, OAR 414-075-0250.

Oregon licenses family child care homes in two tiers under rulebooks that took effect July 1, 2025.

A Registered Family Child Care home (OAR 414-210) may care for up to 10 children, a count that includes the provider's own children age 9 and under; within that total, no more than 6 children may be preschool age or younger and only 2 may be under 24 months.

A Certified Family Child Care home (OAR 414-360) is certified for up to 16 children.

The ages of the children served therefore decide how many of a registered home's 10 spaces can be filled at once.

Requirements differ by tier.

A registered family provider must be at least 18, must be enrolled in the Central Background Registry, and must hold a current Oregon food handler certification; the same rule section also requires first aid and hands-on CPR.

A certified family provider must be at least 18, or at least 21 if the home is certified for more than 12 children, and must qualify through one of three routes: 1,500 hours of group-care experience or 20 semester (30 quarter) early childhood education credits or Oregon Registry Step 6.

The Oregon Registry Online (ORO) is the statewide database of early educators' training and education, and its Steps are written directly into Oregon's licensing qualifications.

A certified provider additionally needs 30 hours of infant-toddler training before caring for more than 2 children under 24 months, and training continues after opening: certified family providers complete 15 clock hours a year (at least 8 in child development), while registered family providers complete 10 clock hours over the 2-year license period (at least 6 in child development).

Oregon runs child care background checks through the Central Background Registry (CBR): the operator, all staff, and anyone age 18 or older with possible unsupervised access to children must be enrolled, and a person who is conditionally enrolled may work in their position but may not have unsupervised access to children until enrollment is confirmed.

Federal CCDF rules set the floor beneath the state registry: every child care staff member of a licensed, regulated or registered provider must have a comprehensive background check, and in a family child care home any household member age 18 or older counts as a child care staff member.

The federal 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, requested before a person becomes a staff member and repeated at least once every 5 years.

Oregon's two home rulebooks — registered family (OAR 414-210) and certified family (OAR 414-360) — set the capacity, provider and training rules summarized on this page.

The on-site inspection steps CCLD follows before it registers or certifies a home, and how inspection may differ between the two programs, were not detailed in the sources we read.

Ask CCLD what inspection applies to the license type and capacity you plan to serve before you apply.

Oregon sets family child care application fees in rule.

The application for a certified family child care is $25 plus $2 for each certified space and the application for a registered family home is $30.

Our research confirmed those fees but did not set out the application steps, forms or processing timeline for either program, or the renewal timing for family homes.

Treat CCLD as the authority on how to apply and on current fees.

Oregon's family child care rules name an Assistant II position, and the training rule sets an Assistant II at 15 clock hours of training a year, at least 8 of them in child development — the same annual requirement the rule sets for a certified family provider.

An adult age 18 or older who joins the home must also be enrolled in the Central Background Registry before having unsupervised access to children; a conditionally enrolled staff member may work in their position but may not have unsupervised access until enrollment is confirmed.

Federal CCDF rules add a starting-work floor: a new hire may begin once they have a qualifying result on either the FBI fingerprint check or the in-state fingerprint criminal check, but must be supervised at all times by a fully checked staff member until every component of the check is complete.

Oregon renumbered its family child care rules effective July 1, 2025: the registered family rules are now Division 210 (OAR 414-210) and the certified family rules Division 360 (OAR 414-360).

Older pages still cite the former divisions, 414-205 and 414-350, so check any rule number you see against DELC's current rulebooks.