What Are the Home Daycare License Requirements in Rhode Island?

Rhode Island sets the threshold in statute: under Rhode Island General Laws 42-12.5-2, a family daycare home is a home caring for four or more children who are not relatives of the caregiver, and that definition is the licensing threshold.

Once the children you care for who are not related to you reach four, you are operating a family daycare home as the state defines it.

Our research did not establish a registration or exemption scheme for homes below that line, so ask the Department of Human Services how it treats a smaller group before you open.

The 2026 Family Child Care Home regulation recognizes two licensed home types.

A family child care home is a licensed residence where the resident can care for up to 6 children alone, or up to 12 children with one or more approved assistants.

A group family child care home serves up to 12 children with approved assistants.

Working alone, a provider may have no more than 6 children, no more than 2 under 18 months, and only 4 children if all of them are under 3 years old.

Rhode Island's statute and the 2026 regulation state different lower bounds for the group tier, so this page describes the group home as up to 12 children with an approved assistant rather than quoting either lower bound.

A family child care provider must be at least 21 years old and complete a high school diploma or GED, DHS orientation, pre-service training, pediatric CPR and first aid, and a comprehensive background check before licensure; the rule requires the initial CPR training in person.

In addition, family child care providers and full-time assistants complete 12 hours of professional development per calendar year, 4 of them in health and safety.

To run a group family child care home, the provider needs an associate degree in early childhood education or a related field, a Family Child Care CDA issued by the Council for Professional Recognition, or 2 years as a licensed Rhode Island family child care provider in good standing.

Rhode Island comprehensive background checks run before duties and every 5 years, and they include the Rhode Island child abuse and neglect registry, FBI fingerprints, a state BCI check, state and national sex offender registries, and interstate checks for anyone who lived outside Rhode Island in the past 5 years; the provider completes this check before licensure.

Federal CCDF rules set the floor beneath the state check: every child care staff member of a licensed, regulated or registered provider needs 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.

DHS also publishes the Attorney General's office waiver of comprehensive fingerprint fees for child care staff with an employer affidavit, running from May 5, 2021 through September 30, 2027.

Before licensure you complete DHS orientation and pre-service training, and the comprehensive background check is finished before you take on duties.

What our research did not establish is the inspection itself: the sources we read do not detail pre-licensing or ongoing home visits for Rhode Island family child care homes, who conducts them, or what they cover.

The Department of Human Services administers the Family Child Care Home regulation and can tell you what inspection applies to the home you are planning.

The application fee is set by statute: $100 for a family daycare home and $250 for a group family daycare home; the same statute sets $500 for a child daycare center.

A family daycare home certificate is valid two years, and new programs begin with a 6-month provisional license.

Our research did not capture the application steps or forms for a family child care home, so treat DHS as the authority on how to file and on current processing times.

On background-check costs, DHS publishes the Attorney General's office waiver of comprehensive fingerprint fees for child care staff through September 30, 2027.

An approved assistant is what raises your capacity: with one or more approved assistants a family child care home may care for up to 12 children, against 6 alone.

The regulation requires 12 hours of professional development per calendar year from providers and full-time assistants alike, 4 of them in health and safety, and comprehensive background checks run before duties and repeat every 5 years.

Federal CCDF rules add that a new hire may start once either fingerprint check returns a qualifying result, but must be supervised at all times by a fully checked staff member until every component of the check is complete.

Our research did not extract separate qualification minimums for family child care assistants, so ask DHS what its approval of an assistant requires.

Effective August 9, 2026, the Rhode Island Department of Human Services repealed the separate Group Family Child Care Home regulation and folded group homes into the Family Child Care Home Regulations for Licensure, so one home rule now covers both tiers.

The old rule remains online as a repeal notice; the current Family Child Care Home regulation governs.

The statute and the regulation also state different lower bounds for the group tier, which is why this page describes the group home as up to 12 children with an approved assistant.