What Are the Home Daycare License Requirements in Vermont?
Vermont requires your home daycare to be registered or licensed once you care for children from more than two families other than your own.
The Department for Children and Families' Child Development Division (DCF/CDD) oversees both home tiers: a registered family child care home for up to 10 children year-round (12 under the summer-vacation option) and a licensed home for up to 12 with staffing charts.
Below: the license threshold, capacity, provider qualifications, household background checks, inspection, fees and hiring an assistant.
Verify before you rely on this
At a glance
Vermont's Department for Children and Families (DCF), Child Development Division (CDD), which registers and licenses family child care homes.
When you care for children from more than two families other than your own; registration or licensing is required from that point.
Two tiers: a registered family child care home and a licensed family child care home.
Registered homes may serve up to 10 children year-round (12 under the summer-vacation option); licensed homes up to 12 children.
Registered home providers must be at least 18 with a high school diploma or GED.
Not established in our research — ask the licensing agency.
Not established in our research — ask the licensing agency.
Home child care license types in Vermont
- Care from two or fewer other familiesLicense-exempt
Vermont's registration and licensing requirement attaches at care for children from more than two families other than your own.
- Registered family child care homeRegistration
The first tier: up to 10 children total year-round or 12 under the summer-vacation option, with the provider present and counted in ratio at least 60% of operating hours.
- Licensed family child care homeLicense
The larger tier: up to 12 children with staffing charts allowing up to 6 children under 24 months with three staff, under a higher provider qualification bar.
Do you need a license to run a home daycare in Vermont?
Vermont keys the requirement to the number of families you serve, not to a child count: anyone providing care for children from more than two families other than their own must be registered or licensed by DCF/CDD.
Caring for children from two or fewer other families sits outside that requirement.
Once you cross the threshold, Vermont's two home tiers — registered and licensed — set your capacity, staffing and qualification rules; the sections below walk through each.
“A person providing care for children from more than two (2) families other than their own must be registered or licensed in accord with these regulations.”
What license types and capacity limits apply to Vermont home daycares?
Vermont has two home-based tiers.
A registered family child care home may serve up to 10 children total year-round, or 12 under the summer-vacation option.
A licensed family child care home may serve up to 12 children, with staffing charts allowing up to 6 children under 24 months when three staff are on hand.
The registered tier also carries a presence rule: the registered provider must be present and counted in ratio at least 60% of operating hours.
In a registered home, your own household affects the arithmetic: the registered provider's own children under 24 months count toward the home's under-24-month limit.
“At no time shall the total number of children in care exceed ten (10) during Option one (1): Year Round Care or twelve (12) children for Option two (2): Summer Vacation.”
What qualifications and training does a Vermont home daycare provider need?
The qualification bar rises with the tier.
A registered home provider must be at least 18 with a high school diploma or GED, and before or within 12 months of licensure must hold one of: Vermont Early Childhood Career Ladder Level 1 or higher, the Fundamentals for Early Childhood Professionals course, a CDA, a CCV Child Care Certificate, or 12 college credits in core knowledge areas.
A licensed (larger) home provider needs more: Career Ladder Level 2 or 3A, a CDA plus 12 months, a CCV Child Care Certificate plus 12 months, a Vermont Registered Child Care Apprenticeship certificate, or 12 core-knowledge credits.
Our research did not confirm a separate annual training-hour total for Vermont family child care homes, so confirm ongoing training expectations with DCF/CDD.
What background checks do you and your household need in Vermont?
Federal CCDF rules set the floor Vermont's registered and licensed homes sit under: every child care staff member of a licensed, regulated or registered provider must have a comprehensive background check.
In a family child care home, any household member age 18 or older counts as a child care staff member who needs the check.
The comprehensive check includes 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.
Checks are requested before the person becomes a staff member and repeated at least once every 5 years.
The Vermont fingerprint mechanics our research verified appear in the center-based rulebook — new staff submit a Records Check Authorization and are fingerprinted at a Division-designated location, and no one may be left alone with children until the Division approves the fingerprint-based check — so confirm the family child care rulebook's parallel process with DCF/CDD.
What are the home inspection requirements for a Vermont family child care home?
DCF/CDD registers and licenses Vermont family child care homes, but the rule sections and agency pages we read do not lay out the on-site inspection steps: whether a pre-licensing visit is required, what it covers, or which premises standards a home is checked against.
Our research did not confirm them, so treat any secondhand checklist with care.
Ask DCF/CDD what its review of your home involves before you apply.
How do you apply, and what are the fees and timeline?
Our research did not confirm Vermont's family child care registration or license fees, or a processing timeline for applications; the fee question was still open when the state's rules were checked.
Application steps, current amounts and processing times are things to confirm directly with DCF/CDD before you submit anything.
For the background check component, federal rules require states to complete a request as quickly as possible and within 45 days of submission.
What are the rules for hiring a home daycare assistant in Vermont?
The staffing clue in Vermont's rules sits in the licensed tier: a licensed home's staffing charts allow up to 6 children under 24 months when three staff are on hand; ask DCF/CDD at what enrollment and age mix the charts require additional staff.
A registered home keeps its own presence duty — the registered provider must be present and counted in ratio at least 60% of operating hours.
The family child care rule sections we read do not spell out Vermont-specific qualification or training requirements for a home daycare assistant; ask DCF/CDD what applies to yours.
Federal law sets one hiring floor: the background check must be requested before the person becomes a staff member, and a new hire may start work once they have 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.
Are Vermont's home daycare rules changing?
The rulebook transition our research verified is in Vermont's center-based rules.
The Child Development Division changed its center-based rulebook by memo effective October 1, 2024, to meet federal CCDF rules, and a full rule rewrite was in draft as of late 2025; CDD's proposed-rules page listed no final proposed rules when our research checked.
The memo work we verified covers the center-based book, so confirm the current family child care requirements with DCF/CDD before you apply.
What This Page Does, and Doesn’t, Cover
This page summarizes the Vermont licensing rules, agency pages and other sources listed below, as read for this state-by-state home daycare license requirements series, current as of October 2026. It is not a substitute for the instructions the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF), Child Development Division (CDD) publishes. For the rest of the picture in Vermont, see daycare licensing steps in Vermont.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many kids can you watch without a license in Vermont?
Vermont keys the requirement to families, not a child count: care for children from more than two families other than your own must be registered or licensed with DCF/CDD.
Capacity then depends on the tier — a registered family child care home serves up to 10 children year-round or 12 under the summer-vacation option, and a licensed home up to 12.
What is the difference between a registered and a licensed family child care home in Vermont?
Registered homes cap at 10 children year-round or 12 in the summer-vacation option; licensed homes at 12 with staffing charts.
Qualifications rise with the tier: registered providers need Vermont Early Childhood Career Ladder Level 1 or higher, Fundamentals for Early Childhood Professionals, a CDA, a CCV Child Care Certificate or 12 college credits in core knowledge areas; licensed providers need Level 2 or 3A, a CDA plus 12 months, a CCV Certificate plus 12 months, an apprenticeship certificate or 12 core-knowledge credits.
Registered providers must also be present and counted in ratio at least 60% of operating hours.
Do my own children count against my Vermont home daycare capacity?
The rule our research verified is narrow: in a registered home, the provider's own children under 24 months count toward the home's under-24-month limit.
Capacity overall depends on the tier — up to 10 children year-round for a registered home or 12 under the summer-vacation option, and up to 12 for a licensed home.
Ask DCF/CDD how your full household counts before you set enrollment.
How much does a Vermont home daycare license cost?
Our research did not confirm Vermont's family child care registration or license fees, or a processing timeline for applications.
Vermont publishes its family child care requirements through DCF/CDD, so ask the division for current amounts before you apply.
For the background check component, federal rules cap what a state may charge at the actual cost of processing and administration.
Does a Vermont home daycare provider need annual training hours?
We did not confirm an annual training-hour total for Vermont's family child care homes in the rule sections we read.
What the rule does set is the qualification clock: a registered provider must hold a qualifying credential before or within 12 months of licensure, and licensed providers carry the higher bar listed above.
Ask DCF/CDD what ongoing hours apply to your home.
More Vermont Resources
Sources
- Vermont family child care licensing regulations (Vermont DCF Child Development Division) (retrieved 2026-10-05)
- Vermont CBCCPP licensing regulations (Vermont DCF Child Development Division) (retrieved 2026-10-05)
- CDD memo on CBCCPP rule changes (Vermont DCF Child Development Division) (retrieved 2026-10-05)
- eCFR — Federal background check requirements for child care staff (retrieved 2026-10-05)
Sourced from the documents listed above. Verified October 2026. This is career and employer information, not licensing or legal advice. Confirm current rules with the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF), Child Development Division (CDD).