How to Start a Daycare in California: Licensing Steps, Costs and Staffing

California licenses child care centers and family child care homes through the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Child Care Licensing Program.

The program provides oversight and enforcement for licensed child care centers and family child care homes through 21 regional offices located throughout the state.

The center rules are in Title 22, Division 12 of the California Code of Regulations.

Both settings are licensed and overseen by the same program; CDSS is also the body that issues staff criminal record clearances, and it is the agency to ask about fees.

California's licensing system covers two settings.

A family daycare home provides care in the provider's own home for 14 or fewer children: a small family daycare home serves 8 or fewer and a large family daycare home serves 7 to 14, with the provider's own children under 10 counted in both cases.

A small home may care for more than 6 and up to 8 children without an additional adult only if at least one child attends kindergarten or elementary school, a second is at least 6, no more than two infants are present, parents are notified, and a landlord consents for rented property; a large home may go above 12 only under the conditions in HSC 1597.465.

A child care center is the second license type, licensed under Title 22.

Some care is license-exempt: a home may care for the children of only one other family in addition to the operator's own children, and care by a relative does not require a license.

Cooperative parent arrangements in which no payment is made and no more than 12 children receive care at the same time, and public recreation programs, are also exempt.

CDSS Child Care Licensing works through 21 regional offices located throughout the state; for a center or family child care home application, start with the program and your regional office.

Before employment or initial presence in a California child care facility, each staff member must obtain a criminal record clearance or an exemption from CDSS; fingerprints go to the California Department of Justice and the FBI for state- and federal-level criminal record searches.

Our research could not confirm the application steps in more detail, whether a pre-licensing orientation is required, or what the agency checks before issuing a license — ask the regional office what your application requires.

Center directors must, before employment, meet one of four routes: high school diploma or GED plus 15 semester units (12 ECE core plus 3 administration/staff relations) and 4 years of teaching experience; an AA in ECE or child development, 3 admin units, and 2 years; a BA in ECE or child development, 3 admin units, and 1 year; or a Child Development Site Supervisor or Program Director Permit.

Evening or nighttime programs need their own director plus the day director.

At a center, anyone supervising employees or volunteers or providing any care and supervision, including volunteers, must be at least 18; aides under 18 must be high school graduates or occupational program enrollees.

Center teachers need at least 6 semester units of ECE or child development before employment, or a Child Development Assistant Permit.

Staff must obtain criminal record clearance or an exemption from CDSS before employment.

All center personnel, volunteers included, need a health screening with a tuberculosis test no more than one year before or seven days after employment.

At least one staff member trained in pediatric CPR and pediatric first aid must be present when children are at the center or offsite for center activities.

For preschool-age children, Title 22 sets a ratio of one teacher to 12 children; with one teacher plus one aide a preschool program can serve 15, and with one fully qualified teacher plus one qualified aide it can serve 18.

Infant care centers must keep one teacher for every four infants.

These are center ratios: a family child care home is instead limited by its capacity — up to 8 children in a small home, with more than 6 allowed without an additional adult only under the HSC 1597.44 conditions, and 7 to 14 in a large one, with more than 12 allowed only under the HSC 1597.465 conditions, counting the provider's own children under 10.

This page covers only those two center ratios; confirm the full ratio table for your license type and ages with CDSS before you set schedules.

Our research could not confirm California's application fee for a child care center or a family child care home, so this page states no dollar amount — ask CDSS Child Care Licensing or its regional offices for current fees.

A processing timeline is also not established in our research; ask the program what to expect for your application.

One cost rule is set by statute: small and large family daycare homes are a residential use by right, so cities and counties may not require a zoning permit, business license, fee or tax to operate one, and renters can qualify.

Startup costs such as facility work, equipment and insurance are not established in our research.

California's operator-facing support runs through quality and workforce programs rather than startup grants our research could identify.

Quality Counts California is a statewide system of locally implemented Quality Improvement Systems in all 58 counties, funded jointly by First 5 California, the California Department of Education and CDSS.

CDSS administers the QCC Workforce Pathways Grant, which funds workforce incentives to raise early educators' credentials and competencies — support for the staff you hire rather than a startup grant.

CDSS's LEAD office administers further quality initiatives, primarily funded with federal Child Care and Development Funds, including the California Preschool Instructional Network and Family Child Care at Its Best training.

T.E.A.C.H.

Early Childhood is not offered in California per the national center's programs-by-state page (checked October 2026), so the programs named above are the staff-education funding routes our research found.