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

Delaware child care is licensed by the Office of Child Care Licensing (OCCL), which now sits under Title 14, the Department of Education.

Center rules are 14 DE Admin.

Code 933, DELACARE: Regulations for Early Care and Education and School-Age Centers, which replaced the former 9 DE Admin.

Code 101.

A licensed early care and education center is any program serving 13 or more children, counting children related to the licensee; family child care homes of up to 12 children license under the companion home rules.

Operators starting a home daycare in Delaware choose among three family child care tiers: Level I homes may have up to 5 or 6 children depending on ages, Level II homes up to 9, and large family child care homes up to 12.

At 13 or more children — counting children related to the licensee — the program is an early care and education center instead.

Family child care licensing does not apply to care given only to the provider's own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or stepchildren.

In the home tiers, household members, staff and adult volunteers must be fingerprinted for state (SBI) and FBI checks before joining the household or program — or, for a household member who turns 18 while living there, within 5 days of that birthday.

Delaware center applicants start at OCCL's information session and orientation, which cover the application process and the regulations.

The application then goes in with blueprints, an emergency plan, a business plan and a deed or lease, and OCCL conducts a pre-licensing visit.

Our research captured those steps but not a step-by-step account of the visit itself or a processing timeline; ask OCCL what to expect for your site.

The application and inspection steps for a family child care home were not captured either; ask OCCL what applies to a home.

Delaware calls the director an early childhood administrator: at least 21, with at least an associate or bachelor's degree including 15 credits across child development, curriculum, social-emotional development and observation/assessment, plus 12 months of experience.

A center also needs an early childhood curriculum coordinator, 20 or older; one person may do both only with an associate degree in centers of 60 or fewer children, or an approved plan.

The administrator or coordinator must be on site at least 60% of operating hours, the administrator at least 20 hours a week.

Lead classroom roles are early childhood teachers 18 and up.

Every hire is fingerprinted for state and FBI checks before starting, and may not be alone with children until the Criminal History Unit reviews the comprehensive background check and finds them eligible.

Staff scheduled 25 or more hours weekly complete 18 clock hours of training a year, including at least 2 in health or safety; those under 25 hours complete 9.

All staff except aides earn first aid and CPR certification within two months of hire; at least one certified staff member must be present whenever children are, and qualifications go into Delaware First within 60 days of hire.

Delaware sets center ratios and group sizes by age: infants under 12 months at 1:4 with a maximum group of 8, and 4-year-olds at 1:12 in groups of up to 24, with school-age groups at 1:15.

Centers must also keep a 1:4 ratio of early childhood teachers to assistant teachers, caregivers, interns and aides.

In a mixed-age room, the ratio and group size follow the youngest child present.

No Delaware child care license application fee was found in the center and family child care rules we read — ask OCCL to confirm the current fee schedule before you budget.

Our research did not capture a processing timeline for a Delaware license either; for a center, the fixed sequence is the information session and orientation, the application with blueprints, an emergency plan, a business plan and a deed or lease, and then the pre-licensing visit.

Facility, equipment and payroll costs were not established in our research; work them up in a business plan, which a center application already requires.

Delaware educator and program funding in our research runs through the state's Quality Improvement System.

The state still calls the system Delaware Stars for Early Success and describes it as voluntary; the revised FY27 system is organized around three Quality Indicators with Key Practices and is run by the Department of Education's Office of Early Learning with the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood (DIEEC).

A program needs a Quality Improvement Plan co-created with a DIEEC specialist before it can apply for Quality Improvement Award funds, and FY27 award budgets must put at least 80% toward staff bonuses, salary increases or wage differentials.

Under the FY27 guide, educators you hire in a licensed program can also draw completion incentives: $1,000 for a CDA and $10,000 for an associate or bachelor's degree after 6 months of continued employment.

Our research did not identify a startup-specific grant for new Delaware centers or homes; ask OCCL and DIEEC what a new program can access.