How to Start a Daycare in District of Columbia: Licensing Steps, Costs and Staffing

The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) licenses child development facilities — the rule's term covering homes and centers alike — under 5-A DCMR Chapter 1, Child Development Facilities: Licensing.

The current rulebook is a comprehensive rewrite that took effect December 2, 2016, and OSSE amended its staff qualification sections effective August 1, 2025.

OSSE's Division of Early Learning administers the chapter.

Where this page and the current rulebook disagree, the rulebook governs, so confirm each requirement with OSSE before you rely on it.

The child count and the setting decide your license.

A Child Development Home may be licensed to care for up to 6 children, with the caregiver's own children aged 6 and older not counted, within limits.

An Expanded Child Development Home uses 2 or more caregivers for up to 12 children.

A center is the non-residential option, serving more than 12 children.

Professional development hours differ by type: center staff complete at least 21 hours a year, Child Development Home caregivers and staff 12 hours, and Expanded Home caregivers and staff 15 hours.

A Child Development Home caregiver must be at least 18, live in the home, and hold an associate degree in ECE or related routes or a current CDA, and in a Child Development Home or Expanded Home a resident 18 or older is treated as a staff member for background-check purposes.

The fee section of the rulebook charges each applicant an application and pre-licensure inspection fee and sets an initial license at a 3-year duration.

That indicates a pre-licensure inspection is part of initial licensure, though our research did not capture how OSSE schedules or conducts it.

Staffing paperwork starts before opening day, because criminal background checks — fingerprints in an FBI-approved format — are required before someone becomes a staff member, repeated at least once every 3 years, and a new hire may work while results are pending only if supervised at all times by someone with a qualifying check.

Our research did not capture the full application packet or OSSE's current processing times; confirm the sequence and paperwork with OSSE's Division of Early Learning.

A center director needs a bachelor's degree or higher in early childhood or a related major (or 12 ECE credits in another major) plus at least 1 year of supervised experience in a licensed center.

Directors complete at least 12 hours of OSSE-approved professional development before or within 1 year of starting, then annually, must be on site during peak hours, and hand off when absent to an authorized representative.

Teachers must be at least 18 with an associate or higher degree in early childhood or a related major, or another degree or 60 credits with at least 12 ECE credits plus 1 year of supervised experience; a CDA route lets a teacher start while enrolled, with 4 years to finish, extendable to 6 with continuous enrollment or an OSSE-approved hardship.

Assistant teachers must be at least 18 with 60 college credits, an associate degree, a CDA, or a high school diploma plus a CDA within 2 years of hire.

All staff hold current first aid and CPR certification, with at least 2 certified staff on site at all times, pre-service health and safety training within 30 days of hire, and PDIS registration and participation for paid caregiving employees.

Center ratios under 5-A DCMR 121 run 1:4 for children 0 to 24 months with a maximum group of 8, 1:4 at 24 to 30 months with a group of 12, 1:8 at 30 to 48 months with a group of 16, and 1:10 at 48 to 60 months with a group of 20.

Out-of-school-time groups are staffed at 1:12 for children under 6 (group 24) and 1:15 for 6 and older (group 30).

The ratios must be met at all times, including non-peak hours, nap and rest periods and in vehicles during transport, so coverage for naps and trips belongs inside the schedule.

In the homes, staffing depends on how many children are under 2: with one child under 2 and up to 11 older children a home is staffed at 1:6 for a maximum of 12, and with 3 or 4 children under 2 it runs 1:3 with at least 2 caregivers.

The fee schedule in 5-A DCMR 108 charges each applicant a $75 application and pre-licensure inspection fee, then the license fee: $225 for a 3-year home or expanded home license, and for centers $600 for 1 to 50 children, $900 for 51 to 100, $1,200 for 101 to 175 and $1,500 for a capacity over 175 children.

Licenses run for 3 years, and the same fee schedule applies on renewal.

Two cautions belong in your budget: these figures come from the 2016 final rule, so confirm the current schedule with OSSE before you write the check, and our research captured no DC figures for the larger startup lines — buildings or home renovations, equipment, insurance and payroll while you wait to open.

DC's big workforce lever is the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund, created in 2021 and run by OSSE to move educator pay toward parity with K-12.

Since FY24 it has paid participating licensed facilities that agree to pay eligible educators at least OSSE's minimum salaries by role and highest credential; participation is voluntary for child development facilities, and the October 2024 Pay Scales Emergency Amendment Act adjusted those minimum salaries.

The fund's early years show its scale: in FY22 eligible educators received one-time payments of up to $14,000 and in FY23 up to four payments of up to $3,500 each, with more than $80 million going to over 4,000 educators.

The current minimum salary amounts were not verified in our research, so ask OSSE for the current scales before building a pay plan around participation.

Two more checkpoints for a new operator: DC's QRIS, Capital Quality, rates licensed programs each year, with ratings appearing on My Child Care DC, and DC is not on the T.E.A.C.H.

Early Childhood National Center's list of state programs, so there is no T.E.A.C.H. program route to offer recruits; our research also did not confirm OSSE-funded scholarship or apprenticeship programs.

Two recent changes matter when you compare checklists.

OSSE amended the staff qualification sections effective August 1, 2025, and the amended text includes continuous service certifications: teachers, assistant teachers and home caregivers who held the role on December 20, 2023 and have served continuously for 10 years can apply to OSSE for a certification that waives the education requirements, and directors who held the role on December 2, 2016 after continuously serving since December 2, 2006 or earlier can do the same for the degree requirement.

Separately, a proposed rulemaking covering the whole chapter was published in May 2024; our research saw final amendments only to the staff qualification sections, so the ratio and fee figures on this page come from the 2016 rulebook text.

Confirm the sections you rely on with OSSE.