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

Maine licenses child care centers, nursery schools and small child care facilities through the Maine DHHS Office of Child and Family Services, under 10-148 CMR Chapter 32, the Child Care Facility Licensing Rule that took effect September 27, 2021.

The same office licenses family child care homes under Chapter 33.

The license line sits low: no person or entity may operate a child care facility for more than two children without a license from the Department in force.

Whichever type fits your plan, the starting point is the same office.

The facility rule licenses three types: a Child Care Center cares for 13 or more children under 13; a nursery school provides care for 3 or more children aged 33 months to 8 years in sessions no longer than 3½ hours; and a small child care facility covers 3 to 12 children.

A small facility's primary caregiver/director must be at least 18 years old, hold adult and pediatric first aid/CPR and complete at least 6 hours of pre-licensing training.

The home route has its own rule: a Family Child Care Provider is licensed under Chapter 33 to care in their home for 3 to 12 children under 13 who are not the provider's own, and caring for more than two unrelated children is what triggers the license — up to two is license-exempt.

In a home, the provider or at least one staff member meets the same 18-plus, first aid/CPR and 6-hour pre-licensing floor, household members 18 and over need background check documentation available for licensing review, and providers and staff register with Maine's Professional Development Network and complete 12 training hours a year.

The starting anchor is in the rule: a license from the Department must be in force before you operate above two children, so the license is a precondition to operating rather than paperwork to finish after opening.

Maine attaches fees to the license itself — the rule sets the application fee for a full facility license or its biennial renewal — and the facility rule requires renewals to be filed at least 60 days before a license expires.

The pre-opening training our research captured is the 6 hours of pre-licensing training required of a small facility's primary caregiver/director and of a family child care provider or at least one staff member.

People come next: Maine's comprehensive background checks include an FBI fingerprint check, the National Sex Offender Registry and state registry checks, and a prospective staff member may not start work until they give you a Child Care Provider Letter of Eligibility showing they are eligible.

What our research did not capture is Maine's current application packet, its pre-licensing inspection visits or a processing timeline — ask OCFS for the application materials, the inspections your license type requires and a timeline before you commit to a site.

A small facility needs a primary caregiver/director 18 or older with adult and pediatric first aid/CPR and at least 6 pre-licensing training hours.

At 13 or more children the director/lead teacher must be at least 21, qualifying by capacity: at 13 to 20, a CDA plus six months' child care experience, 30 college credits with ECE coursework plus six months, or high school plus 12 months in a licensed program and 12 training hours; at 21 to 49, an ECE associate degree, credits-plus-experience, a CDA plus three years, or five years plus 135 training hours; at 50 or more, options include an ECE bachelor's, an ECE associate plus three years, seven years plus 180 training hours, or Maine Roads to Quality Career Lattice Level 5 to 8.

Staffing scales: at 13 to 20, one lead teacher, which the director can fill; above 21, one per group, and assistants may be employed to complete ratios; at 50 or more, a qualified designee in charge when the director is absent.

Unsupervised staff must be 18, hold a diploma or equivalent or be enrolled toward one, with orientation within 90 days and 12 to 30 training hours a year by size and schedule.

In a facility licensed for 13 or more children, infants from 6 weeks to 1 year are staffed at 1:4 with a maximum group size of 8 children, and the ratio loosens with age up to 1:13 for school-age children from 5 to 12; nursery schools run 1:12 in groups of up to 30 children.

Small facilities use 1:4 for children 6 weeks to 2 years, 1:8 for ages 2 to 5 and 1:12 over age 5, and family child care homes follow the same bands under Chapter 33 with their own multi-provider maxima.

In facilities licensed for 13 or more children, mixed groups take the youngest child's ratio and group size, one staff member may hold six or fewer children for up to one hour at opening and closing, and two staff must be present whenever seven or more children are present.

Under the facility rule, ratios hold during nap: monitors may supervise an adjacent nap room, but sleeping children are checked in person at least every 30 minutes.

Maine prices facility licenses the same at both sizes — 3 to 12 children and 13 or more: $120 for a provisional or temporary license and $240 for a full license or its biennial renewal.

Family child care licenses run on their own schedule: $80 for a provisional license, $10 for a temporary or revised license and $160 for a full license or biennial renewal.

The facility rule requires renewals to be filed at least 60 days before a license expires; ask OCFS to confirm the renewal window for a family child care license.

Beyond the license fees, our research did not capture a processing timeline for a first Maine license or startup costs such as build-out, equipment and insurance — ask OCFS for the current fee schedule before you budget, and price the rest from your own site and staffing plan.

Our research did not confirm a Maine startup grant for new daycare operators — ask OCFS and Maine's child care resource agencies what is open when you apply.

What the state does run: Maine Roads to Quality, the professional development network your whole staff must register with, is the training and registry backbone you will hire against.

Rising Stars for ME is Maine's quality rating and improvement system, and participation is mandatory for licensed programs — a new license starts at Star 2.

On staff-side money, Maine's ECE Workforce Salary Supplement paid monthly stipends by Maine Roads to Quality Registry level as of the October 2026 DHHS page — $240 for Tier 1 (Levels 1–4), $360 for Tier 2 (Levels 5–6) and $540 for Tier 3 (Levels 7–8) — to eligible staff active in the Registry who completed state health and safety training within 90 days of hire.

And T.E.A.C.H.

Early Childhood Maine, run by Maine AEYC, funds ECE coursework including a current associate-degree scholarship; most scholarships require employer sponsorship, earnings under $25 an hour ($30 for directors) and 30 or more hours a week in a licensed facility or family child care home.