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

Massachusetts licenses child care through the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC).

The licensing rules sit in 606 CMR 7.00, which covers family child care, small group and school age, and large group and school age child care programs, together with the background record check rules in 606 CMR 14.00.

The licensing requirements on this page are EEC's, so confirm current rules with EEC before you budget, hire or sign a lease.

The category you choose decides the rules that follow.

Massachusetts family child care is temporary custody and care in a private residence for no more than ten children younger than 14, or younger than 16 with special needs.

A small group and school age child care program serves ten or fewer children outside a private residence.

A large group and school age child care program — the category most people mean by a daycare center — regularly receives more than ten children who are unrelated to their caregivers and are under 14.

All three are licensed by EEC under the same chapter, so a home daycare and a center answer to the same agency even though their capacity, staffing and qualification rules differ.

Massachusetts applicants work through EEC, and the rule sets the renewal rhythm in writing: renewal applications and any required fee must be filed at least 30 days before the current license expires, together with a renewal meeting approved by EEC.

Background record checks under 606 CMR 14.00 name the checks group and school age child care candidates must complete: CORI, DCF, SORI, the national sex offender registry, a fingerprint-based check and all out-of-state checks CCDBG mandates.

Ask EEC what the background record check covers for a family child care applicant and household.

What our research did not capture is EEC's current application checklist, its inspection sequence or a processing timeline; ask EEC what your program type should expect and in what order.

Every licensee must designate in writing a Program Administrator with overall responsibility for operations.

In a center, directors build on the lead teacher qualification: Director I adds six months of experience after lead-teacher qualification plus at least two credits (or three CEUs) in child care administration and two more in another category, and Director II adds at least two additional credits or three CEUs in specified categories.

Lead teachers must be at least 21 — one route is a high school diploma, 12 credits in at least four categories of study and 36 months of experience.

Center teachers must be at least 21 or hold a high school diploma, meeting one of three routes: three credits in child growth and development plus nine months of work experience or one practicum, a CDA, or an approved two-year high school vocational ECE program.

Center assistant teachers (at least 16, or a high school diploma or equivalent) work at all times under the direct supervision of at least a teacher-qualified staff person.

All educators register with EEC yearly; center educators owe five, 12 or 20 professional development hours a year by hours worked and basic first aid certification within six months of employment.

Massachusetts sets center ratios and maximum group sizes together.

Infants up to 15 months are staffed at 1:3 in groups of no more than 7, toddlers 15 to 33 months at 1:4 in groups of up to 9, and preschoolers at 1:10 full day (1:12 half day) in groups of up to 20 (24 half day).

Kindergarten is staffed at 1:15 in groups of up to 30 and school age at 1:13 in groups of up to 26, and mixed-age groups follow their own table, such as an infant/toddler group capped at 9 with no more than three infants at 1:3.

Family child care is staffed by its own limits: one educator may care for six or fewer children with no more than three under age two, and nine or ten children require two educators.

We found no fee amounts in the rule we read: 606 CMR 7.00 refers only to 'the required license application fee', and our research did not find EEC's current fee schedule, so ask EEC what your program type will owe before you budget.

One deadline the rule does fix is renewal — renewal applications and any required fee are due at least 30 days before the current license expires, with a renewal meeting approved by EEC.

In family child care, a license is valid for three years from issuance.

Our research found no Massachusetts startup-cost figures and no EEC processing timeline; for scale, a September 2021 U.S. Treasury report described most for-profit child care facilities as operating on razor-thin profit margins usually below 1 percent, and — citing a Center for American Progress cost analysis — said wages make up at least 50-60 percent of child care expenses.

EEC pays monthly, non-competitive Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grants to eligible licensed providers, and the formula weighs each provider's licensed capacity and staffing levels, workforce investments and the community served.

Center-based providers are expected to spend 50 percent of C3 funds on workforce investments; that expectation does not apply to family child care providers.

For staffing, the state's Early Childhood Educators Scholarship, run by the Department of Higher Education, pays $750 per credit at UMass and private colleges, $550 at state universities and $350 at community colleges, and requires employment in an EEC licensed or funded program (or prospective student status), an active EEC Professional Qualifications Registry number and a signed agreement to keep working in Massachusetts early education; the 2026-2027 application opened April 1, 2026.

Massachusetts' quality rating is in transition: the QRIS pages EEC published were offline when we researched, and what we could read pointed to the QRIS being paused while EEC develops a successor called StrongStart to Program Quality — ask EEC where rating stands.

Our research did not confirm a Massachusetts startup grant for new operators; ask EEC what is currently available.