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

Utah child care centers are licensed by Child Care Licensing (CCL) in the Office of Licensing, within the Division of Licensing and Background Checks, under the Utah Department of Health and Human Services — Utah Admin.

Code R381-100.

Family child care runs on separate rule chapters that still carry R430 numbers: R430-90 for licensed family child care and R430-50 for residential certificate child care.

A center license is required for care of five or more unrelated children, for compensation, outside the provider's or child's home, less than 24 hours a day, on an ongoing basis of four or more weeks a year.

Utah's rules sort home and center care into three credentials.

Residential certificate child care (R430-50) covers eight or fewer qualifying children in the provider's home, or up to ten when the provider's own children are counted.

Licensed family child care (R430-90) is required for care in the provider's home of nine or more unrelated children, four or more hours a day, on a regular basis; any home caring for more than ten children under 13, related or not, must be licensed.

A child care center license (R381-100) is required for care of five or more unrelated children, for compensation, outside the provider's or child's home, less than 24 hours a day, on an ongoing basis of four or more weeks a year.

Below the home tiers, a provider who is not required to be certified but provides care must care for no more than two children under 3 and register with OL to facilitate a background check.

Our research captured Utah's licensing prerequisites, but not a step-by-step account of the Office of Licensing's application or inspection process; ask CCL what your license type should expect.

The rules do fix several pre-opening requirements.

Center caregivers must complete OL's 2½-hour preservice training before working with children, and licensed family providers must complete OL's new provider training.

Background checks run through the Office of Background Processing (OBP) — under the center rule, household members aged 12–17 need an OBP check and those 18 and older need one that includes fingerprints.

A licensed family home must have at least 35 square feet of indoor space and 40 square feet of outdoor space per child.

Applicants pay fees for each program category when they apply and again at renewal.

A Utah center director must be at least 21 and hold one approved credential: a CDA or Certified Childcare Professional (or OL-approved equivalent), a National Administrator Credential with 60 training hours, a bachelor's degree with 60 hours of child development coursework or training, 12 college credit hours in child development, or an associate degree in early childhood or a related field — no minimum years of experience is set.

Directors complete 20 hours of annual training and OL's new director training within 60 working days, and must be on duty at least 20 hours a week during operating hours.

A designee aged 18 or older with first aid/CPR and designee training covers the director's absence.

Center caregivers can be 16 or older, need no diploma or college, pass an OBP background check, take the 2½-hour preservice training before working with children, and complete 20 hours of training a year.

At least one staff member with current pediatric first aid and CPR must be present at the facility, on offsite activities and in vehicles.

Volunteers 16 and older and registered high school or college child care student interns can count in ratio.

Center staffing runs on the R381-100-10 table: infants 0–11 months are staffed at 1:4 in groups of up to 8, two-year-olds at 1:8 in groups of 16, four-year-olds at 1:15 in groups of 30, and children 5 and older at 1:20 in groups of 40.

Utah requires two caregivers whenever the only group on site has more than eight children or more than two infants or toddlers.

The ratio may double at nap time only if every child is at least 18 months, all are resting and the supervising caregiver can reach another caregiver without leaving.

In a licensed family home, one caregiver covers up to 8 children and two cover 9–16; with children under 2, the rule is one caregiver per three under-2s and no more than two children under 18 months per caregiver.

Utah license applicants pay fees for each program category, and renewal requests and fees must be submitted at least 30 days before the license expires.

The dollar amounts were not found in R380-600 or R381-100, the two rule chapters behind this page; our research notes that fees are likely set in a Department of Health and Human Services fee schedule, so ask CCL for the current amounts for your category before you budget.

Our research did not capture an Office of Licensing processing time for a first license, and it found no Utah startup-cost figures for facility, insurance, equipment or payroll — the 30-day deadline in the rule is a renewal deadline, not a licensing one.

Plan those costs from your own business case and confirm the fee schedule with CCL.

Utah's quality system is the Child Care Quality System (CCQS), run by the Department of Workforce Services Office of Child Care, with four certified rating levels: Foundation of Quality, Building Quality, High Quality and High Quality Plus.

Programs serving subsidy children are rated; others participate voluntarily.

Programs rated High Quality or High Quality Plus may receive a monthly Enhanced Subsidy Grant; our research did not confirm its amount.

The Utah Registry for Professional Development runs a 12-level Career Ladder through Care About Childcare, from 30 hours of basic training to a doctorate.

T.E.A.C.H.

Utah, run by Utah AEYC, covers 90% of tuition for early childhood associate and bachelor's degrees plus a $75 travel stipend, up to $250 per semester for books and $300 yearly bonuses on contract completion; bachelor's funding requires a completed associate degree.

The Office of Child Care offers Certified Childcare Professional scholarships up to $350 for the credential and $50 for renewal for staff working 15 or more hours a week in an eligible licensed program.

Our research did not confirm a startup grant for new operators; ask the Office of Child Care and CCL.