How to start a before- and after-school program

There is no single national answer, because school-age licensing is decided by each state's child care licensing agency — and a state can treat before- and after-school programs differently from full-day centers, as the two examples below show.

Where you land depends on what your program is: general supervised care, a program attached to a school, a municipal recreation program, or a single-skill class.

It can also depend on your enrollment.

Montana shows how the tiers work.

Under the state's licensing rules (ARM 37.96.102), any provider regularly serving seven or more children must be licensed or registered: child care centers must be licensed, while drop-in and school-age care facilities have the option of being licensed.

Size decides the category — family child care means 3 to 8 children, group child care 9 to 15, and a center 16 or more in an out-of-home setting.

A Montana school-age program that takes the license then runs under the licensed school-age rules, including the ratio covered below.

Texas draws the lines by program type instead.

Before- and after-school programs run directly by — or under approved contract with — an accredited educational facility are exempt from licensing, and so are municipal recreation programs for ages 5 to 13 that adopt local standards by ordinance and tell parents they are unlicensed.

A single-skill program, such as a sport or art class that gives direct instruction in one skill, is also exempt — but only if it does not advertise as child care, tells parents it is unlicensed and about physical risks, and runs DPS background checks on all staff and volunteers.

Each exemption carries its own conditions, and the conditions are part of the exemption; Texas's list does not transfer to any other state.

There is also a home-based route.

In Montana, family and group child care facilities can add before- and after-school "overlap care" with DPHHS approval: children over three only, at most three hours a day, up to four extra children in a group facility and two in a family facility, at a 10:1 ratio, with a written plan submitted to Child Care Licensing.

One federal floor sits under all of it: license-exempt does not mean rule-free once public money enters.

Under the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) rules, license-exempt providers who are paid with CCDF subsidy must still meet federal health, safety and background-check requirements — under the health and safety rules, the relatives specified in 45 CFR 98.42(c) are the main exception.

Confirm your posture in writing before you sign a lease or enroll a child. Your state child care licensing agency decides whether your program is exempt, registrable or licensed.

Describe your hours, ages, enrollment and setting, and ask which rules apply to you.

The school-age day is compressed: children arrive from school, eat a snack, do homework or quiet activities, move into active play, and leave inside a scheduled pickup window.

Plan the space around that shape — a check-in area, a spot for homework, room for large-muscle play, and storage for gear that rotates with the day.

A school building, a community center, a church hall and a dedicated room inside an existing center are all settings a part-day program can occupy; what matters to the regulator is not which one you pick but that the building meets the rules for your facility type.

Expect the licensing application to ask about the building, not just the program.

Application content varies by state and facility type; as one example, a Maryland child care center application must include zoning and building-code compliance, floor plans, a written plan of operation, workers' compensation insurance information, a fire evacuation plan, a personnel list and a staffing pattern.

Our guide to daycare building requirements covers what facilities are asked to show.

Emergency planning has a federal floor too.

The CCDF rules require states to set emergency-preparedness requirements for subsidy-receiving providers, covering evacuation, relocation, shelter-in-place and lockdown procedures, staff and volunteer training and drills, communication and reunification with families, continuity of operations, and accommodation of infants, toddlers and children with disabilities or chronic conditions (45 CFR 98.41).

Where your program sits relative to that rule depends on whether and how it takes subsidy — ask your state child care licensing agency.

Confirm capacity before you commit to a space. Your enrollment ceiling, room capacities and outdoor-space expectations come from your licensing agency's rules for your facility type — get them in writing before you sign a lease.

School-age staffing runs on its own numbers: the school-age ratios and group sizes you plan against are set by your state's child care licensing agency, and even the annual training hours can differ from a center's — in Montana, licensed school-age staff complete 8 hours of training a year where licensed center staff complete 16.

Montana's licensed school-age rule is a worked example: a maximum ratio of 20:1 for children five and over, with a maximum group size of 40 (ARM 37.96.106(4)) — a group at that 40-child maximum needs at least two staff on the floor at that ratio.

The state-by-state picture for before- and after-school programs is collected in our guide to school-age childcare ratios.

Plan the roster against who actually counts.

In Montana, volunteers must be at least 15 and need background checks only if they will have unsupervised access to children — and volunteers and support staff do not count toward ratios (ARM 37.96.913, 37.96.910).

A volunteer bench adds hands; it does not add coverage.

Qualifications, too, are state rules.

Montana sets no fixed degree, college-credit or CDA minimum for lead teachers — the qualification is a combination of education, training, other licensing or experience approved through the Practitioner Registry or by DPHHS (ARM 37.96.902(4)(f), 37.96.904(3)(g)).

What is fixed is the safety training: within 30 days of hire and before any unsupervised care, staff counted in ratio must complete hands-on infant, child and adult CPR, infant choking response and pediatric first aid — the safe-sleep and shaken-baby/abusive-head-trauma pieces apply only where a program is licensed for infants or toddlers (ARM 37.96.914(2)).

Then the recurring requirements.

Montana staff and owners working more than 500 hours a year must complete Practitioner Registry-approved training every year: 16 hours in licensed centers and registered group and family facilities, 8 hours in licensed school-age care and registered FFN care (ARM 37.96.915).

Background checks run before working and annually after, except the national components every five years — Montana DOJ and FBI fingerprints, the national and Montana sex-offender registries, and child-protective-services and name-based criminal checks for Montana and every state the person lived in during the past five years (ARM 37.96.1002).

Our employer's guide to the background-check process walks the steps.

The hiring motion itself — which roles to post first, how to screen, how to sequence checks and training against an opening date — is the territory of our guide to staffing a new program, and the role-level detail lives in how to hire a school-age teacher.

Confirm every number with your licensing agency. Ratios, group sizes, who counts toward ratio, training hours and background-check components are set by your state child care licensing agency, and they change — Montana's current rules only took effect May 1, 2025.

Think of the budget as two stacks: what government charges you and what the market charges you.

On the government side, our research did not confirm a national figure for licensing application fees or timelines — they are set state by state, so ask your agency what yours are.

As one example of how far apart states are: Montana state law says DPHHS may not charge a fee to issue a child care license or registration certificate (MCA 52-2-721(4)(b)).

Do not generalize from that — it is one state's rule.

Price insurance before you open.

Texas, for example, requires every licensed or registered child care operation to carry liability insurance of $100,000 per occurrence covering injury to children on the premises or in its care, with proof filed annually.

Our guide to daycare insurance breaks the coverage types down.

Build-out is the other early cost, and the honest answer is that it depends on the space you start from and the capacity you build to — our research did not verify a per-square-foot build-out figure from a primary source, so treat any specific number you see with suspicion.

Staffing is the cost that never leaves.

A September 2021 U.S. Treasury report, citing a Center for American Progress cost analysis, put wages at 50 to 60 percent or more of child care expenses on U.S. averages, with labor's share larger for infant care, and said most for-profit child care facilities operate on razor-thin profit margins, usually below 1 percent.

An after-school schedule changes when your staff are on the clock, not whether the program lives or dies on payroll — your busiest stretch of the day needs the whole roster on the floor, which is why the staffing section above is also a budget decision.

One federal program offsets costs directly.

Centers that participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) are reimbursed per meal at rates USDA resets each July 1; for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, the center snack rates in the contiguous states are $1.30 (free), $0.65 (reduced) and $0.12 (paid).

Whether your program qualifies, at what tier, and which meals a part-day schedule can claim is a question for the agency that administers CACFP in your state; our guide to CACFP explains how centers join.

For the full-day math — facility, equipment, insurance, staffing and enrollment working together — our guide to what it costs to start a daycare breaks the budget down line by line.

This page is employer information, not licensing or legal advice. Licensing exemptions, school-age ratios, training hours, background checks, insurance requirements and food-program rules are set and enforced by your state child care licensing agency and the agencies that administer them — confirm the current rules there before you open, hire or enroll.

Work the sequence in this order.

First, ask your state child care licensing agency — in writing — whether your program is exempt, registrable or licensed, describing your hours, ages, enrollment and setting.

Second, put the school relationships on paper before you rely on them: Texas's exemption for programs run under approved contract with an accredited educational facility shows how the agreement itself can decide your licensing posture.

Third, lock the space and confirm zoning and capacity for it.

Fourth, budget backward from staffing — wages, training time and background checks come due before revenue does.

Fifth, hire before you enroll.

Post the lead roles first, start background checks the day offers go out, and build orientation plus your state's pre-service training so both finish before the first day of enrollment — a hire who clears everything else but the training is a start date that slips.

Keep the completion records with your licensing paperwork so the roster you field matches the one you filed.

Sixth, set the operating policies before opening day: sign-in and release, pickup authorization, illness exclusions, incident documentation and your emergency plan.

Families are the program's customers, so the enrollment agreement, handbook and payment policies belong on the same list — written from your side of the desk.

And know where this model ends.

If the program grows into full-day care, you are no longer running an after-school program — the licensing, facility and staffing steps to start a daycare are their own sequence, and the school-age schedule you started with will be only one part of the day you are licensing for.