A home programme is licensed as a home, not as a small centre. That changes who gets background-checked, which rooms are inspected, and what your insurance has to say. Here is the list that reflects it.

Licence, registration, or exempt

Most states run at least two tiers for home care: a smaller one that is registered or certified with a lighter touch, and a larger one that is fully licensed with ratios and inspections. The line between them is a head count, and your own children usually count toward it.

There is also a licence-exempt category, and it is narrower than people assume. Caring for the children of one other family is often exempt; caring for three unrelated children usually is not. Check the threshold before you accept the third family, not after.

Your own children count

In most states, children who live in the home and are under the licensed age count toward your capacity. A provider with two toddlers of their own has already used part of the licence.

The household is part of the application

Everyone who lives in the home and is over a set age is background-checked, and so is anyone who is regularly present — a partner who visits daily, an adult child who comes home at weekends. This surprises applicants more than any other item on the list.

Pets are the second household question. Vaccination records are usually required, and a dog that cannot be around small children has to be genuinely separated, not just supervised.

Room by room

The inspection covers every space children can reach, plus the exits from it. Gates on stairs, covers on outlets, cords cut short, medicines and cleaning products locked, water heater turned down, and a working alarm on every level.

The sleeping space is its own item. Cot or crib spacing rules apply in a home exactly as they do in a centre, and a bedroom that fits four cots on paper may not fit them with the aisles the rule requires.

Two ways out of the space children use.
Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, one per level, tested with the test logged.
Firearms locked and ammunition stored separately, where firearms are present at all.
Outdoor space fenced with a self-latching gate.

The insurance gap

A standard homeowner or renter policy generally does not cover a business run from the home, and several exclude child care by name. The claim you cannot afford is the one that arrives after an injury in a programme your insurer did not know about.

Ask your carrier in writing whether family child care is covered, and if the answer is no or unclear, buy a policy that says it is. Some states require proof of coverage as part of the licence.

Home daycare license checklist

Deciding what you need

The household

The rooms children use

Running it

Licence, registration, or exempt

The household is part of the application

Room by room

The insurance gap

Sources