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Home Daycare License Requirements by State
Every U.S. state licenses home daycares differently — a different capacity limit, different age-by-age ratios, different training hours, a different application path. Pick your state below for exactly what it requires in 2026, sourced and dated. Then build your prep packet free.
AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
What a “home daycare license” actually is
Caring for other people’s children in your own home is a regulated activity in every state we cover. The credential has a different name almost everywhere — family child care home license, family day care registration, child care home certification — but it always answers the same four questions: how many children you may have at once, who may be alone with them, what you had to prove before you opened, and what a licensor will find when they walk in. The rest is state-specific detail, and that detail is on your state’s page.
The name matters more than it looks. In 50 of the 51 states we cover the state issues a license; in 1 it does not license home providers at all and the pathway is registration instead. Searching for “how to get licensed” in a registration state sends you to the wrong forms, the wrong agency page and the wrong fee schedule — which is why each state page uses that state’s own word rather than a generic one.
The one rule that surprises almost everyone: your own children count
In 46 of the 51 states we cover, the capacity rule explicitly counts children who live in the home — usually the provider’s own children under a stated age — toward the maximum. A provider who reads “six children” as “six paying children” and enrolls six while raising two toddlers of their own is over capacity from the first day, and capacity is the violation licensors find fastest, because it is visible the moment they arrive.
The counting rules are not uniform. States differ on the cut-off age at which a resident child stops counting, on whether school-age or home-schooled children in the house count, and on whether children who are merely present — not enrolled — count while care is being provided. Each state page quotes its own counting rule rather than a summary, because this is the number your whole business plan rests on.
Capacity and ratios are two different limits
Capacity is the ceiling: the largest number of children who may be in your care at one time. Ratios are the interior structure: how many of those children may be infants or under two, and at what point you must add a qualified adult. Meeting your capacity number does not mean you are compliant — most states let you reach the top of your capacity only by adding an assistant who meets the state’s own qualification rules, and most cap the number of the youngest children regardless of how many adults are present.
We publish no national average for either number, because there isn’t one worth having: the limits are written in each state’s regulation with its own age brackets and its own staffing tiers, and a nationwide figure would be wrong everywhere. Your state’s page carries its own table, cited to the regulation and dated.
What every state checks before it lets you open
The specifics differ; the shape does not. Across the 51 states we cover:
- CPR and first aid — 51 of 51. Pediatric CPR and first aid certification is required in every state we cover. It is also the requirement most often left to the end, and the one most likely to delay an application, because classes are scheduled, not instant.
- A criminal background check — 51 of 51. The check reaches beyond the applicant: states generally screen every adult who lives in the home and anyone who will be present during care. 49 of the 51 states we cover take fingerprints, and 35 run an FBI-level check on top of the state one.
- A child abuse and neglect registry check — 49 of 51. This is a separate search from the criminal record check, run against the state’s child protective services registry, and it is frequently the slowest step in the file.
- Pre-service training — 51 of 51. Every state requires some training before you may care for children, and every state requires more of it every year afterward. The hours, the approved providers and the required topics are all set state by state.
- An on-site inspection — 51 of 51. A licensor visits the actual home before approval, and in nearly every state again afterward, announced or not. The inspection covers the parts of your house children can reach, not a designated “daycare room”.
Postings and enrollment forms — the paperwork that outlives the application
Every state we cover requires two categories of paperwork that a new provider rarely plans for. First, postings: documents that must be displayed where parents can see them — typically the license or registration certificate itself, emergency and evacuation procedures, and the agency’s complaint contact. Second, enrollment forms: a file that must exist for every child on the first day of care, usually including an admission or enrollment agreement, emergency contacts and authorized pick-up, a health and immunization record, and written permissions.
These are the items an unannounced visit checks first, because they take seconds to verify and cannot be produced on the spot. Each state page lists that state’s own postings and forms so you can assemble the binder before you need it.
How to use these pages
Open your state below. Read its capacity rule first — including who counts — because it decides whether the business works at all. Then read the training section, because it is the requirement with a calendar attached and the one that sets your realistic opening date. Background checks and the inspection follow the application; postings and forms need to be ready before your first child arrives, not after.
Every rule on every state page is cited to that state’s statute, regulation or licensing agency and carries the date we last verified it. Where a state’s own rules are genuinely ambiguous, the page says so rather than inventing a number.
States we cover
| State | Max group size |
|---|---|
| Alabama | Alabama does not operate a 'group size' concept distinct from licensed capacity for home-based care. There is no rule anywhere in ch. 660-5-27 that subdivides a licensed home into groups or classrooms, no maximum-per-room figure, and no requirement to keep age bands physically separate. The binding numbers are the licence caps themselves: not more than six children in a family day care home (r. 660-5-27-.02(9); Ala. Code Sec. 38-7-2(5)), at least seven and not more than twelve in a group day care home with at least two adults present and supervising (r. 660-5-27-.02(15); Sec. 38-7-2(9); operationalised by r. .09(3)), with the infant sub-caps of three and six respectively (r. .03(7)(e); r. .09(4)). Anything above twelve children in daytime care stops being a home at all and becomes a day care centre under Ala. Code Sec. 38-7-2(4) ("Any child-care facility receiving more than 12 children for daytime care during all or part of a day"), governed by a different chapter of the Administrative Code, 660-5-26. Three practical qualifications on the phrase 'no group size': (a) the count that binds is bodies on the premises at any given time, including children on field trips and including the licensee's own pre-school-age resident children (r. .03(7)(c)); (b) the licence also fixes an AGE RANGE, and exceeding it is a violation independent of number (r. .03(7)(d)); and (c) three physical-plant ratios function as de facto size limits - 32 square feet of usable indoor floor space per licensed child (r. .04(2)(c)1), 300 square feet of fenced outdoor play area for the family tier and 600 for the group tier (r. .04(3)(a)3; r. .09(11)), and one crib, playpen, bed or cot per child who rests (r. .04(2)(d)1). A home with 150 square feet of usable child-care space cannot be licensed for six children whatever the definition says. |
| Alaska | No separate maximum-group-size cap for homes: Alaska's maximum-group-size rule (7 AAC 57.510) applies only to child care centers. A child care home or group home is limited solely by its total-capacity cap (8 and 12 respectively) with the under-30-months and nonambulatory sub-limits in 7 AAC 57.505(a)-(b). |
| Arizona | Six children present at any one time in a home facility, of whom no more than four may be in care for compensation and no more than two may be younger than age 1 unless they are a sibling group (R6-5-5220(A)(1), (2)). Arizona draws no sub-group inside that six: one provider, one group, one room within sight (R6-5-5201(24); R6-5-5203(6)(c)). The six is a ceiling on presence, not an entitlement - the operative number is whatever DES wrote on the certificate, because 'The Department shall designate on the certificate issued to the provider the total number of children to be allowed in child care at any one time' (R6-5-5206(E)), and DES may set that below four under R6-5-5220(C). Children aged 13 and over are not counted at all, except a child aged 13 or older who is a child with special needs, who is counted (R6-5-5220(A), (D)). The provider's own resident children under 13 ARE counted (CCA-1322A: 'Children in the home under the age of 13 will count in the child care ratio'). For the in-home certificate the equivalent figure is a sibling group of no more than six, all living in that home, plus the in-home provider's own children only with the client's written permission and within the same total of six (R6-5-5220(B)). A seventh child, or a fifth paid child, is not an over-ratio write-up in the ordinary sense: it puts the home outside the DES category altogether and into A.R.S. Sec. 36-897(1) group-home territory, which belongs to ADHS. |
| Arkansas | Arkansas sets NO group-size limit distinct from capacity for either home tier. Neither PUB-001 nor PUB-003 contains the words 'group size', and neither divides a home into rooms or classroom groups the way a center rulebook does. What actually bounds a home is a stack of four different instruments: (1) THE TIER CEILING — five children for any registered home (PUB-003 103.1-.3), sixteen for a licensed home (PUB-001 102.4). (2) THE CAPACITY ON THE FACE OF THE PERMIT — PUB-001 201.5: 'The home shall not exceed its licensed capacity at any time (see Regulation 801.3).' Your licensed capacity, not the sixteen in the rulebook, is the enforceable number. (3) FLOOR SPACE, licensed homes only — PUB-001 801.3, 35 usable indoor square feet per child excluding kitchens, bathrooms, hallways and closets. This is what converts sixteen from a right into an arithmetic result. (4) THE STAFF-TO-CHILD BLOCK AND ITS AGE SUB-CAPS — PUB-001 301, which regulates by adult count and by how many children under two are present rather than by group. ONE QUASI-GROUPING RULE EXISTS, AND IT IS NOT IN THE RULEBOOK. OEC's Licensing 101 Help Guide, under the critical area 'Staff/Child Ratios & Supervision', instructs that a site shall 'Not mix infants and toddlers with preschool age unless there are eight (8) or less children in care.' That is the closest thing Arkansas has to a group-composition rule for homes, it is an OEC enforcement guide rather than a numbered rule in PUB-001, and it cuts the other way from most states' group rules: it permits mixing BELOW a threshold rather than capping a group above one. Two other numbers behave like soft group limits and are worth planning around because they change what an inspector requires rather than what you may enrol: total attendance above TEN triggers fire approval when you are using the two-school-agers allowance (PUB-001 301.9), and a licensed capacity of ELEVEN or more triggers mandatory fire AND health (food service) inspections (PUB-001 301.4). |
| California | California does not set a separate 'group size' ceiling on top of the family child care home capacity: the capacity numbers of §102416.5 (8 in a Small home, 14 in a Large home, licensee's own children under 10 included) are the ceiling. |
| Colorado | 6 children on a regular family child care home licence (plus up to 2 school-age children) — 12 on a large home licence, 9 as an experienced provider, 4 or 8 in an infant/toddler home. Own children under 10 included. |
| Connecticut | There is no separate group-size rule in Connecticut family child care: the licensed capacity IS the group size. RCSA sec. 19a-87b-5(d)(1)(A) defines regular capacity as 'the maximum number of children that a provider may care for together at any one time during the year', and sec. 19a-87b-10(a) makes maintaining it a standing duty - 'The provider shall maintain the family child care home within the license capacity, and in compliance with the regulations.' Six at once, nine with an approved assistant or substitute present and assisting, plus the school age tier of three: that is the whole architecture. Three things can lower the effective number below the licence figure. Age mix, through the two-children-under-eighteen-months bar of sec. 19a-87b-5(e). Space, through sec. 19a-87b-5(d)(6), which lets the commissioner set capacity 'taking into account the indoor and outdoor space and other accommodations available for child care at the facility'; the regulation states no square-foot minimum for an ordinary family child care home - the 35 and 75 square feet per child figures come from CGS sec. 19a-87b(m) and apply only to endorsed large homes. And sec. 19a-87b-9(f)(1), 'There shall be sufficient indoor and outdoor play space to ensure appropriate activities, safety and comfort for the children at the facility', with a written alternate-outdoor-play plan required where the home has no outdoor space. Night care does not change the number: RCSA sec. 19a-87b-12 adds bed, location and sleepwear conditions for care between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. but no separate cap. |
| Delaware | THERE IS NO GROUP-SIZE RULE IN 14 DE Admin. Code 934 DISTINCT FROM CAPACITY. The chapter contains no per-room maximum, no requirement to divide children into age groups, and no separate 'group' concept at all. The only ceilings are the Section 57 and Section 68 envelopes and whatever number OCCL prints on the licence under Section 13.T ('The maximum number of children allowed to be present at any given time will be determined by the family licensee's or large family provider's experience and qualifications, the ages of the children living in the home, the amount of usable child care space, and fire marshal and zoning limitations'). Any table presenting a Delaware home-based 'group size' separate from capacity is fabricated. FOUR MECHANISMS DO THE WORK A GROUP-SIZE RULE WOULD DO ELSEWHERE. (1) THE AGE SUB-CAPS. At most 2 children under 12 months in ANY family home, Level I or Level II (Sections 57.A.1, 57.B.1, 57.C.1). At most 3 under 24 months in Level I option B (57.B.2) and at most 4 under 24 months at Level II (57.C.2). In large family homes, at most 2 infants with one adult (68.C.1), 4 with two adults (68.D.1), and an absolute ceiling of 6 infants ever (68.E, 'no more than six children under the age of 12 months may be present at any time'); at most 4 under-24-months with one adult (68.C.2) and 6 with two (68.D.2), with seven or more under-24-months forcing a third adult (68.E). (2) THE SPACE DIVISOR. 25 square feet of qualifying indoor child-use space per child in a family home licensed on or after 1 January 2009 (Section 58.B); 35 square feet per child in a large family home (Section 63); plus 50 square feet of outdoor play space per child for the maximum number using the playground at once in a large family home (Section 64.F). Both indoor rules are measured 'from wall to wall with the licensing specialist subtracting areas where furniture restricts children's movement' and both exclude bathrooms, storage, hallways and furnace rooms (large family also excludes kitchen areas). (3) THE STAFFING TRIGGERS in large family homes — seven preschoolers forces a second adult (68.D), five-or-six infants or seven-or-more under-twos forces a third (68.E). (4) THE FIRE MARSHAL AND THE LEVEL. Section 30.B: 'A licensee shall care for children on the ground level of the home or use another level only after meeting the conditions of the designated fire marshal.' Section 30.C: 'A licensee shall ensure each exit door is at least 28 inches wide.' Section 30.H: plans to the designated fire marshal on a Level I → Level II change or a move. Section 61.C: annual fire marshal inspection for large family homes. Section 16.D: OCCL and fire marshal approval before changing the rooms used for care. SLEEPING SPACE IS THE ONE PLACE THE CHAPTER TALKS ABOUT ARRANGEMENT RATHER THAN COUNT — Section 35, Sleeping Accommodations and Safe Sleep Environments, governs cribs, mats and where a child may sleep, and Section 22 requires written parent permission for 'sleeping on a mat as described in subsection 35.C.2, sleeping in another area as described in subsection 35.J.' Even there the regulation speaks of individual children, not groups. CONTRAST, so the boundary is clear: 13 or more children moves you out of 934 entirely and into 14 DE Admin. Code 933, DELACARE: Regulations for Early Care and Education and School-Age Centers, which is a different rule set with its own staffing structure. OCCL's 'Start a Child Care Business' page states the line: centres are 'child care in a commercial (non-residential) setting for thirteen or more children.' |
| District of Columbia | For homes the rule sets a maximum NUMBER OF CHILDREN ENROLLED rather than a distinct classroom 'group size': 12, 6, or 9 depending on how many children under age 2 are served and the number of caregivers (5-A DCMR §121). Distinct maximum group-size caps (e.g., 8/12/16/20) apply only to Child Development Centers, not homes. |
| Florida | Florida sets no group-size limit separate from licensed capacity for either home type, and no rule text creates one. The capacity groups of s. 402.302(8), F.S. — four infants; three infants plus others to a maximum total of six; six preschoolers all older than 12 months; or ten children with at most five preschool age and at most two of those under 12 months — and of s. 402.302(11), F.S. — eight children birth to 24 months, or twelve with no more than four under 24 months — are the group size. Handbook 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 restate them without adding any subdivision of the group, and the repeal of Rule 65C-20.009, F.A.C. (Staffing Requirements) on October 25, 2017 removed the only rule in Chapter 65C-20 that had ever carried staffing structure separately from capacity. Three qualifications matter in practice. First, household children under 13 years of age count inside the group whenever they are on the premises or on a field trip with enrolled children (ss. 402.302(8) and (11), F.S.) — the group you must manage is larger than your enrollment list. Second, the group has an internal composition rule, not just a ceiling: you must be inside ONE of the statutory groups at all times, so a change in the age mix during the day can put you over without any change in headcount. Third, one activity does impose a sub-group structure — water. Handbook 6.H fixes 1:1 for every child under three years old in or wading in water and sets mixed-group ratios by the age of the youngest child present, which effectively caps the in-water group at one child whenever an infant or toddler is present in a single-operator home. For large homes only, physical space rather than a group rule constrains the number: Handbook 7.5 requires 35 square feet of usable indoor floor space per child, excluding bedrooms unless demonstrably used as multipurpose activity rooms, and excluding kitchens, offices, laundry rooms, storage areas and hallways; Handbook 7.6.O requires a minimum of 270 square feet of usable outdoor play area on the property. Where a local licensing agency licenses (Broward, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Sarasota), its standards may be stricter, because s. 402.306(1)(a), F.S. permits local designation only where county “licensing standards meet or exceed state minimum standards.” |
| Georgia | Georgia imposes no separate "group size" limit on top of capacity for family child care learning homes — there is no rule dividing the six children into groups, no maximum number of children per adult in ordinary indoor care, and no requirement to separate age bands. The chapter's ceilings are three, and they are the same three that define capacity: (1) six unrelated children under 13 at one time, for pay or not for pay (Rule 290-2-3-.07(16) and Rule .03(k)), plus the two-children/two-one-hour-periods exception for children three and older "upon approval by the Department"; (2) twelve children under thirteen present in the home whenever Related Children or children who reside in the home are present (Rule 290-2-3-.07(17)); and (3) 35 square feet of usable floor space per child present (Rules .07(17) and .13(1)(a)), which is the constraint that actually binds first in a small house — eleven children present requires 385 square feet of usable child care floor space, and basement areas more than 25 linear feet from a window cannot be counted or used at all (Rule .13(1)(b)). The functional equivalent of a group-size rule in Georgia is Rule 290-2-3-.07(19)'s second-person trigger, which forces an additional Employee or Provisional Employee (minimum age sixteen) into the house at more than three children under 12 months, more than six children under 3 years, or more than eight children under 5 years present. That paragraph does the work a group-size table does elsewhere: it caps how many very young children one adult may hold responsibility for, by age band, without naming a ratio. Two ancillary spacing rules read like group-size rules and are not. Rule 290-2-3-.19(1)(d) governs the arrangement of sleeping equipment: "There shall be a minimum of twenty-four inch (24") corridor between each row of sleeping or resting equipment. There shall be a minimum of twelve inches (12") between each piece of sleeping or resting equipment in each row of equipment. Children shall be placed on cots and mats so that one child's head is toward another child's feet in the same row," with all equipment "arranged to avoid obstructing access to exit doors, to provide the caregivers access to each child, and to prevent children's access to cords hanging from window treatments and other hazardous objects." Rule 290-2-3-.12(8) governs table space: "There shall be table space provided for each child who is able to sit at a table unassisted. An appropriately sized chair or bench shall be provided for each child who is not an infant and who is able to use a chair or bench." Both are per-child physical standards, not group caps — but in a modest house they set the real limit on how many children can nap or eat at once, and an inspector measures them with a tape. |
| Hawaii | 6 children maximum at any one time (HAR §17-891.1-18(a)). The home never exceeds six regardless of how many adults are present; a second qualifying adult only raises the under-18-months sub-limit from two to four (§17-891.1-18(b)) — it does not raise the total above six. |
| Idaho | Idaho does not set a single fixed statewide maximum group size; the effective limit comes from the 12-point child:staff ratio (Idaho Code §39-1109) plus the license tier (family home ≤6; group facility 7-12; center 13+). Confirm any specific classroom/group-size cap with IDAPA 16.06.03. |
| Illinois | Illinois regulates total home capacity rather than a separate 'group size'. Absolute ceiling is 12 children at any one time in the home, including the provider's own children under 12 (§406.2; §406.13). No larger group is permitted regardless of staffing. |
| Indiana | Indiana does not impose a center-style 'group size' cap on child care HOMES; the binding limits are the child-to-staff ratio (470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5) and the total licensed capacity (Class I: 12 + up to 3 school-age, and never more than 15 children under age 11 present; Class II: 13–16). Numeric group-size tables apply to licensed centers, not to homes. |
| Iowa | Iowa sets no group-size limit distinct from capacity. There is no rule in 441 IAC Chapter 110 dividing children into groups, no per-room maximum, and no requirement to separate age bands; the only numeric ceilings are the category totals (441 IAC 110.13(1), 110.14(1), 110.15(1)) and the number printed on the certificate, which 441 IAC 110.6(1) makes binding: 'no greater number of children shall be received for care at any one time than the number authorized on the registration certificate.' Three things do the work a group-size rule would do elsewhere. (1) THE AGE SUB-CAPS — at most 4 children aged 24 months or under in categories A and B (3 of them 12 months or under), at most 6 under-24-month-olds in category C with two providers (441 IAC 110.13(1)'b', 110.14(1)'b', 110.15(1)'b'). (2) THE SECOND-ADULT TRIGGERS — an approved assistant aged 14+ above 8 children for more than two hours in category B (110.14(1)'e'); both providers above 8 children, and whenever four infants under 12 months are in care, in category C (110.15(1)'b','e'). (3) THE SPACE DIVISOR — 35 square feet of child-use indoor floor space and 50 square feet of outdoor space per child in categories B and C (110.14(3)'a', 110.15(3)'a'), which under Iowa Code 237A.3A(3)'b' caps authorised capacity below the category maximum whenever the house is small. Category A is exempt from the square-footage rule entirely. An emergency school closing is the one lawful way to exceed the ordinary total: up to 8 in category A, 12 in category B, 16 in category C (110.13(1)'d', 110.14(1)'d', 110.15(1)'d'), and only where each parent has given prior written approval, each extra child is one who normally attends under two hours or would otherwise be unattended or is a sibling of an enrolled child, and the provider keeps 'a written record including the date of the emergency school closing, the reason for the closing, and the number of children in care on that date' (110.6(3)). Comm. 143 p. 31 is blunt about the boundary: 'This exception does not apply for in-service days, vacations, conferences, etc.' |
| Kansas | 12 children total (Group Day Care Home, requiring a second qualified provider present unless all children are at least 5 years old); a single-provider Day Care Home is capped at 10. |
| Kentucky | Kentucky sets no separate group-size limit for a certified family child-care home. The certified home is one group and its size is the capacity rule: not more than six unrelated children at any one time and not more than ten children in total counting up to four related children (922 KAR 2:100 Section 10(4)), further capped by whatever maximum number of unrelated children is printed on your certificate (Sections 10(2) and 2(10)(a)2.b.). Inside that single group the only sizing instruments are the assistant thresholds of Section 10(3) - more than four infants including your own or related infants, or more than six children under age six including your own or related children - and the physical constraint of Section 12(12), which requires at least thirty-five square feet per child of indoor area used for child care, furnishings included, bathroom and storage area excluded. Age-banded group sizes do exist in Kentucky, but they live in the centre rule book (922 KAR 2:090 and 922 KAR 2:120), which is what governs a Type II child-care center operating in the licensee's primary residence for seven to twelve children including related children (922 KAR 2:090 Section 2(2)). Overnight and nontraditional-hours care does not create a second, larger group: Section 13(12) regulates the sleeping arrangements rather than the number, and Section 10(5) requires an assistant during the eight-hour respite that follows sixteen consecutive hours of work. |
| Louisiana | Group size and capacity are the same number in Louisiana, which is unusual and worth stating plainly to applicants who arrive expecting a two-number system. LAC 28:CLXV.309.A.15 is titled 'Group Size' and provides that 'A provider may care for a maximum of six children'; §309.A.2 states the same six as a certification condition; §309.A.16 sets the ratio at 6:1. There is no smaller sub-group requirement, no rule that infants must be separated from preschoolers, no cap on how many children under two may be in the single group, and no square-footage-per-child standard in Bulletin 139 that would bind below six. The physical constraint, such as it is, comes from outside the education rules: the Office of State Fire Marshal must inspect and approve the residence under R.S. 17:407.64(B), and its family child day care standards cover means of egress, smoke detection, extinguishers, heating equipment, window and burglar-bar restrictions, electrical and plumbing systems, sanitation and food storage. A home that cannot satisfy those standards will not be approved for six regardless of what the ratio rule permits. For a licensed early learning centre the group-size question is likewise answered by ratio rather than by a separate group cap: the LDOE ratio sheet for LAC 28:CLXI.1711.C lists only child-to-staff figures by age. |
| Maine | See capacity & ratios |
| Maryland | There is no separate group-size concept in COMAR 13A.15. The home is one group and the number is the child capacity printed on the certificate of registration, which may not exceed eight (13A.15.04.03A and D). Inside that eight, no more than four children may be younger than 2 (13A.15.04.03D), no more than two unless OCC has affirmatively approved a higher infant-toddler capacity (13A.15.04.03B), and no more than two at all if the provider also operates an approved educational program (13A.15.04.03E). Residents of the home under 6 are inside the count, and visiting children under 8 who are unaccompanied or cannot be sent home may be counted (13A.15.04.03F). Age group matters as well as number: 'a provider may enroll a child for care at the home only if the child's age group is approved for care, as indicated on the provider's current certificate of registration' (13A.15.04.02), so an eight-child capacity approved for preschoolers does not authorise an infant. Three practical limits sit underneath the number: the room used for care must be approved by the office and have 'sufficient floor area for the number and ages of the children approved for care in the home to allow the children to engage in active play without overcrowding' (13A.15.05.04A(1) and (6)); the outdoor space must be 'ample' and free from dangerous conditions (13A.15.05.05A); and rest furnishings must be individual, with a crib, portable crib or playpen for every child under 12 months (13A.15.05.06B and C). Maryland states no square-foot-per-child figure for family child care. Group size in the true sense appears only if you move to COMAR 13A.18, where 13A.18.08.03 sets maximum group sizes of 6, 9 or 12 depending on age mix. |
| Massachusetts | 10 children — the entire family child care home is the licensed group. Massachusetts sets no separate sub-group size for FCC; the home's licensed capacity (maximum 10 per 606 CMR 7.10(4), and never more than the number and qualifications of educators allow) is the group-size ceiling. |
| Michigan | Michigan sets no group-size ceiling underneath capacity for homes: the home is one group and the maximum present at one time is the licensed capacity — 6 unrelated children for a family home, 12 for a group home, 7 and 14 with approved increased capacity (R 400.1925(1), (2)) — subject to the 1:6 ratio and the infant sub-caps of R 400.1927 and R 400.1928. For a group home the consequence is arithmetic, not a separate rule: at 1:6, serving 7 to 12 children needs a second adult in ratio at all times. The building can cap you below the legal number: not less than 35 square feet per child of usable indoor floor space excluding bathrooms and storage, and only space with prior department approval for child use may be used at all (R 400.1909(1), (2)), a room counting only if available throughout the hours of operation; an outdoor play area of not less than 400 square feet for a family home and 600 for a group home (R 400.1912(2)), plus at least 2 remotely located exits for every floor level occupied by children (R 400.1947(1)). |
| Minnesota | Minnesota regulates by licensed capacity per license class rather than a separate 'group size' cap: 10 for family day care (max 6 under school age) and up to 14 for group family day care depending on the staffing option in Minn. R. 9502.0367. |
| Mississippi | SMALL HOME: 5 children to 1 staff (Rule 3.8.3). LARGE HOME: no separate classroom group-size cap — the operative limit is the whole-home licensed capacity of 12 (Rule 2.8.2); ratios by age band apply within that 12. |
| Missouri | THERE IS NO GROUP SIZE LIMIT ON A MISSOURI FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME, AND THAT IS A DELIBERATE STRUCTURAL CHOICE RATHER THAN A GAP IN THE DRAFTING. WHAT THE RULE ACTUALLY CONTAINS. 5 CSR 25-400.010(13) supplies a definition: "Group size is the maximum number of children assigned to a specific staff member or group of staff members, occupying an individual classroom or well-defined physical space within a large room." That definition then goes unused. Nowhere in 5 CSR 25-400.010 through 5 CSR 25-400.220 does any operative provision impose a group size, assign children to a specific caregiver, or require children to be divided into groups occupying defined physical spaces. The staffing rule for the tier, 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(A), is headed "Licensing Capacities and Staff/Child Ratios" and consists of one table with three columns — caregivers present, children present, and maximum children under age two — and no fourth column for group size. The word "group" appears elsewhere in the chapter only in the ordinary-language sense, as in 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)9. ("Children shall be encouraged, but not forced, to participate in group activities"), 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(C)5. (brief supervised separation "from the group" as a discipline technique), and 5 CSR 25-400.175(2)(B)3. ("individual and group activities"). WHY THE DEFINITION IS THERE ANYWAY. When child care licensing was recodified out of Title 19 and into Title 5 Division 25 effective 30 August 2021, DESE carried a single shared definitional block across the three new chapters. Compare 5 CSR 25-400.010, 5 CSR 25-500.010 and 5 CSR 25-300.010(1) and the same definitions recur nearly word for word — adult, child care, child care facility, child care staff member, group size, homeless children and youths, infant, legal entity, licensee, night, parent, premises, preschool child, school-age child. Group size is one of those shared terms. In the group-home-and-centre chapter it does real work; in the family home chapter it is inert. The correct reading of an unused definition is that it defines a term the operative rules never invoke, not that it silently imports a limit. THE FUNCTIONAL CEILING IS THE CAPACITY, AND THE CAPACITY IS TEN. Because a family child care home may be licensed for no more than ten children (5 CSR 25-400.010(11) and 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(A)), the largest possible undivided group in a Missouri family home is ten. In practice it is smaller, and it is smaller for reasons that have nothing to do with a group size rule: thirty-five square feet of qualifying indoor floor space per child under 5 CSR 25-400.085(2)(B)1., seventy-five square feet of outdoor play area per child under 5 CSR 25-400.085(3)(A)2., the under-two column of the ratio table, the Division of Fire Safety's capacity-specific annual inspection under 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A), and the six-hour one-third trough imposed by 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(B). Ten children in one room with one adult is lawful in Missouri provided no more than two of them are under two and the room measures at least three hundred fifty qualifying square feet. WHAT REPLACES GROUP SIZE — SUPERVISION RULES THAT ARE WRITTEN AS PROXIMITY RULES. Missouri regulates the family home not by carving children into groups but by keeping the adult close. 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)1.: "Child care providers shall not leave any child without competent adult supervision." 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)2.: "The provider or an assistant personally shall admit each child upon arrival and personally shall dismiss each child upon departure. Children shall be dismissed only to the parent(s), guardian, legal custodian, or to the individual(s) approved by the parent(s), guardian, or legal custodian." 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)3.: "Caregivers shall provide frequent, direct contact so children are not routinely left unobserved on the premises." 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)4.: "Children under three (3) shall be supervised and assisted while in the bathroom." 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)5.: "Caregivers shall check on the children frequently during napping or sleeping and shall remain in close enough proximity to the children to be able to hear them if they have difficulty during napping or when they awaken. Home monitors or commercial devices marketed to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) shall not be used in place of supervision while children are napping or sleeping." 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)6.: "If children are napped with no caregiver in the room, the door to the room cannot be closed." 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)7.: "All children shall nap on the same floor and a caregiver shall remain on the floor where children are napping at all times." 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(D)1.: "Infants and toddlers shall have constant care and supervision." Nighttime care adds its own proximity standard rather than a group size. 5 CSR 25-400.145(2)(F): "During sleeping hours, the provider or assistant(s) shall be in close proximity to sleeping areas in order to respond to children needing attention. Close proximity means that the provider shall be close enough to the children to be able to hear any sounds they might make that would indicate a need for assistance." The same defined phrase governs care of an ill child under 5 CSR 25-400.185(2)(H): "The caregiver shall be in close proximity to the child until the parent(s) arrives. Close proximity means that a caregiver is close enough to hear any sounds a child might make that would indicate a need for assistance." Missouri's chosen instrument in the family home is audibility, not partitioning. THE ONE PLACE MISSOURI DOES SET GROUP SIZE, FOR CONTRAST. It is the other chapter. 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(A), as amended by a rule filed 7 June 2023 and effective 30 January 2024, sets a "Maximum Group Size" column alongside the minimum staff/child ratio: 8 for infants, toddlers and two-year-olds taken together at 1:4; 16 for groups composed solely of children twenty-four to thirty-six months at 1:8; 20 for groups composed solely of three- and four-year-olds at 1:10; 32 for groups composed solely of children five years or older at 1:16; 20 for a Type 1 mixed group (no more than four children aged twenty-four to thirty-six months plus at least one child older than thirty-six months) at 1:10; and 16 for a Type 2 mixed group (more than four children aged twenty-four to thirty-six months plus at least one older child) at 1:8. That chapter then supplies the exceptions the family home chapter has no need for, because it has no group size to except from: 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(B), multiple groups may share the same physical space in a group child care home licensed for a maximum of four infants/toddlers or a centre licensed for a maximum of twenty children including no more than four infants/toddlers; 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(C), ratio need not be maintained inside the napping area for children two and older although group size still applies and ratio must be maintained on the premises; 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(D), group size does not apply during outdoor play, indoor gross motor activities in a gymnasium or multi-purpose room, meals, field trips, and special events including guest speakers, assemblies and celebrations; 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(E), group size does not apply during transport; 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(F), multiple groups may share space in programmes licensed exclusively for school-age children; and 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(G), outdoor ratios may be one and one-half times the indoor ratios where no child two or under is in the outdoor play space. THE PRACTICAL UPSHOT FOR AN APPLICANT. Do not go looking for a Missouri group size number for a family child care home, and be sceptical of any summary that supplies one — the number it supplies will almost certainly have been lifted from 5 CSR 25-500.112, which governs group child care homes and centres, not family child care homes. The correct answer is that the family home tier has no group size limit at all; the binding constraints are the licensed capacity of ten, the ratio table's under-two column, the two square-footage rules, and a set of supervision rules that require the caregiver to be able to see or hear every child rather than to sort them into groups. The absence is meaningful: it is what makes a ten-child single-adult Missouri family home lawful in the first place, and it is also why the state compensates with a comparatively tight infant column and an unusually strict set of napping and proximity rules. |
| Montana | For a registered family or group facility the operative limit is the registered CAPACITY — 8 and 15 — not a separate group-size cap. "Group size" is defined as the number of children in a defined space or intentionally grouped around an activity (ARM 37.96.101(15)), but the numeric maximums of 12, 12, 16, 20 and 40, and the duty to maintain group sizes except at mealtimes, outdoor play, rest periods and large group activities, sit in ARM 37.96.106(2), the subsection addressed to child care centers and licensed drop-in facilities; the 40-child group in 37.96.106(4) belongs to licensed school-age providers. The family and group subsection, 37.96.106(5), sets ratios and an under-two limit and says nothing about group size. What actually pulls a home below its category ceiling is space: 35 square feet of usable indoor floor space per child present in a room at one time, still required when play and sleep share a room except during large group activities and while children are on rest equipment (ARM 37.96.407(1), (3)); 75 square feet of outdoor play space per child using it (37.96.408(1)); and the ban on using third stories of private homes (37.96.407(9)). |
| Nebraska | No separate group-size cap distinct from licensed capacity for family homes; the licensed capacity (8 for FCCH I, 12 for FCCH II) is the ceiling and the 391 NAC 1-006.08B/2-006.08B ratio tables govern the age mix within it. |
| Nevada | For home-based care the license capacity is the ceiling: family home = 6, group home = 12. Nevada does not set a separate 'group size' cap distinct from the licensed capacity for family/group homes (the caregiver-ratio limits in NAC 432A.534/432A.536 govern); separate group-size caps exist only for centers/institutions. |
| New Hampshire | NH does not set a separate 'group size' distinct from the home's total license capacity: 6 children (family day care home) or 12 children (family group day care home), subject to the age sub-caps in He-C 4002.34(n) and (q). |
| New Jersey | No separate group-size rule: the group IS the home. Five children at any one time, or eight under the resident-children exception of §6.1(b) — with the age sub-caps of §6.2(a) applying inside that number. |
| New Mexico | 12 children — the group child care home cap; a family child care home is capped at 6. New Mexico sets no separate 'group size' subdivision within a licensed home beyond these overall capacity limits. |
| New York | New York does not impose a separate "maximum group size" on home-based care on top of capacity. In the home-based Parts, capacity IS the group — a family day care home and a group family day care home are single-group settings by definition, and neither Part 416 nor Part 417 contains a grouping section analogous to the centre-based tables. The operative ceilings, therefore, are: Registered family day care home — six children, or seven to eight where no more than six are below school age and OCFS has inspected for the extension (18 NYCRR Sec. 413.2(b)(2) and (b)(2)(ii); SSL Sec. 390(1)(e)). Licensed group family day care home — twelve children of all ages, plus up to four additional school-age children served only outside school hours, i.e. sixteen present at one time (Sec. 413.2(b)(3); SSL Sec. 390(1)(d)). Grandfathered multi-programme residence — ten per group family day care home within the residence, and twenty across all homes in the residence (Sec. 416.15(a)(8) / Sec. 417.15(a)(8)). Small day care center, for the non-residential three-to-six case that people mistake for a home — six when all children are at least two; five when any child under two is present; and never more than two children under two at one time (Sec. 413.2(b)(5)(iii)-(v)). And, controlling all of the above for any individual programme, the number printed on the instrument: Sec. 417.15(a)(9) / Sec. 416.15(a)(9) — "The number and age range of children specified thereon are the maximum number and age range of children who may be in the care of the [group] family day care home at any one time." The one place New York does speak about group size in a way that touches homes is indirectly, through the definition of "shift" at Sec. 413.2(d)(17): "Shift means an eight to ten hour period during which care is provided to a group of enrolled children." A programme approved for one shift and running a second, differently-composed group of children later in the day is operating an unapproved shift, and Sec. 417.15(b)(2)-(3) requires prior written OCFS approval for it. Capacity is measured "at any one time," so a second shift does not add capacity — it adds an approval requirement. |
| North Carolina | There is no separate group-size ceiling underneath the family child care home capacity: the whole home is one group cared for by one operator, and the 8 / 9 / 10 configurations of G.S. 110-91(7)b are the maximum. The maximum group sizes published in G.S. 110-91(7)a and in the center ratio rules apply to child care centers, not to homes. Two limits can nevertheless cut the number below the statutory maximum: a local zoning ordinance or an HOA covenant (DCDEE states it follows the local zoning ordinance when setting a home's licensed capacity), and the physical structure — the DCDEE Family Child Care Home Handbook states that a home in a single-wide manufactured home is limited to five children, of whom no more than three may be preschool-age and no more than two of those three may be two years old or younger. |
| North Dakota | FAMILY CHILD CARE: no more than seven children at any one time, plus up to two additional school-age children (children at least five and under twelve) - a functional maximum of nine bodies under the roof at any single instant, with the provider's own children under twelve counted in that nine. Authorities: NDCC 50-11.1-02(7) (definition of the licence); NDCC 50-11.1-02(26) ('school-age children' = at least five, less than twelve); NDCC 50-11.1-02.1(1)-(2) (all children present under twelve are counted; only the provider's own child, foster child or grandchild over eleven is exempt); NDAC 75-03-08-09(1) ("the number of children physically in care... at any given time, rather than total enrollment"). There is NO separate 'maximum group size' concept at the family tier - no sub-group cap, no room cap, no infant-cluster cap. The licensed capacity IS the group size. That is not true one tier up: group child care under NDAC 75-03-09-09(2)(b)(7) caps a mixed-age group at four children under eighteen months per staff member, and centres under NDAC 75-03-10-08 carry explicit maximum group sizes of 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 40 by age band. The mix inside the nine is constrained only by the licence-trigger arithmetic in NDCC 50-11.1-03(1): a family home running six or seven children through age eleven may include "no more than three children under twenty-four months of age," while a home serving four or more children twenty-four months and under is on the other statutory branch entirely. Two further ceilings can bite before the ninth child does. First, space: NDAC 75-03-08-14(1) requires "a minimum of thirty-five square feet [3.25 square meters] of space per child indoors," excluding bathrooms, pantries, exit passageways, furniture footprints and any space children may not occupy - 315 net square feet for nine children - plus 75 square feet of outdoor play space per child unless the provider supplies 75 square feet of separate indoor recreation space per child instead (and see NDCC 50-11.1-19, which forbids the department from requiring outdoor space where indoor recreation space suffices). Second, developmental age: NDAC 75-03-08-09(2) requires that a child with special needs be counted at "the child's developmental age level," which can convert a school-age add-on slot back into an ordinary slot. GROUP CHILD CARE extends the same residence to "at least eight and no more than thirty children at any one time" (NDCC 50-11.1-03(2); definition at 50-11.1-02(9), "thirty or fewer children"), subject to the decimal staffing table in NDAC 75-03-09-09(2)(b) and to 35 sq ft indoor / 75 sq ft outdoor per child under NDAC 75-03-09-19. The Legislative Council's September 2025 memorandum adds the brake the state rules do not contain: group providers may serve up to thirty "depending on local ordinance." More than thirty at any one time requires a child care centre licence (NDCC 50-11.1-03(3)). |
| Ohio | Ohio's group size ceiling is the same number as the capacity ceiling: seven children at one time in a type B home, fourteen in a type A home, counted per OAC 5180:2-13-18(B) (all children under six present in the home, including the provider's own, plus the related and publicly funded categories listed above), and always subject to the license capacity written on the license, which may be lower than the statutory maximum. Each group must have a tracking method carrying each child's name and date of birth, kept with the group at all times including outdoor play, evacuations and when groups are combined (OAC 5180:2-13-18(C)(2)). |
| Oklahoma | There is no group-size rule in Oklahoma family child care that is distinct from capacity. The home is one group and the number is seven, or twelve in a large home (OAC 340:110-3-84(a)(1); 340:110-3-97.1(d)). Nothing in Part 5 requires age-banded groups, assigns a group to a caregiver, or sets a per-room maximum; the sizing instrument is the combination list of 340:110-3-84(b) and 340:110-3-97.1(f), a ceiling on the whole house at one moment, "on or off of the premises" (340:110-3-84(a)). Four things pull the effective number below the licensed one. Household children, foster children 12 and younger and the assistant's or substitute's children occupy places inside the ceiling (340:110-3-84(a)(2)). Space caps it - 35 square feet indoors per child excluding hallways, bathrooms, kitchen and nap-only rooms, and 75 square feet of outdoor play area per child (340:110-3-86(a)(2), (12)). Age mix caps it, through the under-2 limits in the combination lists. And building geometry caps it: no care, including naptime, for children 3 and younger above ground level, and no care above the second storey (340:110-3-97(b)(3), (4)). One expansion exists rather than a restriction: "Additional staff provisions are made for enrollment of children with disabilities requiring individual attention" (340:110-3-84(d)) - extra adults, not extra children. |
| Oregon | Oregon sets NO group-size number distinct from capacity and ratio in either home regime — there is no rule in OAR 414-210 or 414-360 that caps a 'group' the way center rules in other states do. For the REGISTERED home the binding numbers are the capacity sub-caps themselves: 10 total, of which at most 6 are preschool-age or younger and at most 2 are under 24 months, plus up to 4 school-age (OAR 414-210-0400(1),(2)). Since one provider may lawfully hold that whole mix, 'group size' and 'capacity' are the same number in an RF home. For the CERTIFIED home the binding number is the licensed capacity written on the certificate, which is itself derived from floor area: 'A certified family child care's licensed capacity is based on the home's indoor activity area' and 'A provider must not exceed the licensed capacity at any time, including the total number of children in care both at and away from the child care home' (OAR 414-360-0800(1),(4)), with 35 sq ft per child up to 12 children and 50 sq ft per child for each of the four children above 12 (414-360-0800(5)). Staffing for whatever total is present then comes from Table A under 414-360-0400(4), or 1:15 if every child is school-age (414-360-0400(5)). The only true 'grouping' constraints in the rules are about mixing ages, not counting heads: a CF provider must have a written plan when infants share space with older children — 'If infants are in care and sharing the same activity area as older children, a provider must have a written plan that addresses how caregivers will ensure safety of infants who are not yet crawling. The plan must be implemented when infants that are not yet crawling share the same activity area as older children' (OAR 414-360-0400(7)) — and the RF/CF supervision rules force physical presence outdoors with under-36-month children (414-210-0500(1)(d); 414-360-0500(3)). One more capacity-shaped condition that is enforceable like a group-size cap: 'A provider must comply with the conditions of the registration when admitting children, including, but not limited to, capacity, hours of operation, age range, and special conditions' (OAR 414-210-0150(1)). Exceeding licensed capacity is expressly a SERIOUS violation — the definition of serious violation includes '(b) There are more children in care than allowed by licensed capacity' (OAR 414-210-0100(46)) — which matters because a serious valid complaint must be POSTED for parents for 12 months (414-210-0260(1)(b)) and carries a civil penalty up to $750 per violation (414-210-1620(3)). |
| Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania sets no separate group-size ceiling for family child care homes on top of the facility caps. The ceiling is the § 3290.51 limit of six unrelated children at any one time, bounded further by the § 3290.52 limits of five infants and toddlers and two infants at any one time (both counted across related and unrelated children). |
| Rhode Island | Twelve, with no separate group-size subdivision beneath it. A Rhode Island family child care home is one mixed-age group in a residence, so licensed capacity IS group size: capacity is 'the maximum number of children permitted to be in a licensed Family Child Care Home at any one time' (218-RICR-70-00-2.1.4(A)(2)) and 2.3.6(B)(1) forbids exceeding it at any time. What functions as a group-size control instead is the stack of sub-caps — six with no assistant on site, eight with one, twelve only as a Group Family Child Care Home, and inside each the under-eighteen-months limit of two, four or eight (2.3.4(B)(1)-(4)). Four constraints can hold the real number below twelve: measured space, at 35 square feet of usable floor space per child fixed by a DHS visit (2.3.1(F)(1)); local zoning, built into the GFCCH definition itself (2.1.4(A)(8)); the fee tier, since R.I. Gen. Laws 42-12.5-5 prices a group family daycare home application at $250 against $100 for a family daycare home; and the physical layout, because children may be cared for in a basement only if all areas are less than fifty percent below ground level per the building inspector and there are two exits, one of them a door leading directly outside — bulkheads and overhead garage doors are expressly not acceptable exits — and a basement may not be used for sleeping unless the fire marshal has approved the space in a life safety inspection (2.3.1(F)(2)). |
| South Carolina | Family Child Care Home: 6 (the home's total capacity is the group). Group Child Care Home: 12. South Carolina does not set separate per-room group-size limits for home-based care beyond these total-capacity caps. |
| South Dakota | There is no separate group-size number for a registered family day care home. The chapter's group-size rule is captioned and drafted for other programs — 'Group size -- Center and school-age programs. Maximum group sizes are determined by individual room capacity and all space used must be approved for care by the department' (ARSD 67:42:17:19) — and the family day care rule is a single combined provision, 'Supervision, ratios and group size -- Family day care' (ARSD 67:42:17:23), which sets only the twelve-child total plus the under-two and under-one sub-caps. So in practice the effective ceiling is: the number printed on the registration certificate (SDCL 26-6-15), never more than twelve at any one time counting the provider's own children under six (ARSD 67:42:17:23; SDCL 26-6-14.1), plus at most two additional school-age or emergency children under SDCL 26-6-15.1 who must still be counted in the ratios. Nothing in chapter 67:42:17 requires a registered home to divide children into groups, to separate age groups, or to get room capacity approved: the plan-approval duty of ARSD 67:42:17:02 falls on 'a center or school-age program' only. |
| Tennessee | IN TENNESSEE, 'GROUP SIZE' AND 'CAPACITY' ARE THE SAME NUMBER FOR A HOME — THERE IS NO SEPARATE CLASSROOM-GROUP CAP UNDER .20 OR .21. The chapter uses the phrase 'ratios and group size' as a couplet (e.g. .21(1)(a)1, .21(1)(a)4, .05(12)(c)), and the group home chart at .21(1)(b) is captioned 'Group Home Ratio and Group Size Chart' — the same table serves both functions. So the operative maxima are: FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME — SEVEN CHILDREN present at any one time (.20(1)(c)1), rising to TWELVE only where every child above the seventh is related to the primary educator, and reduced by whatever licensed capacity the Department has designated under .02(32) and .20(2)(b). GROUP CHILD CARE HOME — TWELVE CHILDREN present (.21(1)(a)2), rising to FIFTEEN only where the agency is 'approved for three (3) additional school-agers' (.02(26)) and the three extras are school-age children in before/after-school, school-holiday, snow-day or summer care (.21(1)(a)2(i)(II)). The group chart itself prints the constraint inside every row: '(any number over twelve (12) must be school-age)'. THE ONE TRUE SUB-GROUPING RULE IN THE HOME CHAPTERS is the infant/toddler split at .21(1)(d): 'If four (4) or more infants/toddlers attend a group child care home, they shall have a separate and distinct space and their own educator. 1. The space shall provide thirty (30) square feet per child. 2. Barriers shall be sufficient to provide separation without isolating children.' Three infants/toddlers may be mixed into the main group; the fourth forces a physically separate space with a dedicated adult. There is no equivalent provision in .20 — a family child care home is not required to sub-divide, which is consistent with its seven-child ceiling. THE TEN PERCENT VARIANCE APPLIES TO GROUP SIZE AS WELL AS TO RATIO (.21(1)(a)4) — 'up to ten percent (10%), rounded to the nearest whole number, no more frequently than three (3) days per week' — but never above licensed capacity, and 'Infant and toddler groups may never exceed the required ratios and group sizes' (.21(1)(a)4(ii)). Family child care homes get no variance. GROUP SIZE IS A POSTED FACT, NOT A PRIVATE ONE. Rule .05(12)(c): 'Required adult:child ratios and group size shall be posted in every classroom.' In a home, 'every classroom' means every space in which children are cared for. AND THE DOWNWARD SWITCH IS AUTOMATIC. .21(1)(e): 'If attendance drops to seven (7) or fewer children, family child care home ratios apply.' A group home that empties out in the late afternoon is governed, in that hour, by Chart One — which is what permits a single educator to close the day alone. |
| Texas | 12 children at any one time, in every home permit type and at every staffing level (§747.1605; §747.1803 states the two-caregiver maximum group size as 12; §747.1805 confirms 12 with three or more caregivers). Texas therefore has no separate 'group size' ceiling layered on top of capacity the way center rules sometimes do — the 12 of §747.1605 is both the capacity and the group size, and it counts children who are off-premises on a field trip or in a vehicle. |
| Utah | Residential Certificate: effectively 8 children in care with one caregiver (up to 10 including the provider's own). Licensed Family: up to 16 children in care with two caregivers, with no more than 24 children total present in the home (R430-90-10, Table 2); with a single caregiver the cap is 8 in care and 12 total present (Table 1). |
| Vermont | Vermont sets a HOME-WIDE limit, not a per-group or per-room limit: the whole point of the family child care rules is that the licensed space is a residence, and rules 6.2.1.1 and 6.2.2.1 both count 'all children present and unaccompanied by a parent at the FCCH' as one population. REGISTERED FCCH: ten children at any one time under Option 1 (Year Round Care), twelve during summer school vacation under Option 2, per rule 6.2.1.2 — "At no time shall the total number of children in care exceed ten (10) during Option one (1): Year Round Care or twelve (12) children for Option two (2): Summer Vacation" — with the twelve reachable only in the six-plus-six configuration of rule 6.2.1.7 and only with two staff. LICENSED FCCH: whatever number the Division has written on the certificate, capped by the charts at twelve; rule 6.2.2.2 states the certificate rule and rule 2.3.10.1.1 requires the posted licence of licensed programs to display "The maximum number of children who may be served at one (1) time; and The ages of the children who may be served." The practical ceiling by staffing in the licensed tier is: one staff = 6 (or 8 if every child is 3-12 and none is under 3); two staff = 12, but only with four or fewer children under twenty-four months; three staff = 12 with as many as six under twenty-four months. Age sub-caps ride on top of the totals and are the real constraint for infant care: a registered home with one adult may hold no more than two children under twenty-four months in a mixed group (three if the entire group is under twenty-four months); with two adults, four in a mixed group and five or six if the whole group is under twenty-four months; a licensed home needs three staff before it may hold six children under twenty-four months. Changing either the number or the ages served is not a unilateral act: rule 2.3.11 requires prior notice to the Division of "a change in the number of children the FCCH serves at any one (1) time" and of "a change in the ages of children the FCCH serves," after which "The Division shall determine whether it will be possible to modify a current license, approve a time limited variance or whether the FCCP must submit an application for a new license." Exceeding the number is defined by rule 2.2.44 as a SERIOUS VIOLATION, which triggers the mailed Parental Notification Letter of rule 2.8.2 and, under 33 V.S.A. § 151(3), exposes the licence to suspension where children are immediately imperilled. One caution for anyone comparing Vermont to its neighbours: the number that appears in national comparison tables for Vermont — commonly '10' — is the registered Option 1 figure and silently omits the summer twelve, the certificate-driven licensed tier and every age sub-cap in the five charts. |
| Virginia | Total of 12 children maximum at any one time (licensed capacity, 8VAC20-800-40), with the number of caregivers required governed by the 16-points-per-caregiver system of 8VAC20-800-570. Virginia's family day home standards express group size through licensed capacity + the point system rather than a separate 'group size' cap. |
| Washington | The license caps total children on the premises at the licensed capacity (12 standard; up to 16 by waiver). Specialized birth-to-24-month license: maximum group size of 8 with two staff present (WAC 110-300-0355). Any child birth through 12 on the premises, signed in, on an off-site trip, or being transported counts toward capacity, including the children of staff. |
| West Virginia | No separate group-size limit beyond the home capacity itself: 6 children under age 13 at one time (no more than 2 under 24 months) for a registered Family Child Care Home (78 CSR 19 §6.6.a). A licensed Family Child Care Facility may serve up to 12, with a two-staff requirement once more than 6 children (or more than 2 under 24 months) are present (78 CSR 18 §7.1.a). |
| Wisconsin | There is no age-banded group size in family child care as there is in a group center. The whole center is one group and 12 is the number (DCF 250.055 (2) (a)), counting all children under 7 including the provider's own and all children 7 and over who are not the provider's own. Within that ceiling the only sizing instrument is the weight arithmetic of DCF 250.055 (2) (b) and Table DCF 250.055, capped by the statutory bar in s. 48.67 (2m), Stats., on more than 2 providers at one time. Three things lower the effective number: space (35 square feet of usable indoor floor space per child and 75 square feet of outdoor play space per child based on licensed capacity, DCF 250.06 (1) (b) 1. and (11) (b) 2.); age mix (the 4-under-18-months and 8-under-18-months stops of DCF 250.055 (2) (c)); and the level of the house (par. (d)). During night care, care between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. under DCF 250.03 (21), the same ratios and group sizes apply, and where the same premises serve both day and night care the number of children during any overlap may not exceed licensed capacity (DCF 250.10 (2)). |
| Wyoming | Set by the Ch.11 §2(b) ratio table per age band, not a single statewide number: infants max group 10 (3 staff), one-year-olds 12, two-year-olds 18, 3–4-year-olds 30, school age 40. A Family Child Care Home cannot exceed 10 children total. |
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