What Is Child Care Licensing?

When you’re choosing a child care program, the first step is figuring out if it has a child care license.

Child care licensing is a process where state and territory governments set minimum health and safety requirements that child care programs must meet to legally operate. These requirements help ensure your child is healthy and safe in a child care program.

Although child care licensing does not guarantee quality, it does set minimum health and safety requirements for child care programs. In addition, licensing requires that child care programs are monitored to ensure they continue to meet those requirements.

You should understand what child care licensing is to make the best child care choice for your family. Here is a quick overview of why child care licensing is important.

Licensing Ensures Minimum Health and Safety Requirements for Child Care Programs

Licensed child care programs must meet minimum health and safety requirements to legally operate.

These requirements ensure child care programs offer healthy and safe environments for your child to grow and learn. Requirements include the following:

• Criminal background check for child care staff
• Ongoing training for child care staff, such as CPR, first aid, and safe sleep for infants
• Sanitation
• Emergency planning
• Building safety
• Child and caregiver health
• Ongoing monitoring to ensure the child care program continues to meet all health and safety requirements

To learn more about these requirements, visit the following pages:

• Health and Safety Requirements
• Staff Background Checks
• Supervision: Ratios and Group Sizes
• Staff Qualifications and Required Training
• Monitoring and Inspections

Licensing Provides Safe Supervision in Child Care Programs to Support Your Child’s Learning

Licensed child care providers and their staff must meet minimum qualifications and receive ongoing training to provide appropriate care.

Licensed child care programs must ensure enough adults are present to safely supervise your child, keep them safe, and give them the attention they need.

Child care licensing also requires programs to support children’s development and learning.

You Can Report Concerns About a Licensed Child Care Program

If you have concerns about a licensed child care program or think it operates unsafely, you can file a complaint. Each state and territory has a dedicated phone line to submit such complaints. Some states and territories even allow you to submit complaints online. Child care licensing staff for your state or territory will review these complaints.

Learn how to submit a child care complaint in your state or territory by visiting the "Child Care Health and Safety Violations: State and Territory Reporting Information" page.

Learn More About How Your State or Territory Licenses Child Care Programs

Along with federal requirements, states and territories have additional child care licensing requirements that vary across the U.S.

Note: A few states use the term “registered” instead of “licensed” when referring to regulated family child care homes. To learn more about child care licensing where you live, select your state or territory and review the “Understanding and Finding Child Care” page.

Learn more about your child care options and how they may be regulated by visiting the "What Are My Child Care Options?" page.

Understand Which Programs Are Legally Exempt from Licensing

In specific cases, states and territories may exempt some child care programs from licensing. If a state or territory officially categorizes a child care program as “license-exempt,” the program doesn’t need a child care license and can still legally operate. How states and territories define a “license-exempt” program varies. Read about some examples below.

Center-Based Child Care Programs

Some states and territories do not require certain center-based child care programs to be licensed. This happens when center-based child care programs are already regulated by a government agency that differs from the agency that oversees child care licensing. Some center-based child care programs that could be legally “license exempt” include the following:

• Early childhood or school-age programs operated by public schools
• Faith-based or part-day programs, such as drop-in care or nursery schools
• Military child care programs regulated by the Department of Defense

In-Home Child Care

Some states and territories may not require certain in-home child care programs to have a license if they meet the following criteria:

• Are related to the children they care for
• Care for only a few children, as defined by the state or territory
• Provide care occasionally for only a few hours a day

In these instances, states may consider the in-home provider to be legally exempt from needing a child care license. As such, with the exception of in-home child care providers participating in the state or territory’s child care subsidy program, license-exempt in-home child care providers do not need to meet the following health and safety requirements to provide care:

• Basic health and safety requirements, including comprehensive background checks and monitoring
• Training standards, such as first aid and CPR training

Understand the Difference: Licensed, License-Exempt, or Illegal Care

Although some programs may be legally exempt from needing a child care license, you should understand the difference between these programs and those that are required to be licensed but are operating illegally without a license.

Find out if a program must be licensed—and learn how to contact your state’s or territory’s child care licensing agency—by selecting your state or territory and reviewing the “Understanding and Finding Child Care Resources” page.