California family child care home license: small (8) or large (14) home

One other family is where the license requirement starts

A family child care home is care, protection and supervision for 14 or fewer children in the provider’s own home, for less than 24 hours a day, while parents are away.⁠¹ The Child Day Care Act does not apply to a home that cares for “the children of only one family in addition to the operator’s own children,” and it does not apply to care by a relative.⁠² CDSS puts it plainly: your own children (or a relative’s) plus one other family needs no license; non-relative children from more than one family in your home will likely need one.⁠⁹

A few other statutory exemptions can matter to home-based founders:

• An unpaid parent cooperative, where parents rotate as caregiver, no money or in-kind income changes hands, and no more than 12 children are together at once.⁠²
• A program that operates only one day a week, for no more than four hours that day.⁠²

If you fall outside these, operating without a license is a misdemeanor and carries a $200-per-day fine, according to CDSS.⁠⁹

Families sometimes confuse this license with TrustLine. TrustLine is a background-check registry for nannies and license-exempt caregivers; it is not a license to run a home child care business.⁠¹⁹ If you plan to serve more than 14 children, or to operate outside the home you live in, you need a center license instead; see /guides/california-child-care-center-license/. For a state overview, see /states/california/.

Small or large: what each license lets you do

The capacity on your license is the maximum number of children in care at any one time, and it includes your own children under 10 who live in the home. For a large home it also includes the assistant provider’s children under 10.⁠⁷ An infant is a child under two.⁠⁷

Sources: ⁠³⁠⁷⁠¹¹

The school-age rule is where homes most often trip up. For a child under 6 who counts toward the expanded capacity, Title 22 requires documentation of kindergarten or elementary enrollment and attendance, either from the school or a signed statement from the parent, obtained within 30 calendar days of the child starting school and kept in the child’s record until the child turns 6.⁠⁷ You must also keep proof that you notified parents that the home may have up to 8 (small) or 14 (large) children present.⁠⁷

A “small family home” is a different license despite the similar name: it is a residential facility in the licensee’s home giving 24-hour care to six or fewer foster children who have mental disorders or developmental or physical disabilities.⁠²²

The large-home experience rule dates to 1984 and sits in Health and Safety Code 1597.52; the regulation adds that the director may waive it on a finding of sufficient qualifying experience.⁠³⁠⁷ In practice most founders start with a small license and later apply to increase capacity, which costs $25 as a change of capacity.⁠⁴

Your home, your landlord, your HOA, your city

Chapter 3.6 of the Health and Safety Code gives family child care homes protections few states match:

• Zoning and local fees. A small or large family child care home is “a residential use of property and a use by right” for all local ordinances. A city or county may not impose a business license, fee or tax for operating one, the use is not a change of occupancy under the State Housing Law or local building codes, and CEQA review does not apply.⁠³
• Preemption. The state declares it occupies the field; local rules may not “directly or indirectly prohibit or restrict” use of a home as a family child care home. Local height, setback, health and nuisance rules still apply only if they are identical to those for other homes in the same zone.⁠³
• Where you can operate. A qualifying home includes a detached house, townhouse, a unit within a dwelling, or a unit in a covered multifamily building where zoning allows residential use, whether you own, rent or lease it. You must live there.⁠¹
• CC&Rs and deed restrictions. Any restriction in a deed, covenant or similar instrument against using the property as a family child care home is void, and an owner or manager may not refuse to rent or sell to you because you are a provider.⁠³
• Fire rules. A small home is exempt from the general State Fire Marshal facility articles but must have a fire extinguisher, smoke detector and at least one carbon monoxide detector. A large home must meet separate Title 24 fire and life safety standards covering exits and which floors care may be on, plus carbon monoxide detection, and local fire rules cannot be stricter than those standards except where they apply to all homes in the zone.⁠³

Renters have three duties. Before you open, give the landlord 30 days written notice, using form LIC 9151, and keep proof of it in the home.⁠³⁠⁷ The landlord may then require a higher security deposit, up to the legal maximum.⁠³ And to go above 6 children (small) or 12 (large), you need the owner’s written consent on LIC 9149, kept with your license.⁠⁷⁠¹¹ Owners keep proof of control of the property instead: a deed, tax statement or mortgage coupon; renters keep the lease.⁠⁷

Orientation and training come first

You cannot file an application until you have attended a CDSS orientation.⁠⁷ The family child care orientation is offered online, by live virtual session, or in person through a regional office.⁠¹⁴ As published on 2026-10-12, it costs $25 for live virtual or in-person sessions and $27.43 online ($25 plus a $2.43 processing fee), and the fee is non-refundable.⁠¹⁰ You receive a certificate on completion.⁠¹⁰

CDSS’s provider-requirements sheet lists what the licensee personally needs: be at least 18, live in the home, obtain a criminal record clearance, have a TB test, and complete 16 hours of pediatric health and safety training from an Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) approved vendor or an accredited college.⁠¹² Those 16 hours are 15 hours of pediatric first aid, pediatric CPR and preventive health practices, plus one hour of childhood nutrition for licenses issued on or after January 1, 2016.⁠⁷⁠¹⁵ Training is a condition of licensure.⁠⁷ The preventive health course must include lead exposure prevention for licenses issued on and after July 1, 2020.⁠⁵

The TB clearance must be dated no more than one year before, or seven days after, the person’s first presence in the home, and it applies to every adult in the home while children are in care.⁠⁷ You, your staff and volunteers must also be immunized against influenza, pertussis and measles, with an annual flu shot between August 1 and December 1, subject to medical exemptions and a written declination option for influenza only.⁠³

Mandated reporter training applies too. Since AB 150 (2026), the former exemption for licensees and staff with limited English proficiency is gone, and everyone must complete the training and renew it every two years.⁠¹⁵

Everyone in the house gets fingerprinted

California’s background check reaches well beyond the applicant. A criminal record clearance or exemption is required, before first presence in the home, for every adult who lives there, anyone who provides care, and any staff member, volunteer or employee who has contact with the children.⁠⁶ Narrow exceptions exist for supervised volunteers and students under 16 hours a week, volunteers who are relatives, guardians or foster parents of a child in care and are never left alone unsupervised with other children, and repair people who are never alone with children.⁠⁶

Fingerprints go through Live Scan using CDSS’s LIC 9163 form, which also requests a Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) check.⁠¹⁸ CDSS estimates about 3 days for Department of Justice results and about 5 days for FBI results when there is no criminal history, but 4 to 6 weeks for CACI.⁠¹⁸ The Live Scan operator tells you the charges at the site.⁠¹⁸ CDSS encourages applicants to create the background check in its Guardian system before fingerprinting to avoid delays, and a person with a current clearance at another CDSS-licensed child care facility may be able to transfer it.⁠¹⁰

Plan around this: an adult child, partner or roommate who has not cleared cannot be in the home during care hours, and a conviction other than an infraction means denial unless CDSS grants an exemption.⁠⁶

Applying, step by step

1. Attend orientation

   Keep the certificate; it goes with your packet.⁠¹⁰

2. Assemble the packet

   Download LIC 279 (Application for a Family Child Care Home License) and the LIC 279A application booklet, which lists every other required form.⁠¹⁰ By statute the packet includes a brief statement that you are financially secure (CDSS may not ask for more detailed financial disclosure), evidence of fire extinguisher and smoke detector compliance (small) or fire standards compliance (large), a fire escape and emergency and disaster plan, fingerprints, TB clearances, immunity evidence, employment history and character references.⁠³ Title 22 adds the ages and number of children you will serve, the name and age of everyone living in the home, and your local fire authority’s contact details.⁠⁷ From January 1, 2027, the emergency and disaster plan you submit must meet the new Health and Safety Code section 1596.868.⁠¹⁵

3. Pay and submit

   Attach a check or money order for the application fee ($73 small, $140 large, as published on 2026-10-12) and mail or hand-deliver the packet to your local Child Care Regional Office.⁠¹⁰ You receive an introductory letter with a pending facility number and the name of your Licensing Program Analyst (LPA).⁠¹⁰

4. Clear background checks

   Everyone covered must clear, including child abuse clearance for anyone who cares for or lives in the home.⁠¹⁰

5. Fix gaps

   The LPA sends a Notification of Incomplete Application if anything is missing and reviews your compliance history with any earlier facilities.⁠¹⁰

6. Large homes only: fire clearance

   The LPA requests an inspection from the local fire authority when your application arrives.⁠¹⁰

7. Pre-licensing inspection

   CDSS must do an announced site visit within 30 days of receiving all application materials, using its Compliance and Regulatory Enforcement (CARE) tool; the Pre-Licensing Readiness Guide (LIC 9217) is the checklist to prepare with.⁠³⁠¹⁰

8. Decision

   CDSS must grant or deny within 30 days after it has all materials, the home has passed the site visit, and every required person has a clearance or exemption.⁠³ An approved license is mailed to you.⁠¹⁰

CDSS does not publish a total processing time; it says timing depends on how quickly documents, clearances, any fire clearance and any alterations to the home are completed.⁠¹⁰ Failing to cooperate in completing the application is grounds for denial.⁠³

What the inspector checks in the house

Licensing reviews of family child care homes are limited by law to health and safety; CDSS does not review your curriculum.⁠³ Title 22 section 102417 sets most of the physical standards:⁠⁷

• Pools, hot tubs, spas, fixed wading pools and fish ponds made inaccessible by a fence at least 5 feet high (gate swinging away from the water, self-closing, latch within 6 inches of the top) or a locked cover strong enough to hold an adult.
• Poisons, medicines and firearms stored inaccessible, with locked storage for poisons and weapons. Trigger locks or a removed firing pin may replace locked gun storage, and ammunition is locked separately.
• Stairs fenced or barricaded where children under 5 are in care; fireplaces and open-face heaters screened; gas heaters vented and permanently installed.
• Outdoor play areas fenced or supervised, and cut off from hazards such as creeks, canals or cliffs on or next to the property.
• Working telephone service, no recalled furniture or equipment, and no baby walkers on the premises.
• A written disaster plan on a CDSS form, with fire and disaster drills at least every six months, documented. From January 1, 2027, AB 150 requires quarterly practice drills under the new emergency plan statute.⁠¹⁵
• An emergency information card and a current roster for every child.

Insurance is a California-specific choice. The home must carry liability insurance of at least $100,000 per occurrence and $300,000 aggregate, or a $300,000 bond, or instead keep a signed affidavit from every parent acknowledging that the home has no such coverage, on a CDSS form reviewed at each inspection.⁠³ If you insure and you rent or share common space with an HOA, the owner or HOA can ask to be named as additional insured at its own cost.⁠³

Fees as published on 2026-10-12

Sources: ⁠⁴⁠¹⁰⁠¹³

CDSS does not waive fees, does not take partial payments, and refunds only for a department error or a genuine overpayment. CDSS’s fee page says only annual fees can be paid online by card;⁠¹³ since AB 152 (June 29, 2026), licensees may also pay any fee or civil penalty electronically when CDSS offers it, and bear any processing or card surcharge.⁠¹⁵ Unpaid fees and civil penalties are grounds to deny or forfeit a license.⁠⁴

Running the home once licensed

The license has no expiration date. It stays in effect until it is forfeited, surrendered, suspended or revoked, and it cannot be transferred to another person or address.⁠⁷ What recurs is the annual fee, the two-year renewal of pediatric first aid and CPR, and mandated reporter retraining.⁠⁵⁠¹³⁠¹⁵

Being present. At least one licensee must be in the home during all hours of operation. Since AB 150 (effective June 29, 2026) and AB 190 (September 18, 2026), a temporary absence may not exceed 20 percent of care hours in a calendar month, and any substitute adult must first have a background clearance, the health and safety training (current first aid, CPR and preventive health cards) and the required immunizations.⁠³ Parents get written notice before an absence, or by the next business day in an emergency.⁠³⁠¹⁵ The Title 22 manual on CDSS’s site, last updated in 2022, still measures the 20 percent per day; the 2026 statute controls.⁠⁷

Inspections. By statute CDSS must inspect each home at least once every three years, conduct unannounced inspections of at least 30 percent of homes each year by random sample, inspect annually when a license is on probation or an accusation is pending, and respond to complaints.⁠³ Unannounced visits happen only during care hours and only in the parts of the home used for care or accessible to children.⁠³

Reporting. Report a child’s death, any injury needing medical treatment, or an unusual incident to CDSS by phone or fax before the close of the next working day, followed by a written report within seven days.⁠³

Penalties. An uncorrected deficiency costs $100 a day. Serious violations, such as a child left unattended or alone with someone under 18, accessible pools, accessible firearms or ammunition, or refusing entry, bring an immediate $500 plus $100 a day, and $1,000 for a repeat within 12 months. A violation causing a child’s death carries $5,000 for a small home and $7,500 for a large home.⁠³

Privacy. Since 1984, state law has barred CDSS from disclosing identifying information about small family child care homes in its public facility search; large homes are searchable by city, ZIP code and county.⁠¹⁷ As of February 2026 CDSS counted about 30,400 licensed family child care homes and 13,600 centers.⁠¹⁷

Since January 1, 2026 (AB 495), licensed homes also may not collect citizenship or immigration information about children or families except where state or federal law requires it, and must report immigration-enforcement requests for information or access to CDSS and the Attorney General.⁠¹⁶

Getting paid through subsidy programs

Most subsidized care in California reaches family child care homes through vouchers. CalWORKs Stage One (run by county welfare departments), CalWORKs Stages Two and Three, and the California Alternative Payment Program let families choose a licensed center, licensed family child care home, or license-exempt care, and the Alternative Payment Program agency pays the chosen provider directly.⁠²⁰ Licensed homes can also join a Family Child Care Home Education Network (CFCC), a consortium that holds a direct state contract for subsidized slots and provides training and quality assessments to member homes.⁠²⁰

Rates are in transition. CDSS’s Child Care and Development Division is moving subsidy rates from market rates to rates based on the cost of care, and filed its latest update on the single rate structure with the Legislature on July 30, 2026.⁠²¹ Check that page before you set private tuition against subsidy rates, because the published rate tables were not part of this review.

What changed in 2026 and what comes next

• June 29 and September 18, 2026 (AB 150, AB 152, AB 190). Temporary licensee absence capped at 20 percent per calendar month with substitute-adult rules; medication administration rules now cover all medications, not only inhaled ones; the limited-English exemption from mandated reporter training removed; electronic signatures and electronic fee payments allowed.⁠¹⁵
• January 1, 2027. Every home must have an emergency and disaster plan meeting Health and Safety Code 1596.868, train staff and volunteers on it, run quarterly drills, update it annually, and applicants must submit it with the application.⁠¹⁵
• October 1, 2027. Licensees, everyone providing care and every substitute adult need the 16 hours of health and safety training, and must complete 12 hours of continuing education every year from CDSS-approved sources, on topics including safe sleep, water and traffic hazards, transporting children and medication administration. The pediatric first aid or CPR course must include anaphylaxis and epinephrine instruction, which the statute already requires from January 1, 2026 (people trained earlier comply at their next renewal) and restates for the staff and substitutes covered from this date.⁠⁵
• January 1, 2028. Homes must comply with the CDSS anaphylactic policy, which CDSS must issue by July 1, 2027.⁠¹⁵

Sources

1. 1
   California Legislative Information, Health and Safety Code section 1596.78 (definitions of family daycare homes) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
2. 2
   California Legislative Information, Health and Safety Code section 1596.792 (exemptions from licensure) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
3. 3
   California Legislative Information, Health and Safety Code, Division 2, Chapter 3.6, Family Day Care Homes (sections 1597.30-1597.63) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
4. 4
   California Legislative Information, Health and Safety Code section 1596.803 (licensing fees) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
5. 5
   California Legislative Information, Health and Safety Code section 1596.866 as added by AB 190 (operative October 1, 2027) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
6. 6
   California Legislative Information, Health and Safety Code section 1596.871 (criminal record clearance) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
7. 7
   California Department of Social Services, California Code of Regulations, Title 22, Division 12, Chapter 3, Family Child Care Homes (CDSS manual, updated 04/01/2022) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
8. 8
   California Department of Social Services, How to Become Licensed (Child Care Licensing) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
9. 9
   California Department of Social Services, Do I Need a License? Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
10. 10
    California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing Division, Family Child Care Home License Application Process Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
11. 11
    California Department of Social Services, Capacity Regulations for Family Child Care Home License (fact sheet) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
12. 12
    California Department of Social Services, Family Child Care Home Provider Requirements (fact sheet, 02-08-19) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
13. 13
    California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing Division, Licensing Fees Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
14. 14
    California Department of Social Services, Register for an Orientation Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
15. 15
    California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing Division, PIN 26-11-CCP, 2026 Budget Trailer Bills Affecting Child Care Centers and Family Child Care Homes (September 25, 2026) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
16. 16
    California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing Division, PIN 26-02-CCP, 2025 Chaptered Legislation Affecting Child Care Facilities (March 5, 2026) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
17. 17
    California Department of Social Services, Fact Sheet on Child Care Licensing: Record Search and Inspections (updated 2/4/26) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
18. 18
    California Department of Social Services, Live Scan Application Process and Associated Fees Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
19. 19
    California Department of Social Services, TrustLine Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
20. 20
    California Department of Social Services, Child Care and Development Division, Child Care and Development Programs, Subsidized Programs Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
21. 21
    California Department of Social Services, Child Care and Development Division, Rate Reform and Quality Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
22. 22
    California Legislative Information, Health and Safety Code section 1502 (definitions of community care facilities) Checked 11 Nov 2026 · Back to text ↑

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