Delaware child care center license: the OCCL Early Care and Education and School-Age Center license

The 13-child line, and what falls on either side of it

Delaware’s center rule covers any program that gives “care, education, protection, supervision, and guidance for 13 or more children, including children who are related to the licensee.” The care runs less than 24 hours a day, children attend without a parent, and the licensee is paid.⁠¹ The definition names full- and part-time daycare, preschool, nursery school, before- and after-school care, school vacation and holiday care, and summer child care. A preschool that calls itself a school is still a center under the rule.⁠¹

Because your own children and relatives count, someone caring for 10 unrelated children plus three grandchildren has crossed the line. Below 13 children, OCCL licenses family homes: Level I and Level II family child care homes, and the large family child care home, which tops out at 12 children and can operate in a commercial setting if zoning allows.⁠³ See the Delaware family child care home guide for those tiers.

The same license, 14 DE Admin. Code 933, also covers school-age centers: programs that serve only school-age children before or after school, on school holidays or over the summer. They follow the whole rule except a listed set of sections, among them breastfeeding, the teacher-to-assistant ratio in subsection 26.5, outlet covers, documenting children’s progress, diapering, infant and toddler feeding, and lesson plans through Section 80.0.⁠¹

Programs that do not need this license operate for less than 24 hours a day and fit one of these exemptions:⁠¹

• Youth camps serving only school-age children under a Division of Public Health permit.
• Programs under State of Delaware ownership and control. Public early education programs for children below kindergarten are not licensed but must still be monitored by OCCL and meet its regulations.⁠²
• Summer religion classes run by religious institutions that last no more than four weeks.
• Short-term care at a business, recreation center or church while the parent stays on the premises.
• Free “open door” programs for school-age children who come and go at their own discretion, with no agreement that the program is responsible for them.
• School-age care offered only for an emergency, a special need, school in-service days, holidays or vacations.
• Programs that only teach lessons or classes, such as tutoring, music, dance, sport or art.
• Public and private schools that report to the State Board of Education under 14 Del.C. §2704.

The school exemption covers only programs the school runs itself. If a company, LLC or nonprofit runs a before- and after-school program inside a public or private school building, it needs its own license.⁠¹

Penalties: the rule and the statute disagree

Section 4.4 of the center rule says unlicensed operation carries a fine of up to $100 or up to three months in jail.⁠¹ The Child Care Act has since been rewritten (82 Del. Laws c. 184). 14 Del.C. §3005A now sets a fine of up to $1,000 or up to six months’ imprisonment, or both. It also lets OCCL impose civil penalties of up to $1,000 for each violation of the licensing section.⁠² Plan around the statute. Under §3004A, a license expires one year from issue unless renewed.⁠²

What OCCL charges, and what you pay others

OCCL charges no fee for applications, information and orientation sessions, fingerprinting and criminal history reviews, licenses, or technical assistance (as published on 2026-10-12).⁠³ Its FAQ adds that the inspections the rules require do have fees, naming fire marshal inspections, lead-risk assessments and radon testing.⁠⁶ Other costs written into the application list include a State business license and a certificate of comprehensive general liability insurance. You need motor vehicle insurance too if you transport children in a vehicle the center owns or leases.⁠¹

Under the statute, OCCL may not license an entity until it has found that the entity employs “capable, trained, and experienced workers” and has “sufficient financial backing to ensure effective work.”⁠² That is why a business plan is part of the application.⁠¹

The building: fire marshal, zoning, lead, radon and air

Most delays at the building stage come from four outside sign-offs that OCCL needs on file:

• Fire marshal approval. It comes from the State Fire Marshal. Inside the city limits of Wilmington, Newark, New Castle or Dover, the city’s designated fire marshal approves it instead.⁠¹
• Zoning and occupancy. Proof of zoning compliance or a certificate of occupancy or use. Where they apply, also show compliance with building and plumbing codes, DNREC rules for septic systems and Office of Drinking Water rules for wells.⁠¹
• Lead paint. Buildings built in or after 1978 are exempt. For older buildings, you submit a risk assessment by an environmental testing firm certified by the Division of Public Health (DPH). Any hazard must be fixed by a DPH-certified lead-safe contractor and followed by a lead-dust clearance test. Children may not be present during the repairs. Intact lead paint must be checked and documented at least every six months.⁠¹
• Radon. Every room used for child care must be shown free of radon hazards under EPA guidelines. The property owner may do the testing, or a certified inspector can. Above 4.0 pCi/L, you either mitigate or run a 90-to-120-day long-term test that comes in under 4.0. After licensure, each room must be retested every five years between October and March, and within six months after any remodeling.⁠¹

One location rule eliminates some leased spaces. OCCL will not license or renew a center in a building that holds or once held a dry cleaner, a nail salon or a similar use. The only exception is indoor air sampling under 7 DE Admin. Code 1375 showing no impact on the center.⁠¹ Check a strip-mall unit’s history before you sign.

Space and fixtures

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Centers licensed before January 1, 2007, keep a 50-square-foot outdoor standard and their existing toilet counts. A capacity increase brings them up to the post-2007 standards.⁠¹ For a new center, indoor square footage, the playground and toilet counts together set your capacity.

The outdoor area must be fenced, on site or within a close, safe walking distance, and have a shaded rest area. The fence needs at least two exits, one of them away from the building. Gates must be self-closing and self-latching, with latches small children can’t work, and they must stay unlocked during operating hours. Using an unfenced park to meet the space rule takes OCCL approval. Trampolines are banned. A center that cannot meet the outdoor standard must instead provide at least 700 square feet of open indoor play space for large-muscle activity, on top of the 35 square feet per child.⁠¹ Indoors, you need a separate area for children who become ill, away from the kitchen and toilets, with rest equipment and clean bedding.⁠¹ Firearms and ammunition are not allowed anywhere on the premises, except for law enforcement officers on duty.⁠¹

Staff you must have before the license: DE First certificates

Delaware ties staff positions to qualification certificates issued through Delaware First. At application, OCCL wants DE First certificates for your early childhood administrator and at least one early childhood teacher. A school-age program needs them for the school-age administrator and at least one school-age site assistant.⁠¹ Staff hired later without a certificate must send their documentation to Delaware First within 60 days of hire. Foreign diplomas and transcripts must go through an independent credential evaluation first.⁠¹

⁠¹

Three footnotes in the rule change who qualifies. An administrator’s credential from DOE or another OCCL-approved agency can replace three of the administrator’s college credits, but the credential alone does not qualify anyone. A Delaware-certified teacher certified for birth through second grade meets the administrator qualifications outright. Supervised experience, earned only at a licensed center and only with OCCL’s prior approval, cuts the required experience in half.⁠¹

If you serve infants or toddlers, either the administrator or the curriculum coordinator needs 15 clock hours of training in infant and toddler development and curriculum. The same applies to school-age care if you serve school-age children and don’t employ a separate school-age administrator.⁠¹

One person or two at the top

Every center needs both a qualified administrator and a qualified curriculum coordinator. One person may hold both roles if they have at least an associate degree and either the center’s capacity is 60 or fewer or OCCL has approved a written plan that hands human resources and fiscal duties to someone else.⁠¹ The administrator or the coordinator must be on site at least 60% of operating hours, and the administrator at least 20 hours a week. When neither is there, a staff member qualified at least as a teacher must be in charge.⁠¹ You have five business days to tell OCCL when your administrator or coordinator is hired, resigns, transfers or is terminated.⁠¹

School-age positions

A school-age administrator must be 21 or older. They qualify either as a fully qualified early childhood administrator with 15 clock hours of school-age training, or through a degree with 15 credits (including a school-age elective) plus 12 months of group experience with children in kindergarten through sixth grade. A Delaware teacher certified for K-6 qualifies.⁠¹ A site assistant needs a high school diploma plus either 3 credits or 45 clock hours of quality-assured training and one school year (part-time) or one summer (full-time) of experience, or 15 clock hours with double that experience.⁠¹ The administrator or a site coordinator must be present half of operating hours, and a site coordinator may cover no more than two school-age centers.⁠¹

Ratios, group sizes and the one-teacher-per-four rule

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

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A school-age group can go to 1:20 by variance when a Delaware-certified teacher teaches in their certification area. You must have a plan for returning to 1:15 when that teacher is out, including before and after care. OCCL will not grant a variance from the group size of 30.⁠¹ In a mixed-age group, the youngest child sets both the ratio and the group size. Group size limits lapse when 12 or fewer children are in the whole building.⁠¹

Delaware also caps how far you can stretch qualified staff. You need one early childhood teacher for every one to four assistant teachers, caregivers, interns and aides (two teachers for five to eight, and so on).⁠¹ Someone qualified at least as a teacher must be present during all operating hours. At least two staff must be present once seven or more children aged one or older are there.⁠¹ At nap time for children one and older, at least half of the required staff must be in the room watching them. One person may not monitor several napping rooms from a doorway.⁠¹

Infants and toddlers stay in rooms and play areas apart from older children. The exceptions: when 12 or fewer children are present in total, during the first and last 90 minutes of the day, and at special events. Once 10 or more school-age children are present, they need their own separated area.⁠¹

Background checks before anyone starts

Each staff member is fingerprinted by the Delaware State Police for a State Bureau of Identification (SBI) and FBI check before starting work. Anyone who lives outside Delaware, or has lived elsewhere in the last five years, also requests criminal history and child abuse and neglect searches from each of those states. Until the Criminal History Unit (CHU) rules the person eligible, they work only under supervision and are never alone with children.⁠¹ You also run each new hire through the DHSS adult abuse registry before their start date.⁠¹ The FAQ says CHU makes its initial eligibility determination within 45 days. It lists Delaware State Police fingerprinting appointments at 302-739-2528 for New Castle and Sussex counties, and 302-739-5871 or walk-in for Kent.⁠⁶

As owner, you are barred if State law or the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant Act prohibits you from working in child care. No one convicted of child sexual abuse under 11 Del.C. §8550, or listed on the Child Protection Registry at Level III or IV, may work at the center in any role.⁠¹ The application itself requires background checks for the applicant, the administrator and the teacher or site assistant you name. It also requires a release that lets OCCL collect service letters from your employers and every health care or child care facility you worked at in the past five years, under 19 Del.C. §708.⁠¹

Training: orientation, 18 hours a year, CPR and medication

• Orientation covers 24 listed topics before anyone works with children. Examples include emergency plans, safe sleep and shaken baby syndrome for infant programs, food allergies, child abuse recognition and reporting, and screen time. It counts as three clock hours of annual training. Substitutes and volunteers who work more than five days or 40 hours a year need it too.⁠¹
• Annual training: 18 clock hours, including 2 in health or safety, for staff and administrators working 25 or more hours a week. Staff under 25 hours a week need 9 hours, including 1 in health or safety. Each person needs a written professional development plan within three months of hire, updated yearly.⁠¹
• First aid and CPR within two months of hire for everyone except aides, with a hands-on CPR skills check. A certified person must be present whenever children are, including off-site.⁠¹
• Medication: a staff member aged 18 or older who holds OCCL’s administration of medication certificate (earned by passing OCCL’s test on its self-study guide) must be present at all times, including on field trips.⁠¹

An owner who works seven or more hours a week in direct care counts as staff. They keep a shorter file on site: job description, training record, first aid and CPR, and qualification certificate.⁠¹

Applying with OCCL, in order

1. Attend a center information session

   The orientation is the first step in the rule, and OCCL says everyone opening a child care business must take this initial training. You may send a designated representative.⁠¹⁠³ Sessions are virtual. The remaining 2026 dates OCCL lists are October 20 (1 p.m.), November 17 (9 a.m.) and December 15 (1 p.m.).⁠⁵ You can also reach OCCL at 302-892-5800 (New Castle County) or 302-739-5487 (Kent and Sussex).⁠⁴

2. Lock in the site

   You can submit a deed, a lease, or a document showing a lease or sale will be signed before licensure. The actual deed or lease must exist before the pre-licensing visit. A program in a school needs written permission to use the space.⁠¹

3. Collect the outside approvals

   These include fire marshal approval, zoning or occupancy proof, septic and well approvals, the lead risk assessment for pre-1978 buildings, radon results, and indoor air certification where it applies.⁠¹

4. File the Initial License Application (Appendix I)

   It covers your contact details and references: officers for a corporation, the managing member for an LLC, the superintendent for a school. It also covers prior licensure, program details including ages served, the names of proposed employees, and signed certifications.⁠¹

5. Submit the package

   It includes blueprints or diagrams, a plan review with emergency plan, a two-week sample menu (or your caterer’s food establishment permit), a business plan, and parent and staff handbooks. Add the DE First certificates, background checks, the employment release, your health appraisal with TB screening from the past year if you will be on site, and the State business license.⁠¹

6. Show proof of liability insurance

   by the pre-licensing visit.⁠¹

7. Pre-licensing inspection

   A licensing specialist reviews the file and inspects the premises, then makes a recommendation. If approved, you receive a six-month initial provisional license.⁠¹

8. Compliance review before the six months end

   OCCL then issues a provisional or annual license, depending on whether you are in full compliance. The rule says that license is valid for six months.⁠¹

Since July 1, 2023, the Child Care Act has also required applicants to have parents of enrolled children from birth to kindergarten complete the Department’s approved developmental and social-emotional screening. This happens at enrollment and at least once a year, unless a parent declines in writing.⁠²

OCCL’s center page links a regulations PDF labeled “Effective 06/10/2022.” The Administrative Code’s history for Chapter 933 lists 24 DE Reg. 267 (09/01/20) as the most recent amendment. This guide follows the Administrative Code text checked on 2026-10-12. The 2022 PDF still refers to “DEEDS Early Learning” certificates where the Administrative Code says DE First, so ask OCCL which text it applies to your application.⁠⁴⁠¹

Keeping the license: renewal, reviews and changes

• Renewal: file the Renewal License Application (Appendix II) at least 60 days before expiration, with a sample menu, your insurance certificate and your business license. A late filing is cited on your compliance review. A timely filing keeps your license in force until OCCL decides. If the license has already lapsed, the new license starts on the day OCCL receives your application, with no backdating.⁠¹
• Annual review: a licensing specialist or supervisor makes an unannounced annual compliance review. You have five days to dispute a citation. Full compliance earns a 12-month annual license; otherwise you get a provisional license tied to a corrective action plan.⁠¹ At renewal, OCCL also checks each child’s file for a developmental screening in the past 12 months.⁠²
• Changes: a new name or service type needs a new application. Renovations, a new meal service and sometimes new age groups need a revised plan review and an on-site visit.⁠¹ A move needs 90 days’ notice and a Relocation Application, and you may not care for children at the new site until it is licensed.⁠¹
• Selling: the license is not transferable. Give 90 days’ written notice. The buyer completes the full initial process before closing, and the new license takes effect on the sale date once OCCL has the bill of sale. Lead-risk assessments transfer to the buyer.⁠¹
• Enforcement: the actions available are warning of probation, probation, suspension, revocation and denial. You have 10 business days to request a hearing. OCCL may suspend immediately when children are in serious or imminent danger.⁠¹⁠²

Some incidents must be reported by phone within one business day, and you must speak with a person, not leave a voicemail. These include a child’s injury needing medical treatment, a medication error, an arrest of staff, a missing child, or a breakdown such as loss of water or heat.⁠¹

Getting paid through Purchase of Care, and Delaware Stars

Delaware’s child care subsidy, Purchase of Care (POC), is run by the DHSS Division of Social Services, not OCCL. You must hold an OCCL license before you can contract. You then sign the POC contract and a Program Overview, register in Provider Self Service to record attendance, and attend a POC orientation. DSS pays nothing until that orientation is done, and nothing for subsidized care given before it receives your signed contract.⁠⁷ A change of ownership or business entity needs a new license, a new contract and a new Program Overview.⁠⁷ OCCL also points new centers to the Child and Adult Care Food Program for meal costs.⁠⁴

Delaware Stars for Early Success is the state’s voluntary quality rating system for licensed programs. The center rule names it as the path for centers that want to go beyond the minimum standards.⁠⁷⁠¹

Sources

1. 1
   Delaware Administrative Code (Registrar of Regulations), 14 DE Admin. Code 933, DELACARE: Regulations for Early Care and Education and School-Age Centers Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
2. 2
   Delaware Code Online, Delaware General Assembly, 14 Del.C. Chapter 30A, Child Care Act (§§ 3001A-3005A) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
3. 3
   Delaware Department of Education, Office of Child Care Licensing, Start a Child Care Business Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
4. 4
   Delaware Department of Education, Office of Child Care Licensing, Starting a Child Care Center Business Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
5. 5
   Delaware Department of Education, Office of Child Care Licensing, Child Care Center Information Sessions Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
6. 6
   Delaware Department of Education, Office of Child Care Licensing, OCCL Frequently Asked Questions Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
7. 7
   Delaware Health and Social Services, Division of Social Services, Purchase of Care Provider Handbook Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑

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