Montana family and group day-care home registration: who needs it and how to get it

What “registered” means in Montana

Montana’s Child Care Act has two tracks. Day-care centers are licensed. Family and group day-care homes are registered.⁠²⁠⁹ The difference is more than a name. Under the statute, a registration certificate publicly documents that the provider “has, in writing, certified to the department compliance” with the law and the home standards.⁠¹ So you are vouching for your own compliance. The state is not certifying it the way it does for a center.

The rules changed on May 1, 2025. DPHHS adopted a new chapter, ARM Title 37, chapter 96 (Licensure of Day Care Facilities), and repealed the old chapter 95 that governed homes. The department confirmed May 1, 2025 as the effective date in a supplemental notice published May 9, 2025.⁠¹⁶ The DPHHS booklet for homes (revised 12/21) and anything written from it describe repealed rules. Everything below on ratios, space, training and background checks comes from chapter 96.⁠⁹

In practice, registration is still a supervised process. Under ARM 37.96.111, DPHHS must pre-inspect every family and group home applicant before the applicant can care for children, and it then issues a 90-day provisional registration that lets you begin care.⁠⁹ DPHHS says every licensed or registered program gets a pre-inspection before providing care, ongoing monitoring and an annual inspection.⁠¹⁰ The statute sets a lower floor: DPHHS must inspect at least 20% of registered homes in each of the governor’s planning regions each year, and the law does not require an inspection of every applicant.⁠⁵ The 2025 rule goes further: DPHHS “must visit and inspect all licensed and registered child care facilities annually” (RCE providers excepted), and it may inspect without notice.⁠⁹ Plan on the inspections.

Operating without a certificate is a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $500. DPHHS can also ask the county attorney or attorney general for an injunction.⁠⁷ Before it gets that far, ARM 37.96.1112 has DPHHS send a written notice explaining why a registration is required and how to apply.⁠⁹

Do you need to register? The count that decides

Day care is “regular” when you care for children of separate families for less than 24 hours a day within three or more consecutive weeks. Night care counts too.⁠¹ The 2025 rule turns that into a head count: any provider serving seven or more children on a regular basis must be licensed or registered. Providers serving three to six children may choose to register as a family child care provider or as an FFN provider, and registration is required if you receive or want child care subsidy payments.⁠⁹

The 2023 exemption. House Bill 556 (2023) added the statutory basis. A person who provides day care in a private residence for six or fewer children does not need a family day-care registration, and is exempt from the Child Care Act, as long as they receive no payments under MCA 52-2-713, the state child care subsidy.⁠²⁠¹⁴ If you plan to accept Best Beginnings scholarship families, you must register even at three children.⁠²⁠⁹

Your own children. ARM 37.96.103 includes the children of staff or owners who are present in the child care space during care hours when counting for registration type and capacity. Children of owners who attend school full time are not counted.⁠⁹ Neither the statute nor the rule says in so many words whether your own children count toward the six-child exemption in MCA 52-2-721(7).⁠²⁠⁹ If you are close to the line, ask Child Care Licensing, (406) 444-2012, before you rely on the exemption.⁠¹⁰

Other exclusions. You are not a day-care facility if you care only for children related to you by blood or marriage, or under your legal guardianship, unless you need registration to receive scholarship payments. Programs set up chiefly for education that serve only children 3 and older are also excluded.⁠¹ Family child care licensed by a branch of the U.S. armed forces, including the Coast Guard, needs no state registration.⁠²⁠⁹

FFN and relative providers. ARM 37.96.102 defines two smaller categories that are not family or group homes. A family, friend and neighbor (FFN) provider cares for a sibling group of any size or for no more than six children from separate households, and may choose to register. A Relative Care Exempt (RCE) provider cares for a sibling group of any size or no more than two children from separate households.⁠⁹ DPHHS’s licensing page describes RCE status as license-exempt and for Best Beginnings payment purposes only.⁠¹⁰ That same page still says an FFN provider may care for no more than four unrelated children, which is lower than the six in the 2025 rule, so confirm the limit with DPHHS before you plan around either number.⁠¹⁰⁠⁹ FFN and RCE registrants must be 18 or older, limit care to less than 24 consecutive hours, pass background checks, complete department orientation, and repeat a health and safety refresher at least every three years. FFN providers also need current hands-on CPR and pediatric first aid certification.⁠⁹

Family home or group home: the capacity rules

The statute sets the tiers: a family day-care home is a private residence caring for three to eight children, and a group day-care home is a private residence or other structure caring for nine to 15.⁠¹ Your certificate lists the ages and numbers of children you may serve, and you cannot exceed it except during approved overlap care.⁠²⁠⁹

Sources: ⁠¹⁠⁶⁠⁹

At 16 or more children in an out-of-home place, you are a center and need a day-care center license.⁠¹

A single-family house can hold only one registration or license, so you cannot run two family homes in one house to reach 16 children. Apartment buildings and duplexes can house more than one registered facility if each is registered separately. If the home is also a licensed foster home, both the Child and Family Services Division and the Early Childhood and Family Support Division must approve the dual arrangement.⁠⁹ A registration is valid only for the provider and premises named on it and cannot be sold or transferred.⁠⁹

Overlap and night care

Overlap care lets a home go over its registered capacity for before- and after-school children. It is not permitted for children under three, and it may not exceed three hours in a day. A family home may add two children and a group home may add four. During approved overlap a 10:1 ratio applies. You must file a written plan with the specific hours, proof of insurance covering the total number of children and documentation of square footage that fits them, and you may not start until DPHHS approves the plan in writing.⁠⁹ Overlap is requested through the same online system as new applications.⁠¹¹

Night care means care between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.⁠⁹ A home offering it must develop plans for staff, equipment and space that provide for children’s safety and care away from their families at night. It needs a supervision plan under which no child is left unattended and staff stay in the immediate vicinity and on the same floor as sleeping children, close enough to hear them wake. Children receiving night care must be offered dinner or breakfast and a bedtime snack.⁠⁹

Zoning is settled by state law

Montana takes local zoning out of the equation for registered homes. MCA 76-2-412 makes family and group day-care homes a residential use of property. They are a permitted use in all residential zones, including single-family zones, and a city or county “may not require a conditional use permit in order to maintain a day-care home.”⁠⁸ The same statute bars applying any state or local safety or sanitary regulation that does not apply to residential occupancies in general to a day-care home serving 15 or fewer children.⁠⁸

The director and everyone else in the house

Every facility except an RCE provider must have a director, who runs the program at all times. In most family homes, that is you. Under ARM 37.96.902, a director must:⁠⁹

• be at least 18;
• have satisfactory background check results;
• be current on the Practitioner Registry;
• hold current CPR and pediatric first aid certification;
• complete orientation training; and
• have a combination of education, training, other licensing or experience working with children that shows an ability to do the job, subject to approval through the Practitioner Registry or by DPHHS.

If you will be away for more than 30 continuous days, you must tell DPHHS in writing who your designee is, and that person must meet the same requirements.⁠⁹ Teachers and trainees must be at least 16. A trainee may not be left alone with children until the 30-day orientation is complete and may not remain a trainee for more than 90 days.⁠⁹

Adult household members are screened like staff. ARM 37.96.1002 requires satisfactory background checks before approval for owners, directors, staff, trainees, substitutes and volunteers with unsupervised contact, and for any adult residing in the facility or regularly or frequently staying there.⁠⁹ The checks are:⁠⁹

• a Montana Department of Justice and FBI fingerprint check and a national sex offender registry check, before working and then every five years, with fingerprints taken by a certified fingerprinting agency;
• a Montana sex offender registry check, a child protective services check, and a name-based criminal records check, each for Montana and every state the person lived in during the preceding five years, before working and then every year.

An application must be denied if the background checks of the applicant or any adult in the home include disqualifying offenses.⁠⁹ Staff must submit new-hire paperwork before their FBI fingerprints are sent. DPHHS will not accept fingerprints without it.⁠¹² Spark Montana locations take FBI fingerprints for child care providers free of charge. Inked cards can be mailed to Child Care Licensing in two copies, and payment may not be required unless the check is interstate.⁠¹⁰

The training clock: 30 and 90 days, then every year

Montana sets orientation deadlines in days from hire, under ARM 37.96.914, 37.96.915 and 37.96.918. They apply to staff and owners counted in ratios:⁠⁹

Sources: ⁠⁹

Orientation hours count toward your annual training.⁠⁹

Getting the house ready for the pre-inspection

The physical rules are in ARM 37.96.402 to 37.96.410, 37.96.415 and 37.96.619 to 37.96.620.⁠⁹

Space. You need at least 35 square feet of usable indoor floor space per child in a room at any one time, excluding the food preparation area of the kitchen, bathrooms, offices, corridors, closets, laundry areas and storage. Outdoor play space must provide 75 square feet per child using it at any given time. DPHHS may grant a waiver of either figure on request with an alternate plan.⁠⁹ At the family home maximum of 8 children, 35 square feet each is 280 square feet inside. At the group maximum of 15, it is 525. The application asks for a floor plan and square footage report.⁠¹¹

Exits. Every level used for child care needs two remote means of emergency exit. One must be a door at least 32 inches wide and 80 inches tall. The second may be a window with a clear opening at least 20 inches wide or 24 inches high and 5.7 square feet in area, with the sill no more than 44 inches off the floor. Every nap room needs two exits. Third stories in a private home may not be used for child care and must be barricaded or locked.⁠⁹ DPHHS publishes an egress window guide with the application materials.⁠¹¹ If you lock an exterior door, it must open from inside with one motion, and parents must have a way to get in unannounced.⁠⁹

Fire safety. You need a 2A10BC extinguisher with a hose, easily accessible on each floor used for care. UL smoke alarms are required on each floor used for care, in front of stairway doors, in corridors and in every room where children sleep. Test them monthly and replace them every ten years or per the manufacturer. Portable electric heaters and unvented fuel-fired heaters are banned. A wood stove used during care hours needs a protective enclosure.⁠⁹ You also run eight documented emergency drills a year: six fire drills and two drills for other disasters. You must keep an emergency disaster kit with blankets, water, food and supplies.⁠⁹

Household hazards. Guns must be in locked storage, with ammunition locked separately. Full-size trampolines, ball pits and inflatable play structures are prohibited for children in care. Mini trampolines are allowed with supervision, one child at a time. Outdoor play areas must be surrounded by a fence or natural barrier at least four feet high with no gaps wider than four inches. Outlets in areas used by children under 5 must be tamper resistant or covered. Pets must be healthy with vaccination records available.⁠⁹ No smoking or vaping is allowed during care hours, indoors or while children are outdoors.⁠⁹

Water and sewage. A facility on a nonpublic water source must have the water tested before it operates and again each January and each June for total coliform and fecal coliform or E. coli bacteria, and give DPHHS the results at licensing and renewal. Sewage must go to a public system or, if the system is private, you must keep documentation of compliance with the local board of health’s requirements.⁠⁹ You also need a working phone and the poison control number (800-222-1222) posted where staff can see it.⁠⁹

Unlike centers, homes do not need a building, fire and sanitation review before approval. DPHHS’s process sheet lists that step as “Center only.”⁠¹²

What goes in the application

Applications for new homes, renewals and overlap care are filed online through DPHHS’s MAQCS system, linked from the Child Care Licensing page.⁠¹¹⁠¹⁰ DPHHS’s online forms list includes an activity schedule or written plan, an emergency disaster plan, a fire safety record and evacuation plan, a floor plan and square footage report, an insurance verification form, a menu form, and a staff master list.⁠¹¹ Registered family and group homes must also keep proof of current fire and liability insurance covering child care in the facility.⁠⁹ Insurance is the one item DPHHS cannot work around. By statute, it cannot waive the requirement of current liability and fire insurance even for a provisional certificate.⁠⁴

Under ARM 37.96.303, a registered home must have written policies, reviewed and updated every year, on:⁠⁹

• first aid and medical emergencies, including food and allergic reaction emergencies, CPR, incident and injury reports, and medication administration;
• a written emergency disaster plan for each structure, covering evacuation with at least one off-site gathering point, children’s individual needs, staff responsibilities, reunification with parents, shelter in place and lockdown, and continuity of operations;
• safe sleep, if you serve children under two, with every staff member signing an acknowledgment;
• identifying and preventing shaken baby syndrome and abusive head trauma;
• expulsion and suspension; and
• transportation and water safety, if you offer either.

Before a child is enrolled, parents must be given your daily schedule, admission and enrollment procedures, hours, meals and snacks, fees, sick-child rules, transportation and trip arrangements (if any), and your positive guidance and expulsion and suspension policies.⁠⁹ Physical punishment is prohibited, and a parent’s permission does not change that.⁠⁹ You must also keep a real-time attendance record, a master list of children and parents, written menu records and a log of fire extinguisher and smoke detector checks, and keep records for three years.⁠⁹

Under MCA 52-2-722, American Indians residing on Indian reservations apply through the tribal governing body. It forwards the application to DPHHS with a request to investigate.⁠³

From application to regular registration

1. Get the counts right

   Confirm whether you are exempt, an FFN provider, a family home or a group home, using the counts above.⁠²⁠⁹

2. Screen everyone

   File new-hire paperwork for each staff member and adult household member, then complete fingerprints and the other checks.⁠¹²⁠⁹

3. Apply in MAQCS

   Upload the forms and insurance verification. DPHHS has 30 days from receiving the application to decide, and an application must be denied if it runs past 90 days because required materials are missing.⁠¹¹⁠³⁠⁹

4. Pre-inspection

   A Child Care Licensing worker visits and consults before you care for any children.⁠⁹⁠¹⁰⁠¹²

5. Provisional registration

   After a successful pre-inspection, DPHHS issues a 90-day provisional registration and you may begin care. DPHHS observes the home with children in care, and a follow-up inspection happens within 90 days.⁠⁹⁠¹² The statute caps provisional status at six months.⁠⁴

6. Regular registration

   DPHHS issues it after the observation and any required corrections. Regular registrations are issued for one year.⁠⁹

You can ask DPHHS in writing to waive a rule, in a new or renewal application. The request must state the basis, such as significant hardship, and propose an alternative that meets the intent of the rule. DPHHS may grant it only if children’s health and safety are not reduced, and you must then keep a written alternative plan on file.⁠⁹

Cost: the state charges nothing

MCA 52-2-721(4)(b) says DPHHS “may not charge a fee to issue a license or registration certificate.”⁠² That was the law as published on 2026-10-12. Your required outlays come from the rules themselves: fire and liability insurance, CPR and first aid certification, extinguishers and smoke alarms, egress fixes, twice-yearly water testing if you are on a nonpublic source, and fingerprinting where a free Spark Montana site is not practical.⁠⁹⁠¹⁰ The sources set no prices for these, and this guide does not estimate them.

Staying registered

Term and renewal. The statute allows certificates for up to three years.⁠² The 2025 rule issues regular registrations for one year, and a renewal application is due at least 60 days before expiration. If you file a complete renewal on time, the expiring registration stays in effect until DPHHS decides.⁠⁹ DPHHS’s 2022 process sheet gives 30 days for renewal filing and is superseded on that point.⁠¹² Renewal goes through MAQCS.⁠¹¹

Reporting. Notify DPHHS within ten days of changes that affect the registration, including staff changes, closures, a change of ownership, a change in the registration category, a new address or changes to the property.⁠⁹ Report to Child Care Licensing within 24 hours if a child is lost or left alone, if maltreatment or abuse is suspected, if a child needs medical or dental care for an injury, after hospitalization or a mental health emergency, after a death resulting from a serious illness or injury on the premises, after a threatening-person incident, after a fire involving the fire department, or on discovering an environmental hazard. Staff and owners are mandatory reporters and must report suspected abuse or neglect to the child abuse hotline, (866) 820-5437, within 24 hours.⁠⁹ The director must review every injury that needed medical or dental care and document the corrective action.⁠⁹

Ongoing checks. Sex offender registry, child protective services and name-based checks repeat every year, and national fingerprint and registry checks every five years.⁠⁹ Inspection results are public through DPHHS’s licensed provider search.⁠¹⁰

Best Beginnings scholarship payments

Montana’s child care subsidy is the Best Beginnings Child Care Scholarship. Registered family and group homes are eligible providers, as are FFN providers.⁠¹³ Taking scholarship payments also removes the six-child exemption, so a home that accepts them must register at any size from three children up.⁠²⁠⁹ Rates come from DPHHS’s market rate survey and are posted by provider type on the Early Childhood and Family Support Division website.⁠¹³

What changed and what is pending

• 2021: The legislature wrote the two-caregiver requirement for group homes into statute (MCA 52-2-737).⁠⁶⁠¹⁴
• 2023: HB 556 created the six-or-fewer exemption for homes that take no scholarship payments. HB 336 required recognition of military-licensed family child care.⁠¹⁴⁠² HB 648 put the Best Beginnings scholarship into statute.⁠¹⁴
• 2023-2025: DPHHS proposed a full rewrite of the day care licensing rules (MAR 37-1044) in October 2023. The legislature’s Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee formally objected on March 12, 2024.⁠¹⁵ DPHHS published its notice of adoption and repeal on April 12, 2024, and the delayed rules took effect May 1, 2025, replacing ARM chapter 95 with chapter 96.⁠¹⁶
• Pending in 2026: MAR 2026-533.1, published August 7, 2026, proposes switching Best Beginnings from weekly, attendance-based authorizations to monthly, enrollment-based payments. A provider would get the full monthly payment if the child attends any part of the month, but payment would wait until attendance is submitted electronically. Comments closed September 4, 2026.⁠¹³ A search of the Montana Administrative Register on 2026-10-12 showed the proposal notice but no adoption notice, so ask the Best Beginnings office whether it has taken effect before you plan around it.

For adult care businesses in Montana, see the adult foster care home and adult day-care center guides.

Sources

1. 1
   Montana Legislature, MCA 52-2-703, Definitions (Montana Code Annotated 2025) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
2. 2
   Montana Legislature, MCA 52-2-721, License required -- registration required -- term -- no fee charged Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
3. 3
   Montana Legislature, MCA 52-2-722, Application for a license or registration certificate Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
4. 4
   Montana Legislature, MCA 52-2-724, Provisional license -- provisional registration certificate Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
5. 5
   Montana Legislature, MCA 52-2-733, Periodic visits to facilities by department Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
6. 6
   Montana Legislature, MCA 52-2-737, Group day-care home -- staffing requirement Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
7. 7
   Montana Legislature, MCA 52-2-741, Penalty -- remedies Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
8. 8
   Montana Legislature, MCA 76-2-412, Relationship of ... day-care homes to zoning Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
9. 9
   Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, ARM Title 37, chapter 96, Licensure of Day Care Facilities (effective May 1, 2025) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
10. 10
    Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Child Care Licensing Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
11. 11
    Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Family / Group Application Information Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
12. 12
    Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, New License/Registration Issue Process (03/01/2022) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
13. 13
    Montana Secretary of State, Montana Administrative Register, MAR Notice No. 2026-533.1, Best Beginnings Child Care Scholarship (proposal, August 7, 2026) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
14. 14
    Montana Legislative Services Division, Montana Child Care Act and Administrative Rules (staff brief, March 2024) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
15. 15
    Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee, Montana Legislature, Formal objection to MAR Notice No. 37-1044 (March 12, 2024) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
16. 16
    Montana Secretary of State, Montana Administrative Register, MAR Notice No. 37-1044, Supplemental Notice of Rulemaking (May 9, 2025) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑

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