Oregon family child care: registered homes (up to 10) and certified homes (up to 16)

Whether you need a license at all

Oregon’s threshold has two parts, and both are measured “in addition to any children who reside with” you. You can care for children without a license if they all come from one family, or if there are three or fewer of them. ⁠⁴⁠⁵ Once you take children from a second family and the count goes past three, you need an RF registration or a CF certificate. Running a home without one is “unlawful care.” The penalty can reach $1,500 per violation. A first penalized day is set at $750, each later day is a separate violation, and CCLD may give a warning instead if you did not know a license was required. ⁠⁴

OAR 414-075-0250 also exempts other kinds of care. These include a babysitter in the child’s own home, relatives within the fourth degree, members of the child’s extended family as CCLD decides case by case, and occasional care. ⁠⁴ If you plan to stay at three children or fewer and want state subsidy payments, DELC points to the license-exempt Regulated Subsidy route under Employment Related Day Care (ERDC), which is capped at three children at a time. ⁠⁷

One trap catches licensed providers: if a child enrolled in your licensed home is there during your regular operating hours, the visit falls under your license. That is true even if you call it a social visit and even if the child arrives early or stays late. ⁠⁴

RF or CF: how to choose

The statute makes certification the default: any child care facility needs a certificate unless it is a family home that qualifies for registration. ⁠⁵ In practice the choice depends on how many children you want, who will care for them, and where.

If you don’t meet the CF provider qualifications, DELC’s own guidance tells you to look at the RF license. ⁠⁸

Zoning: state law settles it

ORS 197.671 (renumbered in 2025 from ORS 329A.440) makes a registered or certified family child care home a residential use. It is a permitted use in every area zoned residential or commercial, including single-unit zones. Local governments may not ban it, and they may not impose land use rules, special fees or conditions stricter than those for other homes in the same zone. A county may still impose reasonable conditions in exclusive farm, forest or mixed farm-forest zones. ⁠⁶ DELC’s CF page says no action is needed in a residential zone. In a commercial zone, it says to confirm compliance with your city or county. If the home is in neither kind of zone, it says to check building codes with your local building agency. ⁠⁸

The certification statute lets DELC set “reasonable requirements for landlords of tenants who operate a family child care home.” ⁠⁵ The 2025 rule books do not add a landlord consent step. They only list landlords among the visitors you must log. ⁠¹⁠²

Registered Family homes: the rules that shape your day

Capacity. You can have at most 10 children. The count includes your own and foster children aged 9 or younger, any other children 12 or younger you are responsible for, and children up to 17 with special needs that require above-normal care. ⁠¹ Of the 10:

• no more than six may be preschool age or younger, and only two of those may be under 24 months;
• four school-age children may be added on top of those six;
• you can take more school-age children if you have fewer than six preschoolers, as long as the total stays at 10. ⁠¹

Neighborhood children and your children’s friends count if they are regularly there during care hours. RF homes cannot enroll a baby younger than 6 weeks. ⁠¹

You are the operation. You must be at least 18. You or a substitute provider must be on the premises during all operating hours. You may not hold any other job, paid or unpaid, in or out of the home, while children are in care. ⁠¹ Only one provider per household can be registered, and the home must be your residence. ⁠¹ A substitute must be 18, enrolled in the Central Background Registry (CBR), and have completed orientation and the initial safety trainings. Substitutes have 90 days from hire to get pediatric CPR and first aid. ⁠¹

Background registry. You must be enrolled in the CBR before CCLD issues the registration. Other caregivers and household members 18 or older must be enrolled or conditionally enrolled before issuance. Household members under 18 must enroll by their 18th birthday. ⁠¹ Guests who stay overnight longer than 14 consecutive days (the rule caps total overnight stays at 30 days in a calendar year) must enroll too. People living in a separate unit on the property, such as an ADU, tiny home or RV, can be excused. To qualify, the unit must be reachable without entering the child care home, children must never use it, and it must have its own water, bathroom and cooking appliances. ⁠¹ DELC lets young people apply within six weeks of turning 18. ⁠⁷

Second floors. Children in care may not sleep on the second floor or above, and infants, toddlers and night care must stay off it too. Preschool and school-age children may use an upper floor only if there are two staircases to ground level or the fire code official approves. Providers registered at the same address continuously since before 2009 are exempt from these limits. ⁠¹ Apartments on the second floor or above cannot be licensed at all, however the exits are laid out. ⁠¹

Certified Family homes: a staffed small business

Provider qualifications. The CF provider must have one of these: ⁠²

• at least 1,500 documented hours of experience with a group of children in an ongoing group setting, worked in blocks of at least three hours within 36 months (scouting, Sunday school and coaching do not count);
• 20 semester or 30 quarter credits in early childhood education or child development; or
• step 6 or higher in the Oregon Registry.

If your experience comes from running an RF home, CCLD caps your CF home at 12 children. You can apply for up to 16 only after 1,500 hours of operating as a CF home with 12 or fewer. ⁠² You must be 21 to be certified for more than 12. ⁠²

Time on site. You must be on site and actively caring for children for at least half of weekly operating hours or 40 hours, whichever is less. That rises to two-thirds of weekly hours, or 40 hours, above 12 children. ⁠² As in RF homes, you cannot hold another job while you are counted as caring for children. ⁠²

Owning more than one home. An owner with no regular caregiving duties may own any number of CF homes. An owner who is also the provider at one home may own only one more. One person can be the provider at two homes only if both are licensed for 12 or fewer and the on-site hours are met at each. CCLD issues only one certificate per address. ⁠² If you are not the owner of the home, your application must name the owner. ⁠²

Staff. An Assistant I can be as young as 14. An Assistant I under 18 must stay within sight and sound of a qualified caregiver and is never left alone with children. ⁠² An Assistant II must be 18 or older and enrolled in the CBR, and may work out of sight and sound with your approval. Anyone who substitutes for you must meet Assistant II qualifications. ⁠² New caregivers get orientation within their first 10 business days. They complete health and safety, abuse-reporting and safe-sleep training within 30 days, and CPR/first aid and Foundations for Learning within 90 days. ⁠²

Infants and toddlers. You need 30 clock hours of infant-toddler training before you care for more than two children under 24 months. To care for more than four, you need 20 more hours and a second caregiver with the 30-hour training. ⁠²

Ratios. Under Table A, the number of caregivers depends on how many children are present and how many of them are under age two. ⁠²⁠³

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

With 10 or more children under two, the table requires three or four caregivers depending on the total. ⁠³ If every child is school age, the ratio is 1:15. One caregiver may also care for 10 children if no more than six are preschool age or younger (only two under 24 months) and four are school age. ⁠²

Space sets capacity. CCLD sets your licensed capacity from your indoor activity area. You need 35 square feet per child for up to 12 children and 50 square feet per child for each of the additional four. Kitchen prep areas, bathrooms, storage and furniture children don’t use do not count. ⁠² The outdoor play area must give at least 75 square feet per child using it at one time. It must be enclosed by a fence or wall at least 4 feet high with openings no larger than 3½ inches. Homes certified on June 30, 2025 may keep 4-inch openings for now. ⁠² Every room used for care needs two exits, and night care (9 p.m. to 5 a.m., or any child sleeping more than 3 hours) may not be on the second floor or above. ⁠²

Exits, lead and fire safety (both tiers)

Exits under the 2025 rules. If your home is first licensed on or after July 1, 2025, or you move an existing license on or after that date, every floor used for care needs two exits. ⁠¹⁠² One must be a door straight to the outside at ground level that:

• does not pass through a garage or carport;
• opens without a key or special effort;
• is not reached by a path within three feet of a built-in cooking appliance or through a storage room or lockable room.

The second exit can be another such door or a window. The window needs at least 5 square feet of net clear opening, at least 24 inches of clear height and 20 inches of clear width. Its sill can be no more than 44 inches above the floor and no more than 48 inches above the ground outside, or you must add steps or a platform. ⁠¹⁠² Locations licensed before July 2025, or ever licensed by CCLD before, follow the older “usable exit” standard. ⁠¹⁠²

Lead in drinking water. You must test every faucet used for drinking, cooking or preparing formula or food. Results go in with your initial application. ⁠¹⁠² The lab must be accredited by the Oregon Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ORELAP), and the limit is 15 parts per billion. ⁠¹ Send results to CCLD within 10 calendar days of getting them, and retest every 6 years. A faucet that is overdue for testing must be taken out of use. ⁠¹ If a faucet fails, shut off access to it right away and use bottled water. You then have 60 days to file a corrective action plan and 30 days after approval to carry it out. ⁠¹ On a private well, you must also test for coliform/E. coli, nitrate and arsenic before your first license, and send the results to the local public health authority. RF homes retest at least every two years and CF homes at least annually. Homes licensed before July 1, 2025 must complete well testing before their next renewal. ⁠¹⁠²

Fire protection. Each floor needs at least one 2-A-10 BC fire extinguisher, inspected monthly. Every floor and nap area needs smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, tested monthly. ⁠¹ Run a fire drill every month and use an alternate route at least once a year. Practice another part of your emergency plan every other month. ⁠¹ You must show efforts to get everyone out within three minutes, and add measures such as evacuation cribs, extra drills or caregiver training if you can’t. ⁠¹ Keep flammable liquids 4 feet from heat sources, and store anything over a gallon in a detached shed or garage. ⁠¹ For CF homes, the local fire department may inspect if a local business license requires a fire and life safety survey, or if CCLD asks. ⁠²

Training before you apply

RF. Before CCLD approves a new registration, you must show proof of all of these: ⁠¹

• Introduction to Registered Family Child Care, Parts I and II
• Introduction to Child Care Health & Safety
• at least two hours on Oregon child abuse and neglect law
• Safe Sleep for Oregon’s Infants
• pediatric CPR and first aid with hands-on practice (online-only courses are not accepted)
• Foundations for Learning
• an Oregon food handler card

Part I of the introduction class is online and Part II is in person. Both are offered through your county’s Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) agency, and you receive the application at that class. ⁠⁷

CF. The provider needs the same list, minus the RF introduction class. ⁠²

Ongoing training. RF providers need at least 10 clock hours in the two years before each renewal. At least 6 of those hours must be in child development, plus 1 hour of health, safety and nutrition in each 12-month half of the license period. ⁠¹ CF providers and every Assistant II need at least 15 clock hours every year, including 8 in child development and 1 in health, safety and nutrition. ⁠² For both tiers, training must be approved by the Oregon Registry Online (ORO) and last at least one hour. ⁠¹⁠²

Written policies CCLD will check

Both rule books require written policies that you give to parents at enrollment. They must cover your emergency preparedness and response plan, behavior and guidance, abuse reporting, transportation, night care if you offer it, and a suspension and expulsion prevention policy. ⁠¹⁠² Oregon’s expulsion rule is specific. Before expelling a young child, you must document the behavior and what you tried. You must request services from Every Child Belongs (ECB) and notify the family at the same time. ⁠¹ If you use a temporary safety-based intervention, you must notify the family and ECB immediately and tell CCLD by 5:00 p.m. the next business day. ⁠¹ At an RF renewal, CCLD checks that you made any required ECB request. ⁠¹

Applying, in order

Registered Family

1. Take the introduction class

   Complete Part I online and Part II in person through your CCR&R. This is where you get the application. ⁠⁷

2. Finish the safety trainings and CBR enrollment

   CBR enrollment can be done on paper or online. Enroll yourself and any adult household members. ⁠⁷⁠¹

3. Test your water for lead

   (and your well, if you have one). ⁠¹

4. Apply at least 45 days before opening

   Send the signed application, the $30 nonrefundable fee, lead results and training proof. ⁠¹⁠⁷ Any unpaid civil penalties must be paid off or on an approved payment plan first. ⁠¹

5. Health & Safety Review

   By statute, CCLD must make its on-site review within 30 days of receiving a satisfactory application. ⁠⁵ The home must comply with every rule before the registration is issued. A second visit may be needed if corrections are required. ⁠⁷⁠¹ CCLD publishes a sample RF Health and Safety Review Checklist (CCLD-0092). ⁠⁷

Certified Family

1. Confirm you qualify

   under the CF provider requirements. ⁠⁸

2. Request a pre-certification visit

   The licensing specialist measures your rooms and outdoor space to set your capacity and discusses ratios and staffing. You will usually get the application packet at this visit. ⁠⁸

3. Get the environmental health (sanitation) inspection

   The inspector must be a registered environmental health specialist under ORS chapter 700 or an Oregon Health Authority representative. DELC warns it can take several weeks, and you pay any inspection fees. ⁠²⁠⁸

4. Apply at least 45 days before opening

   Include the dimensioned floor plan, the environmental health approval, lead results, training proof, and $25 plus $2 per space. For 16 children that is $57. ⁠²⁠⁸

5. Initial inspection

   If you meet most requirements and no hazards are found, CCLD can issue a temporary certificate and you may begin caring for children. A temporary certificate is limited to 180 days in any 12 months, and you must show continuing compliance to move to a regular certificate. ⁠²⁠⁸

CCLD may close any application it hasn’t acted on within 12 months. ⁠¹⁠² You can’t use an exception request to skip the on-site review. ⁠¹

Renewal, monitoring and penalties

To keep your license in force while CCLD processes the renewal, file it with the fee at least 30 days before expiration. If you miss that date, the license expires and you must stop care unless the renewal is finished in time. ⁠¹⁠² An RF renewal requires a passed Health and Safety inspection and proof of ongoing training. ⁠¹ A CF renewal needs a CCLD inspection and a new environmental health approval every year, at $2 per licensed space. ⁠² You also need a new application when you move, and for CF homes when the provider changes or you increase capacity. ⁠¹⁠²

CCLD may make unannounced monitoring visits at least once a year. Licensing records, including complaint findings, are open to the public. ⁠¹⁠² Civil penalties under the 2025 rules are:

• RF: up to $750 per serious violation and $250 per non-serious violation;
• CF: up to $1,200 per violation and $400 per non-serious violation;
• both: separate penalties for each day a violation continues. ⁠¹⁠²

Getting paid through ERDC

Employment Related Day Care (ERDC) is Oregon’s child care subsidy, and DELC runs the provider side. To bill ERDC, you must pass a background check and be listed and approved by DELC. License-exempt caregivers have extra training requirements. ⁠¹⁰ Since January 1, 2024, ERDC adds 9% to a home-based provider’s payment if a complete billing form takes more than four business days to process. Licensed RF and CF providers may have their union submit that claim for them. ⁠¹⁰ DELC’s introduction class for RF applicants also covers the USDA food program and the subsidy program. ⁠⁷

If you outgrow a home, the next step is a certified child care center, which Oregon licenses under separate rules for commercial or nonresidential buildings. ⁠⁹ Oregon’s other care licenses, such as adult foster homes, are covered on the Oregon state page.

Sources

1. 1
   Oregon Secretary of State, Oregon Administrative Rules, OAR chapter 414, division 210: Registered Family Child Care Homes (effective July 2025) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
2. 2
   Oregon Secretary of State, Oregon Administrative Rules, OAR chapter 414, division 360: Certified Family Child Care Homes (effective July 2025) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
3. 3
   Oregon Secretary of State, Oregon Administrative Rules, OAR 414-360-0400, Table A: Caregiver-to-Child Ratios (rule attachment) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
4. 4
   Oregon Secretary of State, Oregon Administrative Rules, OAR chapter 414, division 75: General Rules for All Child Care Facilities Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
5. 5
   Oregon State Legislature, ORS chapter 329A: Child Care (ORS 329A.250, 329A.280, 329A.330) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
6. 6
   Oregon State Legislature, ORS 197.671: Siting of family child care homes and child care centers Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
7. 7
   Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care, Registered Family Child Care Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
8. 8
   Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care, Certified Family Child Care Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
9. 9
   Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care, Become a Provider Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
10. 10
    Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care, ERDC Provider Resources Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑

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