Licensing a family home child care in Washington: the DCYF family home early learning program

When a Washington home needs this license

Washington law makes it unlawful for any “agency” to care for children without a DCYF license.⁠¹ A family home provider is defined as someone who “regularly provides early childhood education and early learning services for not more than 12 children at any given time in the provider’s home in the family living quarters.”⁠¹ The rule chapter is more specific about the trigger. You need a license when you care for children in your home “on a regular and ongoing basis for one or more children not related to the licensee,” or care for preschool-age children for more than four hours a day.⁠² There is no small-number exemption: one unrelated child on a regular schedule is enough.

The statute lists who is not an agency. The ones that matter for home-based care are:⁠¹

• Relatives, defined broadly: blood relatives including half-blood, first cousins, nephews and nieces, and grandparents through great-great-grandparents; step-parents and step-siblings; adoptive relatives; and the spouses of any of these, “even after the marriage is terminated.”
• Legal guardians of the child.
• Friends or neighbors who watch a child, paid or not, as long as they do not do it “on an ongoing, regularly scheduled basis for the purpose of engaging in business.” The statute counts advertising the care as engaging in business.
• Parents who trade care with each other on a mutually cooperative basis.
• Nursery schools focused on early childhood education where no child is enrolled regularly for more than four hours a day.

DCYF’s own summary is that friends, family and neighbors who “only watch children once in a while, not on a regular basis” can skip licensing.⁠⁴ If you post a listing or keep a regular weekly schedule for a neighbor’s child, plan on licensing.

Two neighboring license types are worth knowing. If you want more than 12 children, or want to use part of your house only for child care, DCYF can license a center inside a private residence when the space children use is either used only for children during operating hours or separate from the family living quarters.⁠² That carries center requirements, including a certificate of occupancy and a state fire marshal inspection before licensing; see the child care center license overview for how center licensing works across states. School-age-only programs and outdoor nature-based programs have their own rule chapters, WAC 110-301 and WAC 110-302.⁠⁴

Washington also uses a single rule chapter, WAC 110-300, for both centers and family homes. The legislature directed that merger in the 2015 Early Start Act.⁠² When you read the rules, check whether each subsection says “center,” “family home,” or applies to every “early learning provider.”

How many children you will be licensed for

The license states two things: total capacity and the age range you may serve.⁠² DCYF sets both. It considers your square footage, years of licensed child care experience, education and training, the ages you request, your equipment and materials, your licensing history, and the qualified staff you have.⁠²

Washington ties capacity to experience. The experience must come from working as a center director, program supervisor, lead teacher, family home licensee, “or another similar role in a child care setting.”⁠² Here are the maximums you may request on an initial or nonexpiring license:

Your own children count. Any child from birth through age 12 who is on the premises, signed in, on a field trip, or being transported counts toward capacity. That includes your own children, staff members’ children, and visiting children not supervised by their own adult.⁠² A first-year licensee with two children of their own under 12 at home during care hours has four places left for paying families under the six-child cap.

Square footage can cap you below these numbers. Licensed indoor space must give 35 square feet per child in attendance. Bathrooms, diaper-changing areas, laundry areas, closets, stairways and evacuation hallways do not count.⁠² The licensed outdoor play area needs 75 square feet of usable space per child using it at one time. If your yard is smaller, you can submit a plan to rotate groups.⁠²

When a second adult is required

Regardless of your capacity, the rule requires two staff on duty any time:⁠²

• more than 6 children are in care and any child is under 2;
• more than 8 children are in care and any child is under 3; or
• more than 10 children are in care and any child is under school age.

Your assistant can be an aide as young as 14 with a high school diploma or current enrollment. An aide counts in ratio only under your continuous oversight and after completing the preservice requirements.⁠² Regular volunteers count in ratio only after passing a background check, TB screening and the required trainings.⁠² Staffing must also cover off-site trips and transportation.⁠²

Going to 13-16 children with a capacity waiver

RCW 43.216.692 lets DCYF waive the 12-child limit, and WAC 110-300-0358 sets the conditions for serving up to 16.⁠¹⁠² It is not an option for new providers. You need:⁠²

• at least three years of experience as a center director, program supervisor or family home licensee, and a full nonexpiring license (not an initial license);
• an ECE short certificate verified in DCYF’s workforce registry, plus at least one staff person or volunteer on site with an ECE initial certificate;
• 35 square feet of indoor space per child, 15 more for each child under 24 months, and 75 square feet of outdoor space per child (or a rotation or off-site play plan);
• ratios of 1:8 for children 2 and older and 1:6 under age 2, with no more than six children under 2 at once;
• one flush toilet and one handwashing sink for every 15 people, counting household members, staff and children; homes on septic need local health jurisdiction confirmation that the system can handle that load;
• emergency lighting on interior stairs, a fire extinguisher and heat detector in the kitchen, and a yearly demonstration to your licensor that everyone can get out of the house in two minutes or less.

Before you go above 12, the DCYF secretary or designee must approve the waiver in writing. You also have to give DCYF documentation from your city or county that the space meets local building codes and DCYF’s Family Home Child Capacity Waiver inspection checklist. A waiver never allows overnight care for more than 12 children. A denial cannot be appealed.⁠²

Who can hold the license

The licensee must be an individual who lives on the premises.⁠² At application you must be at least 18, have a high school diploma or equivalent, and complete the preservice requirements described below.⁠²

College-level early childhood education comes later. Under the rule amended effective August 1, 2026, a family home licensee must hold an ECE initial certificate or equivalent by August 1, 2030, or within five years of being licensed, whichever is later. An ECE short certificate is due within two years after that.⁠² The amendment carries out a 2025 law (2025 c 281). That law requires DCYF to give providers until at least August 1, 2030, and to offer a noncredit community-based training pathway priced at no more than $250 per person.⁠¹ All certificates must be verified in DCYF’s electronic workforce registry (MERIT).⁠²

The licensee must be on site for at least half of the weekly operating hours. Otherwise, you designate someone with licensee-level qualifications to be there.⁠² You also need a written plan for absences. If you will be away more than ten consecutive operating days while the program stays open, you must notify DCYF and every parent in writing at least two business days ahead.⁠²

Everyone in the house is screened

Washington screens the household, not just the provider. Providers and household members in a family home must complete and pass a DCYF background check.⁠² Under the background check rules, a household member must apply by the date they move in at age 16 or older, or by their 16th birthday if they already live there. Staff must receive a clearance before their first day of work.⁠⁶ Checks include fingerprinting, are repeated at least every three years, and cost the fingerprint processing fees plus a $12 DCYF administrative fee (as published on 2026-10-12).⁠⁶

Providers, volunteers and household members aged 14 and over must also provide TB documentation signed within the past 12 months by a licensed health care professional. The standard path is a negative TB symptom screen and risk assessment; a positive screen or risk factor means a TB test, and a positive test means a chest X-ray and clearance.⁠² After licensing, you have 24 hours to tell DCYF when anyone 14 or older moves in or out.⁠²

Training to finish before the license is issued

DCYF’s sequence starts with registration in MERIT, the workforce registry, and a STARS ID.⁠³ The rules require these before you are licensed:⁠²

• the DCYF family home licensing orientation, taken within 12 months before you apply (online, in English, Spanish or Somali);⁠²⁠³
• child care basics training;
• safe sleep training if you will be licensed for infants, repeated every year;
• bloodborne pathogens training that meets Department of Labor and Industries requirements;
• adult and pediatric first aid and CPR, plus infant CPR if you serve infants, with a live hands-on skills check in front of a certified instructor.

Within three months of starting, and before working unsupervised, you also need DCYF-approved training on recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect, emergency preparedness, serving children experiencing homelessness, and shaken baby syndrome prevention if you serve infants.⁠² You need medication administration training before giving any child medicine, and a food worker card from your local health jurisdiction before preparing or serving food.⁠²

After 12 months, you owe 10 hours of in-service training a year. A licensee licensed on or after August 1, 2019 must finish DCYF’s Enhancing Quality of Early Learning (EQEL) training within 36 months.⁠²

Getting the house ready

Washington licenses specific rooms and outdoor areas. Your floor plan must show which space is licensed and which is not.⁠² Each year you also sign a declaration that unlicensed parts of the house meet the rules on furnace areas, detectors, gun and medication storage, refrigerators, chemicals and pools.⁠²

Exits. Each level licensed for child care, except basements, needs at least two emergency exit pathways leading directly outside, as far apart as possible. At least one exit door on each floor must be a side-hinged or pivoting door. Every licensed room except bathrooms needs two exits. An emergency exit window needs at least 5.7 square feet of opening (5 square feet on the ground floor), must be at least 20 inches wide and 24 inches tall when open, and must have a sill no higher than 44 inches.⁠²

Fire safety. You need a smoke detector in every licensed sleeping area and on every floor, carbon monoxide detectors under the residential building code, and a second way to sound an alarm. Fire extinguishers rated at least 2A:10 BC must be on each level children use, within 75 feet of an exit.⁠² Candles and open flames (other than a gas range) are not allowed during operating hours, and neither are portable heaters.⁠² You must arrange a fire safety inspection every year through a local government agency. Where none is available, you self-inspect on the state fire marshal’s form.⁠²

Outdoor area. The licensed play area must be fenced to at least 48 inches, or the local code height, with no gaps a 3.5-inch sphere can pass through. It needs shade and two exits, one of which does not lead back into the house. Before licensing, any gate from the play area to unlicensed space must be self-closing and self-latching.⁠²

Water, soil and lead. The application must include lead and copper test results for your drinking water. Homes on wells add E. coli and nitrate results no more than 12 months old, and homes on septic add a septic report no more than three years old.⁠² If your home is in the Tacoma smelter plume area in King, Pierce or Thurston County, you must sign an access agreement with the Department of Ecology so it can test your soil for arsenic and lead.⁠²

Firearms, cannabis and tobacco. Guns may stay in a family home only in a locked gun safe, or unloaded with a trigger lock in a locked room children can never enter.⁠² Nobody may use or be under the influence of cannabis in licensed space during business hours. Smoking and vaping are banned in licensed indoor space at all times, even after hours.⁠² Since June 11, 2026, licensed space must also be completely free of high-potency synthetic opioids, drug manufacturing equipment and drug paraphernalia. Finding the first two triggers immediate suspension.⁠⁵

Local zoning and neighbors

State law bars cities and counties from prohibiting a family day-care home in a residence located in a residential or commercial zone.⁠⁷ Local governments may still require building, fire, health and business license compliance; lot and setback conformity; signage rules; and limits on operating hours. They may also require that your DCYF licensor certify a safe passenger loading area.⁠⁷ A city or county may also require proof, before state licensing, that you gave written notice to the immediately adjoining property owners.⁠⁷ WAC 110-300 tells applicants to contact state, city and local agencies before licensing and follow their direction.⁠² Call your city or county planning office early to find out which of these options it uses.

The application, in DCYF’s order

1. Contact the Pre-licensing Team

   Email [email protected]. Pre-licensors cover the rules, funding, subsidy, business licenses, location, local and building code issues, site plans, handbooks and staff qualifications.⁠³

2. Register in MERIT and the DCYF training site

   Get a STARS ID in MERIT, then create an account on the DCYF training site.⁠³

3. Take the family home licensing orientation

   Save the certificate; it goes in your packet.⁠³⁠² A 2026 law requires DCYF to waive the orientation for anyone who completed it within the last five years and has worked in licensed child care continuously since, if the content and rules have not changed significantly.⁠⁵

4. Reply to the provider portal email and submit background checks

   Each person submits a portable background check application in MERIT.⁠³

5. Assemble and submit the packet

   The packet includes the application form, orientation certificate, business license if applicable, photo ID, Social Security card or sworn declaration, EIN if you will hire, diploma or education verification, and the fee. Facility documents include the floor plan with exits, water, septic and smelter-plume documents as applicable, your days and hours, and a list of household members and staff.⁠² You also submit four policy documents for review: parent and program policies, staff policies, an emergency preparedness plan and health policies.⁠²

6. Pre-licensing support, then transfer to a local licensing office

   ⁠³

7. Initial inspection

   A licensor inspects the home. You correct the items on the inspection report, and then the license is issued.⁠³ DCYF inspects the space and approves all required submissions before it issues a license.⁠²

Timing. Submit the complete packet at least 90 calendar days before your planned opening. The clock starts only when DCYF has a complete packet, and incomplete packets are returned.⁠² By statute, DCYF must grant or deny an application within 90 days.⁠¹ If you cannot finish within 90 days, you may withdraw and reapply. When an outside barrier caused the delay after you completed your steps, the reapplication fee is waived once. An applicant who neither finishes nor withdraws is denied.⁠²

What it costs in state fees

Sources: ⁠² ⁠⁶

For comparison, a center pays $125 for the first 12 children plus $12 per additional child.⁠² DCYF can accept a check, credit or debit card, or money order.⁠² The rule does not state a dollar figure for fingerprinting; those fees are set by the Washington State Patrol, the FBI, DSHS and DCYF’s fingerprint contractor.⁠⁶

Liability insurance is a choice, but parents must be told

Centers must carry day care insurance. Family homes must either show DCYF proof of day care or other applicable insurance, or opt out and give every enrolled family written notice of their insurance status on DCYF’s standard form, keeping a copy on file.⁠¹ If you buy coverage and it lapses, you must notify DCYF within 30 days, post a notice in the home, and tell parents in writing within 30 days.⁠¹⁠²

From initial license to a license that does not expire

Your first license is an initial license, valid six months. DCYF may extend it up to three more times in six-month steps, for no more than two years in total. During that time it evaluates whether you follow the rules.⁠² For the initial license you must show you can meet the health and safety requirements, not every other requirement in the chapter.⁠² Once you show compliance, DCYF may issue a nonexpiring license.⁠²

“Nonexpiring” still requires annual filings. At least 30 days before each anniversary (the date your first initial license was issued), you submit the $30 fee and a declaration on DCYF’s form. The declaration states whether you will continue or close, any change in hours or dates, and your intent to comply with all rules. You also confirm that required background checks are current.⁠² Miss the deadline and the license expires. You must then apply from scratch, and the rule gives you no right to a hearing.⁠²

Other duties after opening:

• 24-hour reports to DCYF of fire or structural damage, abuse or neglect allegations, criminal charges against you, staff or household members, household changes, or changes in hours.⁠²
• Moving requires a new application no more than 90 days before the move. A family home may operate at the new address for no more than two weeks before DCYF inspects it.⁠²
• Capacity increases need DCYF approval first.⁠²
• Selling the program: a full license can transfer to a new owner if DCYF finds the new operation substantially similar or improved.⁠²
• Public records: keep the last three years of inspection reports and enforcement notices available to parents and the public.⁠²

Enforcement can include civil penalties of up to $150 per violation for a family home, with each day of the same or a substantially similar violation counted separately (RCW 43.216.325, as published on 2026-10-12).⁠¹ The rule requires fines to be paid within 28 days of the notice of violation.⁠² Other actions are probationary licenses, suspension and revocation, and nonrenewal, and you have a right to a hearing on a fine.⁠¹⁠² DCYF may first offer a facility licensing compliance agreement, a written correction plan, instead of enforcement.⁠²

Subsidy: Working Connections and Early Achievers

Only licensed programs can receive state child care subsidy.⁠⁵ A new provider serving children under school age who takes subsidy must enroll in Early Achievers, Washington’s quality rating system, within 30 days of the first subsidy payment. Level 2 activities are due within 12 months of enrollment, and a rating at level 3 or higher within 30 months.⁠¹ Providers who miss level 3 after a remedial period lose subsidy eligibility. The state pays tiered reimbursement to Working Connections Child Care providers rated at levels 3, 4 and 5.⁠¹ Ask the Pre-licensing Team about subsidy before you open, since it is one of the topics they cover.⁠³

Recent changes

• August 1, 2026: WAC 110-300-0100 was amended under 2025 c 281. Family home licensees now have until August 1, 2030, or five years from licensure if later, to earn the ECE initial certificate.⁠²⁠¹
• June 11, 2026: HB 2317 and HB 2219 took effect. They add the zero-tolerance drug rule with immediate suspension and the five-year orientation waiver. They also exempt school-day ECEAP and Head Start programs in public school and college buildings, which does not affect home providers. DCYF said its WA Compass system and inspection checklists would be updated during summer 2026.⁠⁵
• May 15, 2026: the definitions and staff policy sections of WAC 110-300 were amended (WSR 26-09-080).⁠²

Sources

1. 1
   Washington State Legislature, Chapter 43.216 RCW, Department of Children, Youth, and Families Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
2. 2
   Washington State Legislature, Chapter 110-300 WAC, Foundational quality standards for early learning programs Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
3. 3
   Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families, Pre-Licensing and the Licensing Process Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
4. 4
   Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families, Become a Licensed Child Care & Early Learning Provider Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
5. 5
   Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families, Legislative Updates (HB 2317 and HB 2219, effective June 11, 2026) Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
6. 6
   Washington State Legislature, Chapter 110-06 WAC, DCYF background checks Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑
7. 7
   Washington State Legislature, RCW 36.70A.450, Family day-care provider's home facility Checked 12 Oct 2026 · Back to text ↑

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