Starting a care business in Minnesota

Child care licensing moved from DHS to DCYF, and the statutes were renumbered into chapter 142B while the rules stayed in Minn. R. chapters 9502 and 9503. Caring regularly in your home for children from more than one unrelated family needs a family or group family child care license: your county or Tribal agency takes the application and inspects, DCYF issues the license, and the state charges no fee (a county may charge up to $50 for one year or $100 for two). Outside a licensed home, any child care program not excluded by Minn. Stat. 142B.05 needs a child care center license, however few children it serves. Centers apply through DCYF's Provider Hub with a $500 nonrefundable application fee, and every center license expires on December 31. On July 1, 2027, Laws 2026, chapter 127 repeals the child care parts of those rule chapters and moves family child care into a new chapter 142I (new classes, top capacity 18) and centers into chapter 142H.

For adults who live where they get care, the deciding question is whether the license holder lives in the house. An assisted living facility license from MDH under chapter 144G covers sleeping accommodations plus assisted living services for one or more adults, so a two-resident house falls under it. Every new licensee starts on a provisional license of up to one year and earns the full license only after an unannounced MDH survey; fees as published on 2026-10-12 are $2,000 plus $125 per resident, or $3,000 plus $150 per resident with dementia care. The DHS alternative, an adult foster care license processed by your county, is in practice open only to a family home: the moratorium in Minn. Stat. 245A.03 bars initial licenses for a location that will not be the license holder's primary residence, apart from listed exceptions. A foster home is capped at four beds, counting roomers and boarders, and the annual DHS fee is $2,100.

Small settings now face a siting test. Since July 1, 2026, DHS may not issue an initial adult foster care license, and MDH may not grant a provisional assisted living license for six or fewer residents, on a lot that is the same as or adjoins an existing foster home, community residential setting, or small assisted living or customized living setting, whoever owns it. Lots touching only at a corner, or separated by a street or alley, count as adjoining.

Center-based adult day care is paused. DHS licenses centers directly under Rule 223 (Minn. R. 9555.9600-9555.9730) but stopped accepting applications on February 1, 2026 and expects the moratorium to last until January 31, 2028. A new center can open only if a county, managed care organization or Tribal Nation requests an exception for it; buying an existing center without adding capacity or services is not subject to the moratorium. The home-based alternative, covered in the adult day services guide, is a county-licensed family adult day services license for up to eight adults in the license holder's primary residence ($2,100 a year). DHS's moratorium materials do not say whether it reaches that license, so ask your county.

In-home care has one MDH license at two levels; Minnesota has no separate companion or home health agency license. Help with bathing, dressing, toileting, standby assistance or medication reminders for a fee needs a basic home care license (temporary license $2,100). Nursing, therapy, RN delegation, medication management or hands-on transfers need a comprehensive home care license ($4,200). A business that only provides at least two of housekeeping, meal preparation and shopping registers with MDH instead, for $20 a year (individual) or $50 (organization). Either license starts as a one-year temporary license: you must notify MDH within five days of starting services, and MDH then surveys you unannounced. Medicare certification requires the full comprehensive license, and a six-month CMS moratorium on Medicare enrollment of new home health agencies has applied nationwide since May 13, 2026, so check whether it has been extended.