How to start a family child care home
Family Child Care Home Licensing Information
CDSS Programs Community Care Licensing Child Care Licensing How to Become Licensed FCCH Licensing Information
FAMILY CHILD CARE IS A BUSINESS
If you are considering opening a Family Child Care Home, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I enjoy working with children?
- Am I knowledgeable about child development or willing to learn more about child development?
- Am I ready to be a professional business owner?
- Would I like to be able to set my own hours and wages?
- Would I like to work at home so that I can stay at home with my own children?
- Am I willing to open my home to other families and to have my home inspected by the Child Care Licensing Agency?
- Is my family supportive of my plans to operate a Family Child Care Home, and are they willing to get criminal background checks and meet all the requirements of people in the home?
- Am I willing to meet all licensing requirements and, if required, make changes to my home (e.
g. build a 5-foot fence around my swimming pool)?
- Am I ready to take responsibility for the health and safety of children other than my own?
If so, Family Child Care may offer you a rewarding and challenging career opportunity.
VIDEO: Is Family Child Care the Rights Business for Me?
In order to get a Family Child Care Home License:
1. You must attend an orientation
You may register for an online orientation or in-person orientation. In-person orientations are scheduled on a regular basis throughout California.
There is an orientation fee and it is nonrefundable, so be sure that you meet the qualifications for a license before you sign up for an orientation.
To review the qualifications for a license and Pre-Orientation Registration Information, click on the appropriate link: (English), (Espanol/Spanish), (Chinese).
You may sign up for an in-person orientation by viewing the orientation schedules and contacting your local Regional Office. The Regional Office directory will show you what counties each Child Care Licensing office covers. Online orientations are available as soon as you register.
2. You must be familiar with all Family Child Care Home licensing laws and regulations.
The Family Child Care Home licensing requirements are available on our Laws and Regulations page.
3. You must complete and submit all the information and forms required in the application packet. We will not accept your application until after you have completed the orientation. There is an application fee that is nonrefundable.
4. You must undergo a pre-licensing inspection. A Licensing Program Analyst will contact you to schedule an inspection of your home.
If you are ready to sign up for an orientation, please view the orientation schedules and contact your local licensing office or register for an online orientation.
VIDEO: How to Apply for a Family Child Care License.
Contact Us
Child Care Licensing Program
744 P Street, MS T9-15-48
Sacramento, CA 95814
Local Regional Offices
Inyo and Del Norte Counties
(Family Child Care Homes Only)
Child Care Advocates - (916) 654-1541
[email protected]
CCLD Complaint Hotline
1-844-LET-US-NO (1-844-538-8766)
[email protected]
Information regarding filing a complaint
Quick Links
- Child Care Transparency Website (Licensing Facility Inspection Reports)
- Quarterly Updates
- Child Care Advocate Program
- Child Care Licensing Orientations
- Help Paying for Child Care
- California Background Check Process
- Livescan Application Process & Fees
- TrustLine
- Megan's Law
- Adam Walsh Information
- Laws and Regulations
- Forms
Opening & Running a Family Child Care
Are you interested in opening a family child care home? Are you already running a family child care home and looking for additional resources? The pages below will help you learn about the steps you’ll need to take to be successful and will provide resources to ensure your program is providing a high-quality learning experience for the children in your care.
Before you begin your new career path, find out if child care is the right choice for you to help you evaluate why you want to start a child care business. It will help you think through some important considerations before you open your family child care home.
There are different resources for you to complete to help you build your business plan throughout these sections. These resources are meant to help you think through important questions. Your local Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agency and your local licensing agency can help you understand the specific rules and regulations you need to follow to operate a quality program. They will be important resources for you as you begin your child care business.
Also, consider and plan for ways to strengthen and enrich your program. Your local Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agency can also help enhance the quality of your program through training, coaching, and connecting you to additional resources and supports that can assist your family child care home.
In this section you will find:
Do Your Research: This page will guide you through the topics you’ll need to learn about before you open your family child care home. Learn about conducting a needs assessment, licensing and background check requirements, and legal, tax, and insurance considerations.
Action Steps: This page will help you begin to take concrete steps towards opening your business. Find information on preparing a budget, finding a location, developing policies and procedures, hiring staff, and marketing your program.
Program Structure: This information will provide the foundation for your family child care home to be successful. Learn about programs and practices that can strengthen the overall structure of your child care program, such as QRIS and national accreditation, health and nutrition practices, child care policies and procedures, and more.
Program Practices: This page will address topics that can help you to strengthen your program practices, including the curriculum, materials, resources, and daily interactions you and your staff have with the children and families in your care.
About our resources:
The resources in this section can be used individually to help you on the path to opening your family child care home. Click on the blue buttons on each page to access the resource listed. If you prefer to access all resources in one place, download the complete family child care providers resource booklet below.
Download Booklet
Need help printing? Download the Brochure Printing Guide.
Help for mothers: how to open a family kindergarten and start earning
Today, a variety of city support measures are provided for Moscow families with many children. In addition to social payments and subsidies, specialists from the My Career center tell Muscovites about the opportunities for professional growth of parents with many children in the city. One of these is a family kindergarten.
You can open a family kindergarten right at home, while parents themselves act as educators.
This service is available to Moscow families with three or more children aged from two months to seven years. Parents-educators take care of children at home and receive wages for their work. It is important that during the functioning of the family kindergarten, the parents officially accumulate seniority.
When contacting the My Career Center, consultants will tell you where you can take an educational course for an assistant educator in order to understand all organizational issues. Upon completion of the course, a certificate is issued. Then, with all the necessary documents, you must contact the municipal kindergarten closest to your home.
“Thanks to the My Career Center, I learned about the existence of the city's Family Kindergarten program. I was registered and assigned to a municipal preschool as an assistant teacher, I was given instructions, and soon my family kindergarten opened! For almost a year now, I have received an official salary, as well as money for the food of each child ", - Yulia Tereshchenko, mother and educator of four children, shares her impressions.
A mother of many children works only with her children, but in the future she may accept other children from Moscow families into her group. Classes in the family garden are held according to the lesson plan provided by the municipal preschool institution in which the parent is employed. The methodologist of the district kindergarten also gives parents-educators all the literature necessary for the lessons. If necessary, furniture and toys can also be obtained from the city kindergarten.
Pupils of a family kindergarten can use the infrastructure of the educational institution to which they are attached: for classes with a speech therapist, music lessons and physical education lessons or to a swimming pool, children from a family kindergarten can go to a municipal one. Also, preschoolers can attend all holidays and matinees of the district kindergarten. It is important that food in the family garden is free, it is paid from the city budget.
To organize a family kindergarten, you need to contact the head of the nearest preschool educational institution and prepare an application, passport, work and medical book, birth certificates and medical records of children.
Parents can get more detailed information at a consultation at the My Career Center. You can make an appointment on by phone +7 (495) 870-44-44 or on the website mos.ru in the Services section "Appointments to the center of public services and OIV".
Press service of the Moscow Department of Labor and Social Protection
what is a family kindergarten ⋆ SOVA.Today
What is a family kindergarten?
This is a kindergarten that parents open right at home. Such a kindergarten is considered a subdivision of the nearest municipal kindergarten, and the parent is officially employed as a teacher or his assistant - receives seniority, salary and paid leave.
Who can do it?
Any family that has its own housing in its city. The opportunity to open a family kindergarten is not yet available in all cities, and each of the available cities has its own requirements.
The easiest way to do this is in Moscow.
To qualify as a teacher, a parent must have a teaching background. If it is not there, it is still possible to open a kindergarten, but the registration will be for the position of an assistant teacher (respectively, with a lower salary).
At least 3 children from 3 to 7 years of age must be brought up in a family kindergarten. This is a very convenient option for large families, which support the organization of family kindergartens.
However, parents who do not have many children can organize a kindergarten. The main thing is that at least one child should be the parent (or adopted) child of the caregiver. The rest of the children in the group will be distributed by the city. You can negotiate with friends or relatives and enroll familiar children in your kindergarten. In total, a family kindergarten can attend up to 9children.
Each child needs a bed and at least 2 square meters of play space. Plus, the apartment itself must be tested by several authorities for sanitary and fire safety.
The apartment must have a fire extinguisher, locks on the windows, plugs on sockets, as well as a certain temperature in the rooms. And all this will be carefully checked.
tolmacho/Pixabay
What is the salary of a caregiver?
A teacher in a family kindergarten receives a salary according to the rate in the municipal kindergarten in which he is employed, plus the city compensates for the cost of feeding the children.
What is required for registration?
A set of necessary documents will be announced in the kindergarten, where the teacher will get a job. Most likely, it will be:
- passport;
- work and medical books;
- children's birth certificates and their medical records;
- certificate of no criminal record;
- certificate from a psychiatrist and narcologist;
- documents for an apartment.
It turns out that you can just stay at home with your children and get paid for it?
Not really. A family kindergarten is not charity, not financial assistance, but real work. It will not work to sit the children down for half a day for cartoons, but to go about their own business or hand over the children to the grandmother. Moreover, you can’t even conduct classes the way you want. The caregiver parent must adhere to the same program as the children in the municipal garden, submit reports on their work and be prepared for frequent checks. If the program says that today children are sculpting, and tomorrow they are drawing, you need to do just that and report about it. Even the food in the refrigerator will have to be stored not in the way that is convenient for you, but in accordance with all requirements.
Natalie/Pexels
Methodists help parents-educators to understand the programs and rules.
