Alameda, CA Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

1, titled 'Requirement for Operation,' sits in Chapter 24-7, Institutions for Child Care, part of Chapter XXIV, Public Health. It reaches any institution, boarding home, day nursery, or other place for the reception and care of children under sixteen, and it also reaches any person 'engaged in the business of receiving or caring for such children,' or anyone who receives or cares for such children in the absence of a parent or guardian, whether or not compensation changes hands. The operative requirement is a valid license or permit 'from the State Department of Social Welfare or such agency as may be authorized by it to issue such license or permit,' so the city ordinance does not create its own separate child-care permit; instead it makes operating without the state's license a violation of City law as well as state law.

The section derives from Ordinance No. S. Section 15-811, the City's original general ordinance codification, and was carried into its current numbering by Ordinance No. , adopted June 28, 1960, per the editor's note attached to the Code. The chapter contains only this single section; unlike the adjoining Section 24-8 for boarding homes for aged persons, it does not include a savings clause for facilities that predate the ordinance. 1 appears in the chapter, and the section has not been renumbered since 1960.