Prince George's County, MD Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

County Code Sec. 5-119 defines a 'Child Care Facility' as an agency or institution offering group day care to seven or more children of different parentage for all or part of a day on a regular schedule more than once a week, covering group day care centers, nursery schools, kindergartens, and special preschool programs. Programs for children under six that are part of a bona fide church-operated day school ministry, or a kindergarten approved by the State Department of Education, are exempt only from the application, issuance, maintenance, or revocation of a permit, not from the rest of the Division's requirements, and it is unlawful for the operator to refuse to comply once the Health Officer has given notice and a reasonable compliance period has passed.

The Division does not reach family day care homes licensed by the State Social Services Administration; those fall under separate State law, not this local ordinance. Sec. 5-126 lays out the facility-level health standards the Health Officer enforces: every staff member must pass a preemployment tuberculin skin test (with a chest x-ray and physician's fitness statement if the result is positive), file an annual TB certification unless the Secretary waives it, wash hands after handling diapers, pets, or before handling food, and stay off duty while a communicable disease is active.

04, with narrow exceptions for a documented medical contraindication or a written religious objection, waived only during a declared epidemic. Staff must also be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 under Sec. 5-126(a)(6). The Health Officer administers and enforces these standards directly against the facility operator.