Sedona, AZ Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

Sections 305.2 (Group E day care) and 308.5 (Institutional Group I-4 day care) of the 2018 International Building Code normally push larger day cares into commercial or institutional occupancy classifications, which carry heavier fire-and-life-safety construction requirements. Section 15.05.020(N) SCC carves out an exception for a child care group home that complies with A.R.S. §§ 36-897 through 36-897.13, Arizona's family child care licensing statute for five to ten children, and cares for the children less than 24 hours a day. A qualifying group home for children through age twelve is classified Group R-3, the same category as an ordinary single-family home, rather than Group E or I-4.

The exception carries two conditions written directly into the amendment: every room used for child care must be located on the level of exit discharge (no basement or upper-floor child care rooms), and each child care room must have its own exit door leading directly to the exterior. Those conditions exist because Group R-3 construction standards are lighter than Group E or I-4, so the code trades that flexibility for a guaranteed independent escape route from every room where children are cared for. A home operator who cares for more than ten children, or who does not hold the required ARS 36-897 license, falls back to the standard Group E or I-4 classification and its full commercial life-safety package.