Alexandria, VA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Sec. 2-127 defines a 'child care home' as 'a dwelling unit which offers care, protection and supervision to no more than a total of nine children at a time under 12 years of age during any 24-hour period and then only for part of the 24-hour day.' Sec. 7-500, titled 'Child and elder care homes,' governs how the use is permitted: subsection (A) covers 'requirements for child and elder care homes for one to five persons' and lists four conditions for a home in that size band. First, 'all homes shall be registered with the city pursuant to title 12 of the city code.' Second, when calculating the totals, 'resident children under the age of 12 shall be included' toward the child count while 'all resident adults shall be included' toward the adult count, so the operator's own family counts against the cap. Third, 'the home shall be the principal residence of the operator of the home,' so an investor or non-resident operator cannot run the business out of a rental property. Fourth, the home 'shall comply with all requirements of the city and state codes,' which pulls in Virginia's separate family day home licensing rules.

The child or elder care home use is written into individual zones' permitted-use lists 'as permitted by section 7-500,' for example Sec. 4-102(D.1) in the CL/Commercial Low zone, and the same section-7-500 cross-reference recurs across the city's residential zone use tables, where a home outside the one-to-five-person, registered, owner-occupied profile instead needs a separate special use permit specific to that zone.