Battle Creek, MI Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Section 1251.45 is the City of Battle Creek use standard for a State Licensed Child Care Family Home, one to seven children. It carries two conditions. The licensee must permanently reside as a member of the household, so an absentee operator cannot run one. And the child limit does not count children related to an adult member of the family by blood, marriage or adoption, but it does count an unrelated minor child who receives care for more than four weeks in a calendar year.

The zoning definition in Section 1230.06 describes the same home as a private home in which one but fewer than eight minor children are received for care and supervision for compensation, for periods of less than twenty-four hours a day, unattended by a parent or legal guardian. An individual who provides babysitting for another individual is excluded from the definition. Every family child care home must be registered with or licensed by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs or its successor agency.

Section 1251.18(c)(2) also lists a babysitting service or family childcare home with not more than seven minor children among the home occupations permitted in residential districts, for periods of less than eighteen hours a day. Section 1251.18(d)(5) points operators to the Child Care Organizations Act, Public Act 116 of 1973, for state licensing and notes that the home occupation rules do not waive state requirements.

A larger operation falls under Section 1251.46, the State Licensed Child Care Group Home for eight to fourteen children, which repeats the permanent-resident and four-week rules. A facility that is not a private residence is a Child Care Center under Section 1230.06, a separate use defined as a facility receiving one or more children under thirteen years of age for care for periods of less than twenty-four hours a day.