Cass County, MO Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

050 govern which child-care operations count as an accessory, residential-scale use versus a use requiring separate, non-residential premises. A DAY CARE HOME is defined as a child care program where a person licensed as a day care home provider cares for fewer than ten children not related to the provider, for any part of the twenty-four hour day, and that provider may be licensed to operate no more than one family or group day care home. Once the count reaches ten but stays under twenty-one children, the operation becomes a GROUP DAY CARE HOME, and the Order requires that use to be located in a location other than the provider's permanent residence, or completely separate from the provider's living quarters, meaning it can no longer run as an accessory use inside the home itself.

Twenty or more children push the operation into the DAY CARE CENTER category. State licensing under Missouri law runs alongside these zoning use categories: a DAY CARE (CHILD CARE) PROVIDER is defined as the person licensed or required to be licensed under State Statutes with ultimate responsibility for the facility's operation and finances, and the Director of Planning and Zoning enforces where a facility falls in the zoning scheme.