Chino Hills, CA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)
Key Facts
- Small family day care
- 8 or fewer children
- Large family day care
- 7 to 14 children
- Zoning status
- Allowed by right in residential zones
- Permit required
- None (state law bars it)
- Governing section
- 16.02.160
Summary
Chino Hills treats small and large family day care homes as defined residential uses rather than home businesses. Municipal Code section 16.02.160 caps a small family day care home at eight or fewer children and a large family day care home at seven to fourteen children, tracking the state definitions that make these uses allowed by right in the city's residential zoning districts.
Day Care Home, Large Family. "Large family day care home" means a residential home that provides care, protection, and supervision, in the provider's own home, for periods of less than twenty-four (24) hours per day, to seven (7) to fourteen (14) children, inclusive, including children under the age of ten (10) years who reside at the home. Day Care Home, Small Family. "Small family day care home" means a residential home that provides care, protection, and supervision, in the provider's own home, for periods of less than twenty-four (24) hours per day, to eight (8) or fewer children, including children under the age of ten (10) years who reside at the home.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 61).
Full Breakdown
160 of the Development Code defines the two tiers of family day care recognized in Chino Hills: a small family day care home cares for eight or fewer children, including any children under age ten who live in the home, while a large family day care home extends that to seven through fourteen children under the same in-home, less-than-24-hour-a-day model. Both definitions require the care to be given in the provider's own home, distinguishing them from a commercial day care center, which the code separately defines in the same section as a facility in a non-residential zone that does not include overnight sleeping accommodations.
56 must obtain. A provider caring for more children than the large-home ceiling of fourteen operates outside these definitions and instead falls into the commercial day care center category, which is separately regulated and requires City land-use approval rather than the automatic residential allowance given to family day care.
Violations & Fines
Because state law bars Chino Hills from conditioning a licensed small or large family day care home on a City permit, there is no local permit to violate for a provider who stays within the eight-child or fourteen-child ceilings set at section 16.02.160. A home that exceeds those limits without qualifying and permitting as a commercial day care facility is treated as an unpermitted land use under Development Code section 16.02.110, enforced as a misdemeanor under section 1.36.010 unless designated an infraction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Chino Hills family day care provider need a business license?
What is the maximum number of children allowed in a Chino Hills large family day care home?
Can a Chino Hills homeowners association or the city block a family day care home?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Chino Hills
California rules heatmap·Compare Chino Hills to another location·View the California home business overview
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Home Daycare in Nearby Cities
How other cities in San Bernardino County handle home daycare.