Dearborn Heights, MI Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Sec. 36-37 defines a family day care home as a private home caring for one but fewer than seven minor children for less than 24 hours a day, unattended by a parent or guardian, not counting children related to the caregiver by blood, marriage, or adoption; the definition also reaches a home caring for an unrelated child more than 4 weeks in a calendar year. The Human Services Facilities table in that same section classifies a family day care home (1 to 6 children) as a private-home use that is not subject to special use approval, so it is allowed by right wherever a private home is allowed.

A group day care home (7 to 12 children) is still classified as a private home in the table, but it does require special use approval from the Planning Commission before it can operate. Once a facility grows into a child care center or day care center, caring for children outside the private-home model, it is governed separately by Sec. 36-166 rather than the private-home table: it is never treated as a private home and always needs special use approval. Sec. 36-166 further requires state licensing or registration, 150 square feet of fenced and screened outdoor recreation area per child (minimum 5,000 square feet total), adequate pick-up and drop-off areas separated from traffic, frontage on a collector, arterial, or thoroughfare street, and a cap of 16 hours of daily operation for a center in or accessory to a residential use.