Franklin County, WA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Franklin County's zoning code separates day-care uses into tiers, and only one of them escapes the usual zoning-district rules. ' By contrast, a 'mini day-care center' (one to twelve children or adults, run somewhere other than the provider's home) and a 'day-care center' (twelve or more) are treated as land uses subject to the zone they sit in, and several of the county's residential zones list day-care centers and preschools only as conditional uses requiring a special permit. 'Babysitting care,' occasional custodial care under twenty-four hours that need not be compensated, is defined separately and isn't tied to licensing at all.

110(C)(6) requires all day-care facilities, including those run out of a home, to pay the same annual business registration fee, currently seventy-five dollars, and states there is no fee distinction between a home occupation and a day-care operated in a separate facility. The Planning and Building Department administers the registration and any zoning questions, while DSHS licensing and the sanitary-facilities inspection are handled by the state and the Benton-Franklin health district.