Lakeville, MN Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Home-based child care in Lakeville is primarily a matter of Minnesota state law and county licensing rather than city regulation. Family child care and group family child care providers are licensed by the Minnesota Department of Human Services under DHS Rule 2 (Minnesota Rules parts 9502.0315 to 9502.0445), with Dakota County acting as the delegated county licensing agency that processes applications and conducts monitoring. State capacity limits generally allow up to 10 children in family child care and up to 14 children in group family child care (with a second caregiver required above 12 children), depending on the license class and the ages of the children. Critically, Minnesota Statutes Section 462.357, Subdivision 7 provides that a licensed group family day care facility serving 14 or fewer persons is considered a permitted single-family residential use for zoning purposes, which limits a city's ability to exclude such facilities from single-family zones. Lakeville's zoning ordinance recognizes day care uses (the city's code references day care provisions, with certain day care uses required to comply with the applicable chapter of the ordinance). Because a licensed family day care is treated as a permitted residential use, it is handled under the state licensing framework rather than as a Chapter 32 home occupation - day care is not on Lakeville's list of allowed home occupations. Prospective providers should obtain the state/county license first and confirm any local zoning details with Lakeville Community Development, since the city may apply reasonable conditions no more restrictive than those on similar residential uses.