Medford, OR Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

012 as a child day care facility located in a building constructed as a single-family dwelling, certified to care for no more than 16 children at one time, run by a family day care provider in the family's own living quarters, and it may include an outdoor nature-based child care program. This is distinguished from a "child day care center," which operates in a commercial or nonresidential setting. 031(2), which governs home-based business license applications. Ordinarily, home-based business activity must stay entirely inside the dwelling unit or an enclosed accessory structure, and outdoor storage visible from the street or neighboring properties is prohibited, but subsection (2)(a) and (b) carve out explicit exceptions for licensed outdoor child care programs, letting a home daycare operate a fenced play yard visible from the property line.

Subsection (2)(h) requires that any home-based business providing private child care, including a certified outdoor program, hold a license issued by the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care (DELC) before the City will issue or maintain the business license. The general home-business caps still apply on top of the childcare-specific rules: total residential and business vehicle trips are capped at an average of 10 per day over any five-day period, and never more than 16 trips in a single day, with each arrival and departure counted separately.

The business must be operated by someone who actually lives in the home, and the site cannot be used as an assembly point for employees who don't reside there. A negative endorsement on a home daycare license application, for instance from the Fire Marshal or Building and Safety, can be appealed to the City Manager or designee.