Washington County, OR Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Washington County treats a home day-care business differently depending on which rural district the home sits in. 4, a 'Family Day Care Provider' is someone who lives in the home and regularly cares for children in the family's living quarters, and the county limits that use to fewer than 16 children total, counting the provider's own kids, whether the arrangement is full-time or part-time. The standard applies by name in the AF-10, AF-5 and RR-5 Districts, the county's larger-lot rural residential and agriculture-and-forest zones; it is reviewed as a Type II land-use action, meaning the Director decides after a 14-day written comment period rather than through a full public hearing.

Three conditions apply: the provider must hold and keep current all state licensing and Department of Health & Human Services requirements for child care, the county must find the use compatible with surrounding uses, or make it compatible through conditions of approval, and, because these are farm and forest districts, the operator must sign and record a waiver of the right to remonstrate against 'customarily accepted farming or forestry practices' with the county's Department of Assessment & Taxation. That waiver means a family day care provider cannot later complain about noise, dust, spraying or other normal agricultural activity from neighboring farms.

1, which imposes its own setbacks, lot-coverage and lot-size requirements. This home day-care rule covers only unincorporated county land; Hillsboro and Beaverton apply their own home-occupation and day-care standards inside city limits.