Port Orange, FL Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Port Orange's Land Development Code, Chapter 2, Section 2, defines a 'family child care home' as an occupied residence where child care is provided for less than 24 hours a day on a regular basis for no more than five preschool children, including any related to the resident caregiver. The home can also care for up to five additional elementary-school-age children after school hours, but only if those children are related to the already-permitted school-age children; any unrelated elementary student counts against the five-preschool-child cap instead.

Cross that numeric line and the operation becomes a 'child care center,' defined separately in the same section as an arrangement serving more than five children unrelated to the operator for compensation. 305 and, per Chapter 18, Section 4, subsection 4, needs city approval as a 'permitted use with special development requirements' in districts such as R-3L, the low density multifamily zone, rather than operating as an accessory home use. The administrative official, appointed by the city manager under Chapter 3, enforces this distinction: a home that stays within the five-plus-five formula is treated as an ordinary residential use requiring no separate zoning approval, while exceeding it without obtaining center licensing and site plan approval is a code violation.

Parents and providers researching a Port Orange address should count both the preschool and related school-age children living or cared for on site before assuming the operation qualifies as a home-based use rather than a licensed center.