Sanford, FL Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Sanford's Land Development Regulations, in the Schedule A glossary of land use classifications, define "Day care facility" to mean a child care center, nursery school, kindergarten or adult care facility, and expressly exclude a "family day care home as defined by F.S. Section 402.302(5)" from that zoning use category. Because a family day care home is not the "day care facility" use regulated in Schedule B's permitted-use table, it is not subject to that table's district-by-district permit or conditional-use requirements the way a standalone child care center or kindergarten is.

The city's own regulation of the use instead appears in its business tax schedule: Section 98-99 of the City Code, Schedule of Local Business Taxes, lists "DAY NURSERY OR KINDERGARTEN" at a $50.00 tax rate, defined as an institution receiving two or more children not of common parentage for periods of not less than four hours for compensation, and then carves out "Exception A: Family day care homes" at a reduced $5.00 rate. That $5.00 local business tax receipt is the concrete, city-specific obligation a Sanford family day care home operator must satisfy; the underlying licensing standards and the numerical limits on children in care are set by the state under F.S. ch. 402, not by city ordinance, so operators should confirm state licensing separately from the local tax receipt.