Santa Rosa County, FL Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Florida Statutes section 402.302(8) defines the family child care home, and the definition governs homes in Santa Rosa County as it does across Florida. A residence qualifies when it is occupied, regularly provides child care for children from at least two unrelated families, and receives a payment, fee, or grant for any of the children, whether or not operated for profit. Care for a single unrelated family does not meet the two-family test.

Capacity is the core rule. A Santa Rosa County family child care home is allowed one of four groups, and every group must include the operator's household children under 13 years of age. Group (a) is a maximum of four children from birth to 12 months. Group (b) is a maximum of three children from birth to 12 months, and other children, for a maximum total of six. Group (c) is a maximum of six preschool children if all are older than 12 months. Group (d) is a maximum of 10 children if no more than 5 are preschool age and, of those 5, no more than 2 are under 12 months of age. Household children count whenever they are on the premises or on a field trip with children enrolled in child care.

Subsection (9) defines household children as children related by blood, marriage, or legal adoption to, or legal wards of, the operator or an adult household member who permanently or temporarily lives in the home. The operator decides how to supervise them, unless they receive subsidized care through the school readiness program under section 1002.92.

Subsection (11) defines the next tier, the large family child care home. It needs at least two full-time child care personnel on the premises, one of them the owner or occupant, and it must first have operated as a licensed family child care home for 2 years under an operator holding a child development associate credential or its equivalent for 1 year. A large home is allowed a maximum of 8 children from birth to 24 months, or a maximum of 12 children with no more than 4 under 24 months.

Screening reaches into the household. Under subsection (3), a household member over age 12 is child care personnel when the facility is in or adjacent to the operator's home or has direct contact with the children. Those between 12 and 18 are screened for delinquency records but not fingerprinted. Adult screening under subsection (15) covers 5 years of employment history and criminal, sexual predator and offender, and child abuse and neglect registry searches in every state of residence during that period.