Santee, CA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

The Santee Municipal Code defines "day care, home, family" at § 13.04.140 as regularly provided care, protection and supervision of 14 or fewer children in the provider's own home, for periods of less than 24 hours per day, while the parents or guardians are away. That definition sets the ceiling that separates a family day care home from a "day care center," which the code defines separately as a commercial facility charging tuition and is not covered by this residential use entry. Because Table 13.10.030A in § 13.10.030 marks the use "P" (permitted) across all eight residential columns, HL, R-1, R-1A, R-2, R-7, R-14, R-22 and R-30, a Santee homeowner running a licensed family day care for up to 14 children does not need a conditional use permit or a minor conditional use permit the way a boarding house (row 7, "C" in the R-2 through R-22 columns) or a nonaccessory residential care facility for seven or more (also "C") would.

The Director of Planning and Building administers the use table and, per § 13.04.040, resolves any use not specifically listed through the use determination procedure, but a family day care home already has its own listed row so that step is not needed here. Operators still need whatever State licensing California requires for family day care, and a Santee business license under Title 4 applies to home-based businesses generally, but the zoning question itself, whether the City allows the use on a residential lot at all, is answered directly and favorably by this table entry.