Sherman, TX Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Section 14.08.001 of the Sherman Code of Ordinances defines "Nursery, kindergarten, or daycare for children" as a place where more than four (4) unrelated children are left for care between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 12:00 a.m. in a place other than the child's own dwelling unit. That definition is the zoning trigger in the City of Sherman, Texas: the use chart in § 14.10.001 lists the use under that name, and its entries for the use are specific use permit entries.

Section 10.03.004(c)(3) adds a traffic requirement. All development requests and specific use permit requests for a daycare, Montessori school, private school, charter school, or public school must include a traffic circulation study with the estimated maximum peak hour trip generation, the planned circulation of inbound and outbound traffic during drop-off and pick-up, and the estimated length of the queue of cars waiting to pick up students. The site design and circulation plan must ensure that school traffic does not back up onto any public street, the owner or operator must agree to operate under the approved plan, and the city engineer must approve the plan before the request can be approved.

The local fire code amendments in § 3.04.001 also reach home daycare. Amended Section 907.2.3 requires an approved smoke detection system in group E day care occupancies. Exception (B) provides that residential in-home day care with not more than 12 children can use interconnected single station detectors in all habitable rooms, and it points to Section 907.2.6 for care of more than five children 2½ or less years of age.

The home occupation list in § 14.10.001, note [2](K), covers a separate class of businesses with no mention of child care, so the daycare definition above is the provision that sets the line for child care in a residence.