St. Petersburg, FL Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

402.313 Family day care homes. — (1) Family day care homes shall be licensed under this act if they are presently being licensed under an existing county licensing ordinance or if the board of county commissioners passes a resolution that family day care homes be licensed. (a) If not subject to license, family day care homes shall register annually with the department, providing the following information: 1. The name and address of the home. 2. The name of the operator. 3. The number of children served. 4. Proof of a written plan to provide at least one other competent adult to be available to substitute for the operator in an emergency. This plan shall include the name, address, and telephone number of the designated substitute. 5. Proof of screening and background checks. 6. Proof of successful completion of the 30-hour training course, as evidenced by passage of a competency examination, which shall include: a. State and local rules and regulations that govern child care. b. Health, safety, and nutrition. c. Identifying and reporting child abuse and neglect. d. Child development, including typical and atypical language development; and cognitive, motor, social, and self-help skills development. e. Observation of developmental behaviors, including using a checklist or other similar observation tools and techniques to determine a child’s developmental level. f. Specialized areas, including early literacy and language development of children from birth to 5 years of age, as determined by the department, for owner-operators of family day care homes. 7. Proof that immunization records are kept current. 8. Proof of completion of the required continuing education units or clock hours. (b) A family day care home may volunteer to be licensed under this act. (c) The department may provide technical assistance to counties and family day care home providers to enable counties and family day care providers to achieve compliance with family day care homes standards. (2) This information shall be included in a directory to be published annually by the department to inform the public of available child care facilities. (3) Child care personnel in family day care homes shall be subject to the applicable screening provisions contained in ss. 402.305 (2) and 402.3055 . For purposes of screening in family day care homes, the term includes any member over the age of 12 years of a family day care home operator’s family, or persons over the age of 12 years residing with the operator in the family day care home. Members of the operator’s family, or persons residing with the operator, who are between the ages of 12 years and 18 years shall not be required to be fingerprinted, but shall be screened for delinquency records. (4) Operators of family day care homes must successfully complete an approved 30-clock-hour introductory course in child care, as evidenced by passage of a competency examination, before caring for children.