Tampa, FL Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Florida sets the rules for a home child care business in Tampa, and the statute decides who regulates a home before it decides anything else. Under subsection (1), a family child care home is licensed if it is presently licensed under an existing county licensing ordinance, or if the board of county commissioners passes a resolution that family child care homes be licensed. Tampa sits in Hillsborough County, so the county commission's action is the trigger. A home outside that trigger is still regulated: paragraph (1)(a) requires it to register annually with the department. Any home can also choose the stricter path, because paragraph (1)(b) lets a family child care home volunteer to be licensed.

The annual registration filing lists the name and address of the home, the name of the operator, the number of children served, and proof of a written plan to provide at least one other competent adult as an emergency substitute, including that person's name, address and telephone number. It also requires proof of screening and background checks, proof of passing the 30-hour training course, proof that immunization records are kept current, and proof of completing the required continuing education units or clock hours.

The 30-hour course ends in a competency examination covering state and local child care rules, health, safety and nutrition, identifying and reporting child abuse and neglect, child development, and observation of developmental behaviors with a checklist or similar tool. Owner-operators are also tested on specialized areas, including early literacy and language development of children from birth to 5 years of age. Subsection (4) requires the operator to pass before caring for children.

Training continues every year. Subsection (5) requires an additional 1 continuing education unit of approved training or 10 clock hours of equivalent training annually. Subsection (6) adds a one-time 0.5 continuing education unit in early literacy and language development, and in the year it is completed it counts toward the 0.5 unit or 5 clock hours of the annual training. Subsection (7) requires a signed health and safety home inspection self-evaluation checklist each year, which is provided to parents as certification that basic standards are being met.

Screening under subsection (3) reaches beyond the operator. It covers any member over the age of 12 years of the operator's family and any person over 12 residing in the home. Those between 12 and 18 are not fingerprinted but are screened for delinquency records. Subsection (2) puts registered homes in a directory the department publishes annually, and subsection (13) directs the department to set minimum standards by rule for homes that are licensed.