Waco, TX Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Sec. 28-1 defines 'registered family home' as a facility that regularly provides care in the caretaker's own residence for not more than six children under 14, excluding the caretaker's own children, and that may add after-school care for up to six additional elementary-age siblings, so long as the total, including the caretaker's own children, never exceeds 12 at once. The same section's definition of 'child care facility' expressly excludes a registered family home, along with a licensed group home, kindergarten, nursery school or other special school.

Because a registered family home is not a 'child care facility,' it does not trigger the special-use-permit conditions Waco imposes on child care facilities, such as Sec. 28-273(20) in the R-E district, which requires the lot to front or side onto an O, C, or M district or a collector or arterial street, a driveway no closer than 100 feet to a signalized intersection, and no other child care facility or licensed group home on the same block face. Instead, a registered family home is governed as a home occupation under Sec.

28-928, which is permitted by right in residential districts provided the activity is not visible from the street, occupancy stays within the International Residential Code limit for the dwelling, no alteration changes the building's residential character, there is no open storage, and noise stays within the Sec. 16-202 residential sound limits. Sec. 28-928(5) specifically addresses signage for registered family homes: in R-1 and R-2 districts a registered family home may post only a nonilluminated name plate of one square foot or less, the same cap applied to any home occupation, while in other residential districts sign size is instead governed by Chapter 28's Article VIII sign rules.

A caretaker who serves more than six children, or more than 12 total with siblings, moves into 'child care facility' territory and needs the special permit that applies in that district.