West Palm Beach, FL Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Section 402.313 sorts every family child care home into one of two tracks. Under subsection (1), a home is licensed under the chapter 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. A home not subject to license registers annually with the department and supplies the home's name and address, the operator's name, the number of children served, and proof of screening and background checks. Registration also requires a written plan naming at least one other competent adult, with name, address and telephone number, who can substitute for the operator in an emergency. A home can also volunteer to be licensed where no county requires it.

Training is the heaviest requirement. Subsection (4) bars an operator from caring for children until an approved 30-clock-hour introductory course is completed and a competency examination is passed. The course covers state and local child care rules, health, safety and nutrition, identifying and reporting child abuse and neglect, child development including language, cognitive, motor, social and self-help skills, observation of developmental behaviors with a checklist, and early literacy and language development for children from birth to 5 years of age. Registration also requires proof that immunization records are kept current and proof of the required continuing education.

After opening, subsection (5) requires an additional 1 continuing education unit of approved training or 10 clock hours of equivalent training every year. Subsection (6) adds a one-time 0.5 continuing education unit in early literacy and language development for children from birth to 5 years of age; the year it is completed it counts toward the 0.5 unit or 5 clock hours of the annual training. Under subsection (7), the operator completes the department's health and safety home inspection self-evaluation checklist each year, signs it, and gives it to parents as certification that basic standards are met.

Subsection (3) extends screening under ss. 402.305(2) and 402.3055 to any member of the operator's family over the age of 12 and to anyone over 12 living in the home. Those between 12 and 18 are not fingerprinted but are screened for delinquency records. Subsection (12) guarantees a licensed home the utility rates accorded to a residential home, and subsection (2) places the registration information in a directory the department publishes annually.