Whitfield County, GA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Article II of the Unified Zoning Ordinance draws a sharp numeric line between running a home as a family day care and running it as a licensed child care business. A family day care home is a private residence operated by a resident who, for a fee, supervises not less than three and not more than six children under age 18, none of them related to that person and none whose parent or guardian lives there, for no more than 16 hours in a day.

That definition sits alongside three other day care sub-categories the ordinance recognizes: group day care homes (7 to 18 children, regulated by the Georgia Department of Family and Children's Services), child care learning centers (19 or more children, also DFCS-regulated), and adult day centers. Crossing from six children to seven is what triggers DFCS licensing as a group day care home under county code, along with the additional-use conditions the ordinance places on non-residential day care operations elsewhere in Article IV. Because the definition itself does not carry a separate permit requirement, a family day care home operating within the 3-to-6 child range is treated as an ordinary residential use rather than a commercial accessory use requiring site plan review. Operators should still confirm compliance with state child care licensing and county building and fire codes, which apply independently of the zoning classification.