How to Open a Home Daycare in Massachusetts: Licensing, Zoning, Taxes

To open a home daycare in Massachusetts, you need a family child care license from the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). Getting there means passing background checks on yourself and your household, completing required training in CPR, First Aid, Safe Sleep, and medication administration, submitting an application through the state’s LEAD portal with supporting documents, and passing a pre-licensing inspection of your home. Operating without a license exposes you to civil fines of $50 to $1,000 per violation under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 15D.¹

Who Issues the License

The EEC licenses family child care homes under 606 CMR 7.00, inspects them, and can revoke licenses or impose sanctions on providers who fall out of compliance.² The same agency can seek court orders to shut down unlicensed operations, so this is not a step you can defer while you build up clients.

Eligibility and Background Checks

You must be at least 18 and use the home where you provide care as your primary residence. If you rent, check your lease before you invest anything else in the process; nothing in state law forces a landlord to allow a business in the unit.

The step that most often stalls applications is the Background Record Check (BRC), which the EEC runs on you and on every household member aged 15 or older. The BRC pulls from several sources at once:³

A CORI check through the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services.
A review of Department of Children and Families records for any supported findings of abuse or neglect.
A Sex Offender Registry Information (SORI) check.
A fingerprint-based national criminal history search, including FBI records.
When applicable, a National Sex Offender Registry search and out-of-state criminal history from any state where you’ve lived in the past five years.

Every adult or teen in the household subject to the BRC has to sign an authorization form. Leaving someone out, or omitting relevant history, is one of the fastest ways to get denied, and discovery after approval can cost you the license.

Training You Need Before You Apply

Start with the Potential Provider Training for family child care, which walks through the EEC’s regulatory framework.⁴ You’ll also need current certifications in:

Infant and child CPR (pediatric, not adult-only).
Basic First Aid, usually bundled with the CPR course.
Safe Sleep and SIDS prevention.
Medication Administration, covering how to handle and give prescribed medications during care hours.

CPR and First Aid together typically run $50 to $130. Keep your completion certificates; you’ll upload them with your application and need to keep each one current for the life of your license.

How Many Children You Can Care For

A family child care license authorizes a capacity of 6, 8, or 10 children, and the number includes your own children if they meet the definition of a “participating child.”⁵ How your own children count depends on age and school status:

Under 5: always counted when they’re on the premises.
Ages 5 to 9, enrolled in school full-time: not counted during the school year if they’re in the home less than three consecutive hours during the child care day. They do count during summer.
Age 10 and older: not counted unless they are homeschooled.
Homeschooled children of any age: counted.

Any person under 14 who doesn’t live in your home also counts when present. During overnight care, everyone under 18 counts.⁵

Separate limits apply to the youngest children. Working alone, you can care for a maximum of three children under 2, and at least one of those three must be 15 months or older and walking unassisted. More infants, or more than three children under 2, requires a second qualified educator on site.⁵ A capacity of 8 or 10 also requires an approved assistant or second educator during the hours when the extra children are present. If you’re starting out solo, capacity 6 is the usual entry point.

Home Safety Standards

The inspector will check your home against the physical requirements in 606 CMR 7.07, so it’s worth knowing what they look for before you spend on upgrades.⁶

Inside the Home

Every child in care needs at least 35 square feet of usable floor space, calculated without hallways, bathrooms, or storage. The home must have two separate means of egress. Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms must be functional on every floor. Stairways children can reach need approved safety gates, and electrical outlets within their reach need protective covers.

Outdoor Space

You need an outdoor play area that provides at least 75 square feet per child who is outside at any one time. The space has to be appropriate for the ages you serve and accessible to children with disabilities.⁶ Fencing is generally expected to be at least four feet high, with impact-absorbing ground surfaces to reduce injury from falls.

Water and Lead Paint

If your water comes from a private well, it must be professionally tested against state safety limits. For homes built before 1978, lead paint is a serious issue. Under 606 CMR 7.07, if chipping or peeling paint is found, you have to notify every enrolled child’s parents in writing about potential lead exposure.⁶ The broader Massachusetts Lead Law requires removal or control of lead hazards wherever children under 6 are present, so for an older home, expect to produce documentation that the residence is lead-safe before the license issues.

Documents to Pull Together

Assemble this packet before you open the application, because missing items will stall the review:

A signed physician’s statement confirming you’re physically and mentally fit to care for children.
At least three professional references who can speak to your character and work with children.
A detailed floor plan of your home with measurements, showing which rooms will be used for care.
A written emergency response plan covering evacuation routes and procedures for fires, severe weather, and medical incidents.
Training certificates for the Potential Provider Training, CPR, First Aid, Safe Sleep, and Medication Administration.
Signed BRC authorization forms for you and every household member aged 15 or older.

Mark your two emergency exits clearly on the floor plan. The licensor will compare the plan against the actual layout during the inspection, so accuracy matters more than how it looks.

Submitting Through LEAD and the Home Inspection

Applications are submitted through the EEC’s Licensing Education Analytic Database (LEAD) portal.⁷ You’ll enter household composition and employment history and upload your training certificates and BRC authorizations. A regional EEC office can help if the portal gives you trouble.

Submitting triggers the licensing fee. For an initial family child care application, that fee is typically around $100; confirm the current amount in LEAD before you pay, since fees change. Once the EEC has your complete application and payment, a regional licensor is assigned to your file and will contact you to schedule a pre-licensing home visit.

What the Licensor Looks For

The licensor walks through every room and the outdoor space, checking compliance with 606 CMR 7.07. They verify safety gates, confirm smoke detectors work, inspect the first aid kit, make sure hazardous materials are locked away, measure the usable space against the 35-square-foot minimum, and compare what they see to your floor plan.

If they find problems, you’ll get a written list of corrections. Every item has to be addressed before the license issues. Small fixes like outlet covers can be done the same day; adding a second egress or remediating lead paint takes longer. After you pass and the EEC finishes its administrative review, your license is issued and should be displayed somewhere parents can see it.⁶

Zoning: Your Town Can’t Block You

Chapter 40A, Section 3 of the General Laws makes family child care homes and large family child care homes an allowable use in every zone, and no municipality can prohibit or regulate that use through its zoning ordinances or bylaws.⁸ A planning board cannot deny you the right to operate on zoning grounds. You still have to meet building codes, fire safety rules, and the EEC’s requirements, and a landlord who prohibits commercial use in the lease is a separate problem the statute does not solve.

Insurance Your Homeowners Policy Won’t Provide

Most homeowners policies exclude claims arising from business activity in the home, and daycare is a business. You’ll need separate liability coverage designed for childcare providers. Annual premiums for home daycare liability insurance typically range from about $350 to $1,500 nationally, depending on coverage limits, the number of children, and whether you add professional liability on top of general liability. The EEC does not require a specific coverage amount, but operating uninsured puts your personal assets at risk if a child is seriously hurt. An agent who specializes in childcare or small business coverage is the right place to start.

Taxes You’ll Owe as a Self-Employed Provider

Running a family child care home makes you self-employed. Once you net more than $400 in a year, you owe self-employment tax of 15.3% (12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare) on top of regular income tax.⁹ The Social Security portion applies to the first $184,500 of combined earnings in 2026.¹⁰ Most home providers won’t hit that cap, but the 15.3% rate still needs to be built into your pricing.

The Daycare Home Deduction

Daycare providers get a tax break most home-based businesses don’t. The IRS normally requires exclusive business use of a home office, but it carves out an exception for daycare: you can deduct a portion of your home expenses even when the same rooms are used personally outside of care hours.¹¹

You claim it on Form 8829 using a time/space percentage. Space is the square footage used for daycare divided by the home’s total square footage. Time compares hours the home is used for daycare against the 8,760 hours in a year, and a room that’s available for daycare throughout each business day counts as used for the full day, without hour-by-hour tracking.¹² Direct expenses, like painting a dedicated playroom, come off in full. Indirect expenses like mortgage interest, utilities, and homeowners insurance are deductible at your calculated business percentage.

Set aside roughly 25% to 30% of net income for quarterly estimated payments to the IRS and Massachusetts. Underpayment penalties compound each quarter you miss.

After You’re Licensed

Your Massachusetts family child care license has to be renewed every three years, and the EEC visits annually in between.¹³ Under the agency’s differential licensing system, providers with strong compliance histories may get a shorter Enhanced Monitoring visit; others get a full review. The full review tool is used at least once every six years.

Continuing education hours are required annually, and every certification you earned to get licensed, including CPR, First Aid, and Medication Administration, has to stay current. Letting one lapse can produce a compliance finding on an annual visit, so put the renewal dates on a calendar the day each certificate issues.

1
Mass.gov. Mass General Laws c15D Section 8
2
Mass.gov. About the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC)
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Mass.gov. EEC Background Record Checks
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MA Executive Office of Education. Potential Provider Training for FCC
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Mass.gov. Determining Capacity
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Cornell Law School. 606 CMR 7.07 – Physical Facility Requirements
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Mass.gov. LEAD Portal – Licensing Transactions
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Mass.gov. Section 76 – Family Childcare Zoning
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Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)
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Social Security Administration. What Is the Current Maximum Amount of Taxable Earnings for Social Security
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Internal Revenue Service. Publication 587 (2025) – Business Use of Your Home
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8829 – Expenses for Business Use of Your Home
13
Mass.gov. Family Child Care Programs Differential Licensing