Maryland Babysitting Laws: Age, Registration, and Sitter Taxes

Maryland babysitting laws set a firm minimum age of 13 for anyone caring for a child under 8, treat regular in-home care of unrelated children as regulated family child care once it hits 20 hours a month, and expose parents to neglect investigations, registration penalties, and federal employment tax obligations depending on the arrangement. The rules that matter most depend on who is watching whom, where, and for how long.

How Old a Babysitter Must Be

Maryland Family Law § 5-801 says that if a child under 8 is left inside a home, another building, or a vehicle, a reliable person at least 13 years old must stay to protect them. A parent who violates this rule commits a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500, up to 30 days in jail, or both.¹

For children ages 8 through 12, no hard statutory minimum applies. Child Protective Services guidance treats children in this range as potentially unattended if they are left alone for extended periods without access to a parent’s phone number, a nearby adult, and basic safety information. Children 8 through 12 are also not supposed to be left caring for any child under 8. A child 13 or older left alone for unusually long stretches or overnight, or one with a disability that adds risk, can still be considered unattended under CPS guidelines.

So 13 is the youngest a sitter can legally be if any child in the group is under 8. Above that age, no specific number governs, and CPS looks at maturity, duration, and whether the children have a way to reach help.

When a Sitter Is Legally Adequate Beyond Age

The age-13 rule is a floor, not a safe harbor. Family Law § 5-701 defines neglect to include leaving a child unattended or failing to provide proper care under circumstances that put the child’s health or welfare at substantial risk, or that create a substantial risk of mental injury.² A 13-year-old who technically meets the age rule but cannot actually handle the situation — a sitter who falls asleep, wanders off, or freezes in an emergency — can trigger a neglect finding against the parent who chose them.

Criminal Law § 3-602.1 goes further, making it a misdemeanor for a parent, family member, or anyone with care or custody of a child to intentionally fail to provide for the child’s physical or mental health needs when doing so creates a substantial risk of harm. Conviction carries up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.³ That statute reaches babysitters directly, not just parents.

When Babysitting Becomes Regulated Child Care

Maryland draws a clean line between casual babysitting and regulated child care. State regulations define “babysitting” as caring for unrelated children in the sitter’s own home for fewer than 20 hours a month, and that arrangement sits outside state oversight.⁴ Cross the 20-hour threshold, and the state treats the setup as a family child care home that must register with the Maryland State Department of Education’s Office of Child Care.

A few points trip people up. The threshold applies only when the caregiver hosts the children in the caregiver’s own home; watching kids in their family’s home, even regularly, does not trigger registration. The 20 hours count all unrelated children combined, not each child separately. And the correct term is registration, not license — family child care homes get certificates of registration, while larger child care centers get licenses.

Exemptions for Relatives and Friends

Three categories are exempt from family child care registration regardless of hours:

A caregiver related by blood or marriage to every child in their care.
A friend of the child’s parent or guardian who provides care on an occasional basis.
A person who receives a child through a licensed child placement agency or a local department of social services.

The relative exemption is the one most families rely on. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and older cousins can provide regular care in their own homes without registering. Add a single unrelated child to the mix, though, and the exemption is gone: every child in the home must be a relative for the exemption to hold.

Registration Rules if You Cross the Threshold

If you plan to care for unrelated children in your home for 20 or more hours a month, you need a certificate of registration under COMAR 13A.15.⁵ Requirements include:

Being at least 18 years old.
Completing an orientation to family child care regulations offered or approved by the Office of Child Care.
Passing a federal and state criminal background check, including a review of child abuse and neglect records.
Holding current CPR and first aid certification, plus ongoing training.

Capacity is capped at eight children at any one time. No more than two of those may be under age 2 unless the office grants special approval, and even with an approved additional qualified adult on site, the cap for children under 2 is four. The provider’s own children under age 6 count toward these totals.⁵

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

Running an unregistered family child care home draws both civil and criminal exposure. Family Law § 5-557.1 authorizes civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation, with each day of illegal operation counted as a separate violation, capped at $5,000 in any single enforcement action.⁶ On the criminal side, violating the registration requirements is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year in jail, or both.⁷ The two are separate; a provider can face both.

When a child is actually harmed or placed at serious risk, the numbers change. A parent can be investigated under the § 5-701 neglect definition. The sitter can be charged under Criminal Law § 3-602.1, with exposure of up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.³ And leaving a child under 8 with someone younger than 13 is itself a misdemeanor under § 5-801, regardless of whether anything goes wrong.¹

What Parents Owe When They Pay a Sitter

A babysitter who works in your home is a household employee for federal tax purposes, not an independent contractor, and several thresholds decide what you owe.

Social Security and Medicare

Pay a household employee $3,000 or more in cash wages during 2026, and you owe Social Security and Medicare taxes on those wages. You pay half (7.65%) and withhold the other half from the employee, or you can cover both halves yourself.⁸

Teen sitters get a big exception: wages paid to an employee under 18 are not subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes as long as household work is not the employee’s principal occupation. A high school or college student sitting on weekends qualifies regardless of how much you pay.⁸

Federal Unemployment Tax

Pay all your household employees a combined total of $1,000 or more in any calendar quarter, and you owe federal unemployment tax on the first $7,000 of each employee’s wages at 6%. FUTA comes entirely out of your pocket; you cannot withhold it. Wages paid to a spouse, a child under 21, or a parent are excluded.⁸

Filing

Report household employment taxes on Schedule H, filed with your federal income tax return by April 15, 2027 for the 2026 tax year. Provide a W-2 to any household employee who earned $3,000 or more in Social Security and Medicare wages, or from whose pay you withheld federal income tax.⁸

Maryland Workers’ Compensation

Maryland requires workers’ compensation coverage for domestic workers who earn at least $1,000 in cash wages in a calendar quarter from a single household.⁹ Most occasional sitters won’t clear that bar; a regular sitter working several days a week easily can. Below the threshold, the parent and sitter can jointly elect coverage through the Workers’ Compensation Commission. If a sitter is injured on the job and should have been covered, the parent is personally on the hook for medical costs and lost wages.

Federal Minimum Wage and Overtime

The Fair Labor Standards Act exempts babysitters working on a “casual basis” from federal minimum wage and overtime rules. Under federal regulations, babysitting is generally considered casual if the sitter works no more than 20 hours per week across all families combined.¹⁰ That 20-hour-per-week federal test is different from Maryland’s 20-hour-per-month registration threshold.

A sitter who exceeds 20 hours per week can still qualify as casual if the extra hours are irregular or intermittent rather than a set schedule. Full-time babysitting as an occupation is never casual. A vacation exception applies: a sitter who travels with a family to watch the children stays casual regardless of weekly hours, so long as the trip runs no more than six weeks and babysitting isn’t the sitter’s regular vocation.¹⁰

One catch. If the sitter spends more than 20% of their time on general housework during an assignment — laundry, cleaning, cooking for the family — the casual exemption disappears for that assignment. The sitter must then be paid at least federal minimum wage, with overtime after 40 hours.¹⁰

Training That Isn’t Required but Matters

Maryland does not require informal babysitters to hold any certification. Completing a recognized course is still one of the clearest ways for a teen sitter to show the maturity that both parents and CPS look for. The American Red Cross offers a babysitter’s training course covering feeding, diapering, safety basics, and emergency response, with separate CPR and first aid certifications valid for two years.

For a parent evaluating a sitter, asking about training and a current CPR card is a practical step, and having chosen a trained sitter helps if your judgment is ever questioned. For a teen sitter, the same certifications make you more marketable, because most parents will pay more for someone who can show they know what to do in an emergency.

1
Justia Law. Maryland Family Law Code 5-801 – Confinement in Building or Enclosure
2
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Family Law Code 5-701
3
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Criminal Law Code 3-602.1
4
Legal Information Institute. COMAR 13A.14.06.02 – Definitions
5
Maryland Public Schools. COMAR 13A.15 Family Child Care
6
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Family Law Code 5-557.1 – Penalty, Civil
7
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Family Law Code 5-556 – Failure to Disclose Prior Conviction or Existence of Pending Charge
8
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide
9
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Labor and Employment Code 9-209
10
eCFR. 29 CFR 552.104 – Babysitting Services Performed on a Casual Basis