Nevada Childcare Licensing: Ratios, Training, and Fees

Nevada childcare licensing requirements are set by NRS Chapter 432A and NAC Chapter 432A, and they apply to anyone who regularly cares for five or more unrelated children for pay. Smaller operations caring for up to four children still have to register with the state. To get licensed you pick the right facility tier, meet minimum space and staffing rules, clear fingerprint-based background checks for every adult in the building, hold current pediatric CPR and first aid certifications, carry liability insurance, and submit an application with a capacity-based fee that starts at $20. A state inspector and the State Fire Marshal both have to sign off before your license issues.

Pick the Right Facility Tier First

Nevada sorts childcare operations into four categories, and every other requirement scales with the one you fall into.

Small child care establishment: up to 4 unrelated children, cared for outside their homes, at least six hours a day and four days a week for more than three consecutive weeks. This tier registers with the state rather than holding a full license.¹
Family home: 5 to 6 children, typically in a private residence.
Group home: 7 to 12 children.
Child care center: 13 or more children, usually in a dedicated commercial building.²

Crossing a threshold later isn’t an amendment. It’s a different license category, so plan your capacity honestly before you apply.

Space and Facility Rules

Every licensed facility must provide at least 35 square feet of usable indoor space per child. That calculation excludes bathrooms, hallways, kitchens, stairways, and storage areas. Outdoor play space must be at least 37.5 square feet per child based on the maximum capacity on your license. Facilities that specifically serve ill children face a higher indoor floor of 50 square feet per child.³

Providers routinely misjudge this. A 1,200-square-foot home sounds generous, but once you subtract the kitchen, the hallways, the bathrooms, and a storage closet, the qualifying square footage may support far fewer children than the raw floor plan suggests. Measure the rooms that actually count before you commit to a space or advertise a capacity.

Staff-to-Child Ratios

Ratios are where inspectors leave no room for error. For child care centers during daytime hours (6:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.), Nevada requires:

Under 9 months: 1 caregiver per 4 children, group size capped at 8
9 months to under 2 years: 1 per 6, cap of 12
2 to under 3 years: 1 per 9, cap of 18
3 to under 4 years: 1 per 12, cap of 24
4 to under 5 years: 1 per 13, cap of 26
5 years and older: 1 per 18, cap of 36³

Family homes hold to no more than six children under 18 per caregiver. Group homes use tighter numbers because the children skew younger: one caregiver per two infants under age one, one per four children ages one and two, and two caregivers for every six children age three and older. If eight or more group-home children have special needs, three caregivers must be on duty.³

Ratios apply at every moment of the day, including transitions, outdoor play, and meals. Staffing to the exact minimum leaves you one sick call away from noncompliance, so plan substitute coverage in.

Background Checks for Every Adult

Every applicant, licensee, employee, and adult resident age 18 or older who lives in a home-based facility has to submit a complete set of fingerprints. Prints go to the Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History and are forwarded to the FBI for a national report.² The Division uses the results to screen for disqualifying convictions listed in NRS 432A.170, including crimes against children and violent felonies.⁴

Fingerprinting fees vary with the vendor, typically running $25 to $60 per person, and are the applicant’s or employer’s responsibility. Start this step early. FBI results can take several weeks, and an incomplete background check is one of the most common reasons applications stall.

Training and Director Qualifications

What Every Caregiver Must Hold

Every caregiver in a licensed facility must hold current pediatric CPR and pediatric first aid certifications before starting work. Adult-only CPR cards do not qualify. Nevada accepts certifications from the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, and HSI.⁵ Initial training also covers recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect, plus SIDS prevention for anyone working with infants.

After the initial round, directors and caregivers must complete at least 15 hours of professional development each year, with no more than 3 of those hours counting toward CPR recertification. Facilities that care for ill children carry a 24-hour annual training requirement instead.³

Director

The licensee can serve as director or appoint someone else, but the director must meet the qualifications in NRS 432A.1773 and receive written approval from the Division before starting.³ Directors of institutional childcare facilities also need a degree from an accredited college or university with at least 15 credits in the social sciences and a minimum of two years of administrative or supervisory experience in a childcare setting. No one convicted of child abuse or neglect, or any crime involving physical harm, can serve as director.

Liability Insurance

Every licensed facility must carry liability insurance protecting against third-party claims. You provide a certificate of insurance to the Division as proof of active coverage, and your insurer has to agree to notify the Division before any cancellation or non-renewal. A lapse must be reported to the Division immediately, and the policy itself has to be kept on-site.³

The regulations don’t set a minimum coverage amount, so the practical floor is whatever an insurer will write. Most providers carry general liability policies with at least $1 million per occurrence. If you transport children, commercial auto is a separate policy, and workers’ compensation is required under Nevada law once you have employees.

Application Fees and What to Submit

Applications go to the Division on the official form with the fee that matches your planned capacity. Under NAC 432A.200:

5 to 6 children: $20
7 to 12 children: $60
13 to 50 children: $100
51 to 100 children: $150
101 to 150 children: $200
151 to 200 children: $250³

The licensing fee is low compared to many states, but it isn’t your startup number. Background checks for every adult, CPR and first aid certifications, liability insurance, any facility modifications, and Fire Marshal compliance add up to substantially more than the line-item fee.

Your application packet should include proof of background check submissions for every adult who will work or reside at the facility, current CPR and first aid certifications for all caregivers, a staffing plan that shows how you’ll maintain ratios, written emergency preparedness and health policies, and your certificate of liability insurance. Assembling everything before you submit prevents the back-and-forth that slows most applications.

Inspections and Provisional Licensing

Once the Division has a complete application and confirmed background check results, an inspector schedules an on-site visit. The inspection checks the physical layout against the square footage rules, sanitation, safety equipment such as fire extinguishers and first aid kits, and whether the space actually supports the required ratios.³

Expect a separate visit from the State Fire Marshal for fire suppression systems, smoke detectors, and emergency exit routes. Local health departments may inspect food preparation and storage. All of them have to sign off before the Division issues the license. Deficiencies come back in a written report, and serious issues can push your opening date out by weeks or months.

Nevada also allows a provisional license under NRS 432A.160 when a facility meets most, but not all, requirements. It’s not a shortcut. It signals that the Division expects full compliance inside a defined window.²

Renewal and Late Fees

A Nevada childcare license is valid for one year. The reissuance application has to reach the Division, or be postmarked, at least 45 days before your license expires. Renewal fees match the initial fee schedule based on capacity. Applications that arrive fewer than 30 days before expiration carry a $50 late fee.³

Renewal is not automatic. The Division runs a survey that repeats the compliance check from the initial application, so keep training records, insurance certificates, and background check documentation organized year-round.

Operating Without a License

Running a childcare facility in Nevada without a license is both civil and criminal. A court can enjoin the operation and impose fines of up to $10,000 for a first offense and $10,000 to $25,000 for any subsequent offense. Unlicensed operation is also a misdemeanor under NRS 432A.220.² The penalties apply whether or not a child was harmed.

Federal Rules That Still Apply

A state license doesn’t exempt you from federal law. The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits denying admission based on a disability and requires reasonable modifications to policies, physical setup, and practices so children with disabilities can participate. General assumptions about a disability don’t justify turning a family away; the law requires an individualized assessment. Exceptions are narrow: a direct safety threat no reasonable modification can eliminate, or changes so expensive or disruptive that they constitute an undue burden.

If you plan to accept children subsidized through the Child Care and Development Fund, your facility also has to meet the health and safety standards required by the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant Act. Those standards cover 12 topic areas, including infectious disease prevention, safe sleep, emergency preparedness, medication administration, and building safety.⁶ Nevada’s training rules overlap heavily with the federal standards, but accepting subsidized children can trigger additional documentation and reporting beyond what the state license alone requires.

1
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes 432A-0295 – Small Child Care Establishment Defined
2
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 432A – Services and Facilities for Care of Children
3
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code 432A – Services and Facilities for Care of Children
4
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes Title 38 Public Welfare 432A-170
5
The Nevada Registry. Initial and Ongoing Training Requirements of Child Care Licensing – Guidelines for Completion
6
Administration for Children and Families. Understanding the New CCDF Health and Safety Standards and Training Requirements