To operate a registered child care home in Texas, you must be at least 21 years old, hold a high school diploma or equivalent, carry $300,000 in liability insurance, pass background checks for every household member 14 and older, meet the state’s home safety standards, and submit an application through the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) with a $35 fee. Before HHSC approves you, you’ll attend an orientation class and pass an on-site inspection of your home.
A registration lets you care for up to six unrelated children age 13 and younger during school hours, plus up to six additional school-age children before and after school, with an absolute cap of 12 children (including your own) at any one time.1Texas Health and Human Services. What Are the Types of Child Care Operations If you routinely care for seven or more children at one time, you need a licensed child care home instead, which carries stricter requirements.
Who Can Be the Provider
You must be at least 21 and hold a high school diploma or equivalent.2Cornell Law School. 26 Texas Admin Code 747.1007 – What Qualifications Must I Meet to Be the Primary Caregiver of a Registered Child-Care Home A current certificate in pediatric first aid and pediatric CPR is required before HHSC will approve your application.
You also have to attend a child care home orientation class run by HHSC’s Child Care Regulation division. Orientation covers the application, the minimum standards, and what inspectors look for.3Texas Health and Human Services. Become a Child Care Home Provider Class schedules vary by region and are posted on the HHS website.
Once you’re registered, you have to complete at least 30 clock hours of training each year on topics relevant to the ages of the children you serve.4Cornell Law School. 26 Texas Admin Code 747.1309 – What Areas of Training Must the Annual Training Include Pediatric CPR and first aid renewals count toward those hours, but you still have to cover child development, nutrition, and recognizing abuse.
How Many Children You Can Care For
The 12-child ceiling isn’t always available. Texas uses a sliding scale that reduces your maximum based on infants in care. With no children under 18 months, you can reach 12. One infant drops your maximum to 10. Two infants bring it to eight, three to seven, and four infants cap you at six total.5Texas Health and Human Services. Minimum Standards for Licensed and Registered Child-Care Homes – Section 747.1701
Your own children count toward every limit whenever they’re present. A provider with two toddlers of her own and one infant in care is already at a maximum of eight, leaving room for only five more. Bringing in an extra caregiver does not raise the ceiling for a registered home.6Texas Health and Human Services. Minimum Standards for Licensed and Registered Child-Care Homes – Section 747.1703
Background Checks for the Whole Household
Every person 14 or older who lives in your home, has unsupervised access to children in care, or regularly visits during operating hours must clear a background check.7Texas Health and Human Services. Child Care Regulation Background Checks Each person supplies a Social Security number and residential history. The fee is $2 per check, paid during application.8Texas Health and Human Services. 5200 Fees
Some convictions are an absolute bar, meaning the person can never be present while children are in care. Felonies involving murder, child abuse or neglect, crimes against children, spousal abuse, sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, or physical assault fall in that group. So do misdemeanor convictions for violence against a child or child pornography. Other offenses trigger a five- or ten-year waiting period, after which the person may request a risk evaluation from HHSC.
Work through the disqualifying list with every household member before you invest time in the rest of the process. A teenage child’s old conviction or a roommate’s history can derail an entire application.
Safety Standards Your Home Must Meet
Inspectors verify each standard on their on-site visit. Treat the list as a checklist.
Fire, Smoke, and Carbon Monoxide
Your home must have a working smoke detection system, either battery-operated or electric smoke detectors, in each room children use.9Cornell Law School. 26 Texas Admin Code 747.5111 – Must My Child-Care Home Have a Smoke-Detection System That covers every room used during the day, not just sleeping areas. You also need a fire extinguishing system: a sprinkler system, portable extinguishers, or both.
A working carbon monoxide detection system is also required.10Cornell Law School. 26 Texas Admin Code 747.5331 – Must My Child-Care Home Have a Carbon Monoxide Detection System Have a written fire evacuation plan on hand showing how you and the children will exit during an emergency.
Swimming Pools
If your property has a pool, you must prevent children from accessing the pool area with a wall, fence, or other durable barrier at least four feet high.11Cornell Law School. 26 Texas Admin Code 747.4807 – Must I Have a Fence Around a Swimming Pool Gates must be self-closing and self-latching. Inspectors test the mechanism, so install hardware that actually works rather than a latch you prop open during the day.
Chemicals, Firearms, and Pets
Household chemicals and cleaning supplies go in locked cabinets out of children’s reach. Firearms and ammunition must be locked and inaccessible during all operating hours, with ammunition stored separately from weapons. Pets need current vaccination records available for inspection.
Liability Insurance
Every registered child care home must carry liability insurance of at least $300,000 per occurrence of negligence covering injury to a child while on your premises or in your care.12Cornell Law School. 26 Texas Admin Code 745.249 – What Are the Liability Insurance Requirements Proof of coverage is due to HHSC each year by the anniversary of your permit. Annual premiums for home-based child care policies generally run from around $500 to $1,500, depending on capacity, location, and claims history.
Standard homeowner’s policies almost always exclude business activities. Confirm with your insurer that your policy either covers or does not conflict with a commercial child care operation on the premises, or you risk a denied claim later.
Applying to HHSC
After orientation and once you’ve gathered your documents, the application moves in a straightforward sequence.
- Create an account on the HHSC Child Care Regulation online portal (e-Provider). This is your interface for the application and all future regulatory contact.
- Complete the Child Care Licensing Registration Application (Form 2983), which asks for your legal name, home address, and details about your operation, and a Background Check Request (Form 2960) for every person 14 or older living in the home. Both forms are on the HHS website.
- Upload supporting documents: your high school diploma or equivalent, current pediatric CPR and first aid certificates, a floor plan showing which rooms children will use and where exits are located, your fire evacuation plan, and proof of liability insurance.
- Pay the non-refundable $35 application fee by credit card or electronic check. Background checks cost $2 each on top of that.8Texas Health and Human Services. 5200 Fees
- Submit. You’ll receive a confirmation email with a tracking number.
A Child Care Regulation inspector has 21 days from the date HHSC receives your application to review it and tell you whether it is accepted, incomplete, or needs changes.13Texas Health and Human Services. 3200 Processing the Application for a License, Certificate, Registration, or Listing If accepted, the inspector schedules an on-site visit to verify safety standards before your registration is issued.
Ongoing Inspections and Renewal
HHSC conducts at least one unannounced monitoring visit every one to two years after your initial approval to confirm continued compliance.1Texas Health and Human Services. What Are the Types of Child Care Operations Inspectors check smoke detectors, staff-to-child ratios, current background checks, and every other standard.
Your registration must be renewed every two years. The renewal window opens 60 days before your permit’s anniversary, and there is a 30-day grace period after. Miss both and your permit expires; you must stop operating until it is reinstated.14Texas Health and Human Services. 3900 Permit Renewal The $35 fee is due each year on your anniversary date regardless of the two-year renewal cycle.8Texas Health and Human Services. 5200 Fees
Penalties for Operating Out of Compliance
HHSC can suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew your registration for failing to comply with any provision of Chapter 42 of the Human Resources Code or the administrative rules. Civil penalties range from $50 to $100 per day for each violation that threatens serious harm to a child. Operating a family home without the required registration is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.15State of Texas. Texas Human Resources Code Chapter 42 – Regulation of Certain Facilities, Homes, and Agencies That Provide Child-Care Services – Section 42.076 The three tracks can stack.
Obligations Once You’re Operating
Registration puts you on the hook for a few things beyond HHSC’s rules.
Running a registered child care home makes you self-employed for federal tax purposes. You owe both regular income tax and self-employment tax at 15.3%, which covers Social Security and Medicare.16Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes) The home-office deduction has a special rule for daycare providers: you don’t need to use a room exclusively for the business, so long as you are registered (or have applied) under state law and use the space regularly for child care.17Internal Revenue Service. Business Use of Your Home (Publication 587) The IRS also publishes standard meal and snack rates you can use instead of tracking every grocery receipt.
Your Texas registration qualifies you to participate in the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which reimburses registered homes for meals and snacks served to enrolled children. You enroll through a sponsoring organization rather than directly with the USDA.18Food and Nutrition Service. CACFP Family Day Care Homes Tier I rates apply to providers in low-income areas or whose own household income falls below 185% of the federal poverty guidelines; Tier II rates are lower.19Food and Nutrition Service. CACFP Payment and Reimbursement Rates for the Period July 1, 2025 Through June 30, 2026
If you bring on an assistant, the IRS will almost certainly treat that person as your employee rather than an independent contractor. Classification turns on how much control you exercise, and an assistant working your hours, in your home, following your rules, under your supervision checks every box for employee status.20Internal Revenue Service. Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee Misclassifying triggers back taxes, penalties, and interest. You must complete a Form I-9 for each employee and keep it for the longer of three years from the hire date or one year after employment ends.21U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 10.0 Retaining Form I-9 Any assistant with unsupervised access to children must also clear a Texas background check.
The Americans with Disabilities Act applies to home-based day care, not just commercial centers. If a parent or child with a disability needs accommodation, you must remove architectural barriers when doing so is “readily achievable,” meaning it can be done without much difficulty or expense.22ADA.gov. Equal Access to Child Care You cannot refuse to enroll a child solely because of a disability if reasonable modifications would allow the child to participate.