A child care facility caring for children from more than one unrelated family generally needs a licence. Family child care homes — care provided in the carer's own house — are licensed or registered depending on the county, and large family child care homes have their own category.
Some programmes are exempt by statute, including certain faith-based and school-operated programmes. Exempt does not mean unregulated in every respect, but it does mean the routine licensing inspection does not apply. This page is a plain-language guide. Licences, applications and eligibility decisions are handled by the State of Florida through its own official channels.
Ratios of staff to children and maximum group sizes, set by the age of the youngest child in the group; the physical environment, including playground safety and safe sleep arrangements for infants; health practices from hand washing to medication storage; nutrition; and records for each child.
Staff must complete introductory training within a set period of being hired and continue with annual in-service hours, and everyone with access to children is screened.
Licensed settings are inspected routinely and again whenever a complaint is received. Findings are classified by seriousness, and repeated findings escalate — from a corrective plan through to fines and, in the worst cases, revocation.
Inspection history is public. For a parent it is the most honest document available about a setting, and it is worth reading more than one year of it.
An application involves the premises, the paperwork and the people: a plan of the building, proof of fire and health inspections, the director's credential, and screening for all staff. The initial inspection happens before children are enrolled, not after.