Home daycare licensing / Montana
Home daycare licensing in Montana
What it takes to run a licensed home daycare in Montana — who regulates it, how many children you can care for, and what an inspector checks.
Who regulates home daycare in Montana
Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS), Child Care Licensing (CCL) program is the state agency responsible for licensing or registering home child care in Montana.
Montana uses 'registration' rather than 'licensure' as its term of art for home-based child care — a Family Day Care Home (3–8 kids) and a Group Day Care Home (9–15 kids) are both 'registered facilities' under DPHHS, a lighter regulatory framing than most states use. The genuinely distinctive rule is the trigger for a second caregiver: it's a flat headcount, not an age-based ratio table — more than 8 children in care, at any age mix, requires two adults present.
Visit Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS), Child Care Licensing (CCL) program →License types and capacity
Family Day Care Home (registered)
3 to 8 children on a regular basis; maximum 3 children under age 2 (unless the home serves exclusively under-2s).
Group Day Care Home (registered)
9 to 15 children on a regular basis; maximum 6 children under age 2.
Requires at least two caregivers present whenever more than 8 children are in care.
Background checks
All household residents over age 18 must complete an FBI Release of Information form, an FBI fingerprint-based background check, and a Statement of Health form; resubmitted every 5 years at license renewal.
Advantages of running a home daycare in Montana
- The Group Day Care Home tier reaches 15 children — one of the higher ceilings among home-based categories nationally.
- Montana's 'registration' framing generally means a lighter administrative burden to get started.
- Montana's vast rural geography and real child-care deserts mean strong, durable local demand with little competitive saturation.
Risks and things to watch
- The 'more than 8 children triggers a second caregiver' rule is a flat headcount trip-wire, not an age-based ratio.
- The under-2 sub-limits (3 in a family home, 6 in a group home) function as hard caps within the larger headcount.
- The fingerprint background check must be resubmitted every 5 years, not done once — an easy renewal deadline to lose track of.
Practical tips for Montana providers
- If planning to grow past 8 children, line up your second caregiver and their FBI clearance well in advance.
- Track your fingerprint background check's 5-year expiration on the same calendar as your license renewal.
- Search DPHHS resources using both 'registration' and 'license' since guidance is indexed under either term.
See the full record set every inspector checks for what to have ready regardless of state.
Curious about licensing in other states?
Home daycare rules — capacity limits, ratios, background checks — vary a lot from state to state. You might want to check how Montana compares:
Keep inspection-ready records without the binder.
DaycareFlow keeps your children, attendance, and family info in one place — built for solo home daycare. Free during early access.
Get started free