Home daycare licensing / North Dakota
Home daycare licensing in North Dakota
What it takes to run a licensed home daycare in North Dakota — who regulates it, how many children you can care for, and what an inspector checks.
Who regulates home daycare in North Dakota
North Dakota Health and Human Services (HHS), Early Childhood Licensing Unit is the state agency responsible for licensing or registering home child care in North Dakota.
North Dakota keeps home-based licensing simple: rather than the two- or three-tier ladder many states use, it runs a single Family Child Care Home category capped at 7 children, with a built-in sub-limit of no more than 3 under age 24 months. HHS's Early Childhood Licensing Unit also stands out for closing a real gap other states leave open — its background-check rule explicitly reaches temporary adult residents, like a grown child home from college for the summer, not just permanent household members.
Visit North Dakota Health and Human Services (HHS), Early Childhood Licensing Unit →License types and capacity
Family Child Care Home
Up to 7 children total, with no more than 3 children under 24 months, plus up to 2 additional school-age children.
North Dakota's single home-based solo tier — growth beyond this typically means transitioning to a licensed center instead.
Background checks
Federal fingerprint-based criminal background check for the provider and any adult living in the home — including temporary adult residents. All adults are also checked against the ND Attorney General's Convicted Sex Offenders and Offenders Against Children list.
Advantages of running a home daycare in North Dakota
- A single, flat license tier (no multi-step ladder) makes ND's home licensing comparatively easy to understand for a first-time provider.
- The state's low population density means less direct home-daycare competition per capita in most counties outside Fargo/Bismarck.
- Support is centralized through Child Care Aware of ND, a dedicated statewide resource-and-referral organization.
Risks and things to watch
- The 'no more than 3 under 24 months' sub-limit is easy to blow past if enrolling infants first-come-first-served rather than tracking the sub-cap.
- The background-check rule catching temporary adult residents is a rule many providers miss.
- With no separate large-home/group-home step-up tier, there's no legal path to grow beyond 7 children in a home setting.
Practical tips for North Dakota providers
- Track your infant sub-limit as a running count separate from your total headcount.
- Report any adult who moves into your home — even temporarily — to HHS proactively.
- Use Child Care Aware of ND as your first stop for licensing questions before calling HHS directly.
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 North Dakota compares:
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