Home daycare licensing / Texas
Home daycare licensing in Texas
What it takes to run a licensed home daycare in Texas — who regulates it, how many children you can care for, and what an inspector checks.
Who regulates home daycare in Texas
Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) — Child Care Regulation is the state agency responsible for licensing or registering home child care in Texas.
Texas offers one of the lighter-touch entry paths in the country: a Registered Child Care Home lets a solo provider care for up to six unrelated children on a simple registration rather than a full facility license. The big thing to know is that child care regulation moved from the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) in 2018 — so any guide or form still saying 'DFPS' is out of date.
Visit Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) — Child Care Regulation →License types and capacity
Registered Child Care Home
Up to 6 unrelated children (up to 12 total if some are related to the caregiver)
A second caregiver is required once 7 or more children are in care
Licensed Child Care Home
Larger group sizes than a registered home; subject to fuller facility inspection
Child-to-caregiver ratios
1:4 for infants (birth–17 months), 1:5 for young toddlers, 1:9 for two-year-olds, 1:11 for three-year-olds, 1:15 for four-year-olds, 1:22 for school age.
Background checks
Fingerprint-based criminal history and central registry checks for the caregiver and all household members 14 and older.
Advantages of running a home daycare in Texas
- The Registered Child Care Home path is lighter-touch than a full license — a real advantage for a provider who wants to start with up to six unrelated children without center-level regulation.
- Counting related children separately can push your total higher (up to 12 with some related to you), giving family-heavy homes extra room.
- Texas is a large, fast-growing market with strong demand, and the Texas Workforce Commission subsidy runs through local workforce boards you can partner with.
Risks and things to watch
- Out-of-date information is the biggest trap: anything citing 'DFPS' predates the 2018 move to HHSC — always confirm against a current HHSC source.
- A second caregiver becomes mandatory once you hit 7 or more children, so the jump past six carries a real staffing cost.
- The 1:4 infant ratio means an infant-heavy group fills up fast — that ratio, not the six-child total, is often your true ceiling.
Practical tips for Texas providers
- Search with 'HHSC' (not 'DFPS') to filter out the pre-2018 forms and guidance that still rank in Google.
- Understand the unrelated-vs-related counting rule before you enroll — it can legitimately raise your capacity if some children are related to you.
- For subsidy families, connect with your local Texas Workforce board early; that's the channel for subsidized enrollment in Texas.
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 Texas compares:
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