Thresholds, tiers and ratios, quoted from state law
How many kids can you watch at home before your state calls it a daycare?
Every state draws the line differently: a headcount in Iowa, one family in California, no allowance at all in Alabama. DaycareRules prints each state’s exact line, the licensing ladder above it, and the age caps inside every tier, quoted from the current statute or rule with the section citation and the date we verified it.
Verified August 31, 2026Without a license, by state
The one-table answer to how many children each state lets you keep before a license, registration or listing kicks in, and what quietly changes the number.
Home daycare ratios by state
Home tiers run on caps and age mixes, not center ratio charts. Capacity per tier, infant limits and assistant rules, cited row by row.
States verified so far
More states clear verification every week and land on these pages the day they do.
How the numbers get here
Two independent readers work through each state’s statute and licensing rules from scratch, without seeing each other’s notes. Their answers are compared field by field; every disagreement goes to an adversarial check against the primary text, and nothing is published without a verbatim quote, a section citation and a verification date. When a state rewrites its rules, the date on the page tells you which edition you are reading.
DaycareRules is an informational reference about home child care licensing rules in the United States. It reprints thresholds, capacity limits, ratios and citations from state statutes and regulations, together with the date each state was last verified. Nothing on this site is legal advice, and rules change. Confirm with your state licensing agency before acting on any number printed here.