What Are the Requirements for Minnesota to Have a Home Daycare?

Home daycare can be a rewarding experience and a career option for those who enjoy working with children and prefer to work at home. Daycare may be an option if you have children, which may make it difficult to keep a job outside the home. Starting an in-home daycare service in Minnesota requires adherence to several guidelines.

Adhere to the state's limitations on the numbers of children in your daycare service. Two types of home daycare exist in Minnesota: family and group. A family daycare operation can oversee no more than 10 children at a time, and no more than six of those children can be preschool age or younger. Group daycare is eligible to accommodate between 11 and 14 children at a time, including any children of the caregiver.

Caregivers for family daycare services must at least 18 years of age and physically able to care for children.

Group caregivers must meet one of three qualifying criteria: one year of experience as a family child caregiver, six months of experience as a licensed family child care provider or certification in specified child development or an early childhood program. The latter can be satisfied with a prekindergarten license, a K-6 teaching degree or documentation of six months of experience as a fulltime teacher at a licensed child care center.

Satisfy the requirements for your home. According to the Minnesota Child Care Resource Network, child care may be provided in the license holder's residence if the residence has at least 35 square feet of interior space per child and has at least 50 square feet of outdoor space per child located within 1,500 feet of a park or playground.

The home must satisfy health and sanitation requirements, and caregivers must provide adequate activities for the number and ages of children in their care.

Acquire the required training. Minnesota requires child caregivers to have six to nine hours of training in a combined course for child-related first aid and CPR and eight hours of county-approved training in child development and child care. Training must be completed within one year of initial licensing. Child caregivers must complete six hours of training each year in at least one of 14 specified subject areas.

Minnesota forbids caregivers from administering corporal punishment, and caregivers must utilize age-appropriate separation from the group when separation is required.

Maintain records. Home daycare providers in Minnesota must have hard copies of records pertaining to their daycare. This includes such things as the ages and number of children at the residence, meal and snack menus, policies for the care of ill or injured children, fees and insurance coverage.

Pass local fire and building code inspections. You are not required to spend more than $100 to meet the fire safety rules.

Submit to licensing agencies' background checks of people in the household over the age of 13. Applications for daycare service can be considered after the background check is completed, and if the agency rules in favor of the applicant, it forwards its recommendation to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which issues the license.