In-home day care in Maine

What this site covers, and the one line behind it

In Maine, the license turns on one number: how many children in your home are not your own and do not live with you. Care for more than two, and the state expects a family child care license.

Every other question on this site hangs off that line. The exemption has edges most people have never read. Who still needs a background check while staying unlicensed, and what a 2025 change to the statute did to the count.

Once you are over the line, the order is fixed: the town and the landlord, then the training and fingerprints, then the two inspections. The licensing guide walks the whole path.

Getting the license, and keeping it

A new provider is issued a one-year provisional license first, then a two-year license that renews on a sixty-day clock.

The work is in the preparation. The home inspection checklist covers the square footage, the water tests and the pool rules the inspectors actually check. The background check page explains who in your household gets fingerprinted — including adults who never touch the enrollment paperwork. Renewal is where a late application costs you the license itself.

How many children, in what mix

Maine caps a family child care home at twelve children, and the ratios shift with age: one provider for every four children under two.

Your own children count toward the ratio until they turn four, and a mix of ages is allowed only in one direction. The capacity page gives the full table the rule sets out.

What the state charges, and what it pays for

The full license costs $160, the provisional $80, and the background checks cost you nothing — the department pays those from federal funds.

The cost breakdown separates the state's fees from the market items, like CPR courses and water tests, that carry no published state price.

Your home: the town, the fire marshal, the insurer

The state's license does not override your town's zoning. A written no from the city or town stops the license before it starts, and if you rent, the landlord's written approval is a checklist item too. The zoning page covers both.

The insurer is the other gate. Most homeowners policies exclude business use of the home, child care included, and a 2009 Maine law protects your homeowners policy only if you carry liability coverage for the business. The insurance page untangles it.

The business behind the license

A family child care license is issued to you, at your address. It cannot move to a company or a new owner, so an LLC runs the business side only — the bank account, the contracts, the enrollment policies.

The LLC page covers the $175 state filing, the June 1 annual report and the free EIN. The formation services page puts each service's own published prices beside the file-it-yourself route.

Getting paid, and taxed

Three money streams touch a Maine home provider: parent fees, the state subsidy program, and federal meal reimbursements.

The subsidy page shows what family child care homes actually charge across Maine's counties. The food program page gives the per-meal rates for 2026–27. The tax page covers the 15.3 percent self-employment tax and the daycare exception to the home-office exclusive-use rule.

Do I need a license for this?

• Licensed or exempt: Maine's home day care line — Where Maine draws the license line for in-home child care, what the 2025 statute change did to it, and what exempt status still requires.
• Capacity and ratios in a Maine day care home — Maine's staff-to-child ratios for a licensed family child care home, the twelve-child ceiling, and how your own children count toward the mix.

Getting licensed and staying licensed

• How to get a Maine family child care license — The full path to a licensed home in Maine: zoning, training, fingerprints, the fee, and the two inspections, with the state's own figures.
• The Maine home inspection checklist — What Maine's licensing specialist and fire marshal check in a family child care home: space, heat, sleep spacing, water, pools, pets and postings.
• Background checks for Maine home day care — Who Maine fingerprint-checks for a family child care home — including every adult in the house — what gets searched, and who pays.
• Renewing a Maine family child care license — The sixty-day clock, the $160 renewal fee, the five-year background check cycle, and what happens when a Maine home license lapses.

What the license costs

• What a Maine home day care license costs — The state's own fees for a Maine family child care license, what the department pays for you, and the market items the state sets no price for.

Is my home allowed, and covered?

• Zoning and your Maine home day care — Why Maine's child care license stops at the town line: zoning approval, landlord consent, and the written proof the state requires on file.
• Home day care liability insurance in Maine — Why a Maine homeowners policy excludes the day care business, what the 2009 law protects, and what coverage an in-home provider must buy.

The business behind the license

• An LLC for your Maine home day care — What a Maine LLC costs to form for a day care home, what the license cannot transfer into it, and the June 1 annual report clock.
• LLC formation services for a Maine day care — Each formation service's own published prices beside the $175 file-it-yourself Maine LLC route, with what renews in year two.

Getting paid, and taxed

• Taxes for a Maine home day care provider — The 15.3 percent self-employment tax, the IRS daycare exception to the exclusive-use rule, and the standard meal rates for a home provider.
• The food program for Maine home day cares — What the Child and Adult Care Food Program pays a Maine day care home per meal, the 2026-27 rates by tier, and how it meets the tax return.
• Maine subsidy rates for home day care — What Maine's child care subsidy pays a family child care home, what homes actually charge by county, and the vendor form that unlocks payment.

Questions