The national answer · every state, one table · checked October 2026
There is no national number — your state wrote its own, and the range is the whole story: from 0 — 10 states require a permit for the very first unrelated child in regular care — to 12 in South Dakota. Five states do not count children at all; they count families. Find your state in the table, read the counting catch beside it — the catch is usually the part that decides — then run your exact facts through the free checker.
| State | Max kids with no license | The counting catch |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 0 — a permit from the first child | No small-numbers door at all — but care of 4 hours or less in a day sits outside the definition. |
| Alaska | 4 | Counts only children who are not your relatives; your own children count later, inside a licensed home's cap. |
| Arizona | 4 | The count is of children you are paid to watch who are not related to you — wholly unpaid care is outside the definition. |
| Arkansas | 5 — children from more than one family | One family's children, any count, sit outside too — the trigger is 6 or more children from more than one family. |
| California | 1 family's children — any number | Families, not children: one other family's kids, any number. A program running only one day a week, 4 hours or less, is also exempt. |
| Colorado | 4 counted children — your own young children included | Your own children count in the 4. All of one unrelated family's children (siblings) are exempt at any count. |
| Connecticut | 0 — a permit from the first child | No number at all: regular care of even one unrelated child needs the license (up to 9 with an approved assistant). |
| Delaware | 0 — a permit from the first child | No number: one or more unrelated children, paid and held out as care, needs the license. |
| District of Columbia | 0 — a permit from the first child | No number: regular care for children of more than one family is a licensed Child Development Facility from the first child. |
| Florida | 1 family's children — any number | Families, not children — and whether you register or must be licensed is decided by your county, not the state. |
| Georgia | 2 | The count is children FOR PAY; wholly unpaid care is outside the definition. |
| Hawaii | 2 | Counts only children unrelated to you; care for a child under 6 hours a week is also excluded. |
| Idaho | 6 — license optional up to 6 | A license is optional at 6 or fewer unrelated children — it becomes mandatory at 7. |
| Illinois | 3 counted children — your own young children included | The 3 INCLUDES your own children under 12. One household's children are exempt up to 6. Exempt providers must tell parents they operate under an exemption. |
| Indiana | 7 | Care under 6 hours a day (30 or fewer hours a week) is outside the definition; 4 or more infants under 12 months crosses the line by itself. |
| Iowa | 5 counted children — your own young children included | Your own infants and preschoolers count toward the 5; your own school-age children do not. |
| Kansas | 4 — and under 35 hours a week | Only while the whole week stays under 35 hours, and no more than 2 of the children are infants (HB 2294, 2025). |
| Kentucky | 3 — certification voluntary at 3 or fewer | Certification is voluntary at 3 or fewer unrelated children — it becomes mandatory at 4. |
| Louisiana | 6 — no registration needed for private pay | Registration exists only for subsidy (CCAP) money; at 7 unrelated children the home is a licensed Early Learning Center. |
| Maine | 3 | Or 4, if at least 2 of the children in care are siblings — and no more than 3 of all the children in care may be under age 2. |
| Maryland | 0 — a permit from the first child | Registration, not a license — and it starts with the first child. The outs are relatives and occasional friend care (under 20 hours a month). |
| Massachusetts | 0 — a permit from the first child | No number: a home regularly receiving children is a licensed family child care home from the first child. |
| Michigan | 0 — a permit from the first child | Tiny babysitting (under $600 a year) sits outside the definition; a real, regular paid arrangement is licensed from the first unrelated child. |
| Minnesota | 1 family's children — any number | Families, not children — and the two exclusions cannot be combined: relatives plus one unrelated family together need a license. |
| Mississippi | 5 — registration voluntary for private pay | Registration at 5 or fewer is voluntary for private pay — mandatory only if you want CCPP subsidy money. |
| Missouri | 6 counted children — your own young children included | No more than 3 of the children may be under 2. Your own children count only if they are not yet eligible for school. |
| Montana | 6 counted children — your own young children included | Only while no subsidy money is involved — Best Beginnings scholarship payments end the exemption and registration applies. |
| Nebraska | 3 | One family's children are exempt up to 6 (DHHS guidance). Care averaging under 2 hours a week is exempt too. |
| Nevada | 4 | The count is of children in a compensated arrangement; friend and neighbor care of 4 weeks or less, not done regularly, sits outside. |
| New Hampshire | 4 | Your own children never count toward the 4. Exempt providers must tell parents the program is unlicensed. |
| New Jersey | 5 — registration voluntary | And up to 3 of your own resident children under 6 may be present on top of the 5 — they are not inside the count. |
| New Mexico | 4 | The 4 are non-resident children; your own children living in the home do not use up the door. |
| New York | 2 | The trigger also needs the hours: care for more than 3 hours a day per child, on a regular basis. |
| North Carolina | 2 | Regular care means more than 4 hours a day, at least once a week — and pay is irrelevant: the definition applies 'whether or not operated for profit.' |
| North Dakota | 5 counted children — your own young children included | At 5 or fewer you may choose self-declaration (voluntary). The license starts at 6–7 children — or at 4, if 4 or more are under 24 months. |
| Ohio | 7 — license-optional tier | License-OPTIONAL, not license-free: a home at 7 or fewer needs the license only if it takes publicly funded children. Tripwire: 4 or more under age 2 makes it a Type A home. |
| Oklahoma | 0 — a permit from the first child | No number at all — the outs are who (relatives), where (the child's own home) and how often (occasional, informal). |
| Oregon | 3 | Care for the children of only one other family is also outside the 'child care' definition. |
| Pennsylvania | 3 | The count is unrelated children only — and unpaid care is not exempt: the rule reaches profit and nonprofit homes alike. |
| Rhode Island | 3 | The trigger is 4 or more children who are not your relatives, however many households they come from. |
| South Carolina | 1 family's children — any number | Families, not children — where the care runs more than 4 hours a day, more than 2 days a week. |
| South Dakota | 12 — unregistered, private-pay only | Unregistered care is private-pay only: if public funds pay for any child, registration is mandatory. At 13 children, a license is required. |
| Tennessee | 4 | The child care agency line is 5 or more unrelated children, cared for 3 or more hours a day. |
| Texas | 0 — a permit from the first child | No unlicensed tier — the lightest permit (a Listed Family Home) covers 1–3 unrelated children. Wholly unpaid care of 3 or fewer is not regulated. |
| Utah | 8 — certificate voluntary up to 8 | Inside the 8: no more than 2 children under age 3, and no more than 10 children under 13 in the home in total. |
| Vermont | 2 families' children — any number | Families, not children: the children of 2 other families, any number of them. |
| Virginia | 4 | Tripwire: more than 4 children under age 2 in the home — your own counted — needs a license or voluntary registration by itself. |
| Washington | 0 — a permit from the first child | No tier at all: a license is required for regular, ongoing care of one or more children not related to you, paid or not. |
| West Virginia | 3 counted children — your own young children included | The 3 is a TOTAL: it includes your own children under 6 living in the home. |
| Wisconsin | 3 | The count is children under age 7 who are not related to you, cared for for pay. |
| Wyoming | 2 | All of one family's children are exempt at any count — but exemptions cannot be combined: one family plus one more unrelated child needs the license. |
The table gives your state's line. Your side of it depends on facts the table cannot hold: your own children (counted in several states), how many families the children come from, your hours, and whether money changes hands. The checker weighs exactly those facts against your state's rule and prints the deciding ones.
Most states count children. The number in the table is the largest count of watched children that needs no license, registration or listing. Cross it by one child and the state's first permit door applies — the state pages name it, with its ratios, fees and steps.
Five states count families. In California, Florida, Vermont, Minnesota and South Carolina the trigger is the next unrelated family, at any head count: one family's five children can sit below the line while two children from two families cross it. Minnesota adds the twist that its relatives-only door and its one-family door cannot be combined.
Your own children are the trap. Illinois counts your own children under 12 toward the line itself; Florida, Ohio, Maryland and others count your young children inside the licensed caps; West Virginia's exempt 3 is a total that includes your own children under 6 living in the home. California, Pennsylvania and Texas leave your own children out of the trigger count entirely.
Unpaid is usually not a door. Only some states wrote payment into the definition (Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and Texas's lightest tier among them). In most states the statute counts children 'whether or not' money changes hands — regular unpaid care of enough children crosses the same line as paid care. Occasional babysitting is different: irregular, short or rare care sits outside most definitions, which is why the checker asks about your hours and days.
Exempt is not the only way to be legal. Texas lists small homes, Ohio's Type B tier is license-optional unless subsidy children enroll, New Jersey and Arkansas registration is voluntary below the line, and South Dakota requires registration only when public funds pay. Our guide to the three doors — license-exempt, registered, or licensed — explains what each one asks of you.
Read what happens if you run a daycare without a license before you change anything: the published penalties are the smaller half of the risk, and coming into compliance voluntarily is a materially better file than arriving by complaint. Then run the checker — your verdict names the exact category and path back under a permit.
It depends entirely on your state — there is no national number. The line runs from 0 (ten states require a permit for the first unrelated child in regular care) to 12 (South Dakota, for unregistered private-pay care). Five states — California, Florida, Vermont, Minnesota and South Carolina — do not count children at all; they count families. The table on this page gives every state's line, and the free checker runs your exact facts: your state, your own children, the hours, and whether you are paid.
The same state lines govern babysitting in your home — the word you use for it does not change the law. What does change it is regularity: occasional, irregular babysitting sits outside most states' definitions, while the same children on a regular schedule are exactly what the line measures. If the arrangement is regular, read it off the table like any other home care.
Find your state in the table. 'Keeping' children counts the same as watching or babysitting them in every state's definition — what matters is how many children, from how many families, for how many hours, and in ten states whether the care is paid. Your own children count toward the number in several states, which is the fact beginners miss most.
Unlicensed and legal are the same thing only below your state's line. The table gives the largest number each state allows with no license, registration or listing at all — from 0 in ten states to 12 in South Dakota — with the counting catch that changes the answer in your state printed beside it.
In several states, yes — Illinois counts your own children under 12 toward the line itself, and states like Florida, Ohio and Maryland count your young children inside the licensed caps. In others (California, Pennsylvania, Texas) your own children sit outside the count entirely. Your state page states your rule in its first screen, and the checker asks about your own children for exactly this reason.
The care becomes unlicensed operation in the eyes of the state. Published penalties run per day of operation — California's is $200 a day plus a cease-and-desist — and several states add misdemeanor charges. The larger risk is a child getting hurt: homeowner's insurance commonly excludes undeclared business activity, and the licensing violation sits at the center of any claim. Our guide on running a daycare without a license walks through it honestly.
Rules checked October 2026 · Every cell in this table is generated from the same verified state files as the checker and the state pages — statute and agency text read against each other, narrower reading shipped where they disagree (how we check). This page reads the published rules; it is not legal advice, and your state licensing office is the final word.