Home › State guides › Georgia

Home Daycare License Requirements in Georgia (2026)

Opening a home daycare in Georgia means getting a family child care home license from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), Child Care Services Division. Here is exactly what that takes in 2026 — your capacity limit and ratios, the training and background checks, the application steps, and the postings and enrollment forms you need — sourced to the state’s own rules and dated.

Who needs a license — home types in Georgia

A Family Child Care Learning Home is a private residence in which one person — the Provider — personally cares for a small, capped number of other people's children for pay. Georgia writes that definition twice, once in statute and once in rule, and the two texts agree word for word on the numbers while differing in one instructive detail. The rule. Rule 290-2-3-.03(k): "'Family Child Care Learning Home' or 'Home' means a private residence operated by any person who receives therein for pay for supervision and care fewer than 24 hours per day, without transfer of legal custody, at least three but not more than six Children under 13 years of age who are not Related to such persons and whose Parent(s) are not residents in the same private residence as the Provider and which is required to be licensed; provided, however, that the total number of unrelated Children cared for in such Home, for pay and not for pay, may not exceed six Children under 13 years of age at one time, except that a Provider may care for two additional children three years of age or older for two designated one hour periods daily upon approval by the Department."

The licensure trigger. Rule 290-2-3-.04(1)(c): "Any person that provides care for at least three but not more than six Children for pay under 13 years of age who are not Related to such persons and whose Parent(s) are not residents in the same private residence as the Provider shall make application to the Department for a License to operate a Family Child Care Learning Home." And the prohibition that precedes it, Rule .04(1)(a): "No person shall operate a Family Child Care Learning Home in the State of Georgia unless a License has been obtained from the Department." The statute. O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-2, read on the FindLaw reproduction of the codified text (page last updated March 28, 2024), defines a "family child care learning home" in the same terms — "at least three but not more than six children under 13 years of age" who are unrelated to the operator and whose parents do not reside in the same residence, with the total of paid and unpaid children capped at six under age 13 — and defines "early care and education programs" to "include all support centers, family child care learning homes, and child care learning centers, regardless of whether such homes or centers offer education."

The instructive difference is historical rather than substantive, and it is worth seeing because it is a live trap for anyone using an older reproduction of the Georgia Code. A copy of Article 1 of Chapter 1A published by the Public Health Law Center — a PDF that presents itself as "Code of Georgia Annotated, Title 20. Education, Chapter 1A. Early Care and Learning ... Article 1. General Provisions" and that is still the top statutory hit for several search phrasings — carries § 20-1A-2 stamped "Effective: July 1, 2013" and defines a "child care learning center" as a place receiving "19 or more children under 18 years of age," a "family day-care home" (that term, not "family child care learning home") as the three-to-six residence, and a "group day-care home" as "not less than seven nor more than 18 children." Every one of those figures and two of those labels are dead law. The live definitional line is: family child care learning home, three to six unrelated children under 13; child care learning center, seven or more children under 18. A source that says nineteen, or that says "group day-care home," is a decade out of date no matter how official its typography.

Where the six is measured, and against whom. This is the definitional joint that decides whether a Georgia home is legal on a given Tuesday afternoon, and it turns on two other defined terms. "Child" — Rule 290-2-3-.03(c): "'Child' or 'Children' means any person(s) under 18 years of age for whom child care service(s) is (are) provided in a Home. For purposes of these rules, the terms shall not include Children that are related to the License Holder or applicant as defined in these rules or Children whose Parent(s) reside in the same residence as the License Holder or applicant." Two things follow. First, the defined term "Child" reaches to eighteen, not to thirteen; the age of thirteen appears in the licensure trigger and in the household ceiling, not in the definition of a child. Second, and much more practically: related children and the children of a co-resident parent are, by definition, not "Children" at all for purposes of these rules. They do not consume the six. They are counted instead by a separate ceiling, described below. "Related" — Rule 290-2-3-.03(x): "'Related' or 'Related Children' means children that are related to the Provider within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity by either blood or marriage (i.e., sons, daughters, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, first cousins), or under the legal guardianship, custody or state-regulated foster care of the Provider."

Note that the rule's own parenthetical list is where most applicants stop reading; the operative phrase is "third degree of consanguinity or affinity by either blood or marriage," and foster children placed with the Provider under state-regulated foster care are Related regardless of blood. "Parent" — Rule 290-2-3-.03(q): "'Parent' means a person related within the second degree of consanguinity by either blood or marriage, or a person with lawful custody, or a state-regulated foster parent, or a legal guardian of a child in care. For purposes of these rules, a Parent shall not be considered an Employee unless such Parent is deemed an Employee by the Home or either resides in the Home or is compensated in any way by the Home other than through appropriate state or federal funds." Georgia's "Parent" is therefore broader than mother-and-father: a grandmother or an adult sibling with lawful custody is a Parent for every notice, consent, access and record duty in the chapter. "Provider" and "License Holder" — Rule .03(t) and .03(p). The Provider is "the License Holder or applicant of a Family Child Care Learning Home who has submitted a Records Check Application and has received a satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination and who is also the person that primarily provides care in the Home"; the License Holder is "the individual issued a License by the Department to operate a Home at a particular location who is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Home and who primarily provides care in the Home in accordance with these rules."

Read those two together and Georgia's model is explicit: the licensee is a natural person who personally provides the care at one address. There is no corporate licensee, no absentee owner with a hired caregiver, no second site. Rule .04(1)(b) enforces the same idea from the other end — a change of residence, of address, or of Provider requires a new License. The boundary above six. Rule 290-2-3-.04(1)(d): "Any person that provides care for more than six children for pay, related or unrelated, as defined in these rules, shall make application to the Department for a License to operate a Child Care Learning Center, except as provided in ." (The trailing cross-reference is missing from the compiled text; see the note in the program field.) This paragraph is stricter than the statutory center definition and the difference matters. O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-2 defines a child care learning center by a count of seven or more children under 18; Rule .04(1)(d) sends you to the center application at "more than six children for pay, related or unrelated." A Provider paid to care for her own two nephews plus five unrelated children is at seven paid children and is, by the plain text of .04(1)(d), a center applicant — even though the five unrelated children are within the six-child home cap.

The pay status, not the relationship, is what .04(1)(d) counts. The boundary below three. Nothing in the chapter licenses, registers or lists a person caring for one or two unrelated children for pay; the licensure trigger begins at three. DECAL's Applicant's Guide to Licensing for Family Child Care Learning Homes (revised May 2025, read from an archived capture dated 2025-10-02) states the practical consequence for someone building toward a license: "You may legally care for (2) children for pay until a license has been issued from Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning." That is the agency's reading of the same threshold, and it is consistent with the rule; it is quoted here as agency guidance, not as regulation. Exemptions, checked because the brief asked. Georgia does not run a list of exempt home-based categories the way many states do. The only exclusion written into the statutory definitions in Chapter 1A is a center-side carve-out: O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-2's definition of "child care learning center" provides "that this term shall not include a private school which provides kindergarten through grade 12 education, meets the requirements of Code Section 20-2-690, and is accredited by one or more of the entities listed in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (6) of Code Section 20-3-519 and which provides care before, after, or both before and after the customary school day to its students as an auxiliary service to such students during the regular school year only."

That exclusion is about accredited private schools running before- and after-school care; it has no application to a private residence. On the home side, the exemption is definitional and arithmetic: care for fewer than three unrelated children for pay is outside the licensure trigger, care for only related children is outside the definition of "Child," and care in the child's own home is not a "private residence operated by any person who receives therein" other people's children. There is no faith-based exemption for family child care learning homes in Chapter 290-2-3 and none in Chapter 1A's definitional provisions; the exemption machinery that does exist in Georgia — including the exemption rule in the centers chapter — sits on the center side of the line and is administered against the center definition. Support centers are a third, separate category with their own chapter (591-3-1) and their own light-touch statutory treatment under O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-10, which subjects a registered support center only to a named paragraph of subsection (m), specified provisions of § 20-1A-12, and the criminal records check regime.

Two definitional terms that decide inspections rather than counts. "Supervision" and "Supervised" — Rule .03(z): "the Provider or authorized Adult providing care is alert, is providing watchful oversight to the Children, is able to respond promptly to the needs and actions of the Children and can intervene promptly in the case of an emergency." And "Adult" — Rule .03(a): "any competent individual eighteen (18) years of age or older." Hold that eighteen next to two other numbers in the same chapter: an Employee can be a person "17 years of age or older [who] resides at the Home" (Rule .03(i)(3)), and the second supervising person required by Rule .07(19) "must be at least sixteen (16) years of age." Georgia therefore runs three different age lines inside one rulebook — sixteen to assist with supervision, seventeen to trigger a mandatory background check as a resident, eighteen to be an "Adult" who may supervise water activities and to be the "authorized Adult" of the supervision definition. Confusing any two of them produces either an illegal staffing plan or an uncleared teenager living in a licensed house.

How many children you can care for in Georgia

Six unrelated children under 13 at one time — plus a narrowly drawn two-child, two-hour exception that requires the Department's approval, and subject to a separate twelve-child household ceiling that counts everybody. The operative rule is Rule 290-2-3-.07(16): "The total number of Children not Related to the Provider in the Family Child Care Learning Home, for pay or not for pay, cannot exceed six Children, except that a Provider may care for two additional children who are three years of age or older for two designated one hour periods daily upon approval by the Department." The identical cap is written into the definition at Rule .03(k) and into the statutory definition at O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-2, and O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-10 carries the exception at the statutory level: a family child care learning home operator may "care for two additional children aged three years and older for two designated one-hour periods daily," notwithstanding the six-child limitation (FindLaw reproduction of § 20-1A-10, page last updated March 28, 2024). Four things in that sentence do real work, and each of them is a place where Georgia homes get cited.

First: "for pay or not for pay." The neighbour's child you watch as a favour counts against the six exactly like the child whose mother pays you every Friday. Georgia does not have a "free care doesn't count" allowance. The chapter backs this up with an evidentiary requirement rather than an honour system — Rule 290-2-3-.08(13): "Documentation of the non-pay status of related and unrelated children in care for whom no pay is received shall be maintained and shall include a notarized statement by such child's Parent(s) attesting to the non-pay status." A notarized statement does not make an unpaid child stop counting toward the six; it documents why no fee appears in your records for a child who is counted. Second: "not Related to the Provider." Related Children — third degree of consanguinity or affinity, or under the Provider's legal guardianship, custody or state-regulated foster care (Rule .03(x)) — are outside the six entirely, and children whose Parent lives in the residence are outside the six as well, because Rule .03(c) writes both groups out of the defined term "Child." The proof burden is again documentary: Rule 290-2-3-.08(12) requires "Documentation of family relationships for related children, other than the Provider's own children, cared for in the Home ... including a notarized statement by the related child's Parent(s) attesting to the relationship."

Your own sons and daughters need no notarized statement; your sister's children do. Third: the two-additional-children exception is not self-executing. Read it precisely: two additional children, each three years of age or older, for two designated one-hour periods daily, "upon approval by the Department." That is the before-school and after-school window in practice, and it is a permission DECAL grants — not a right a Provider may exercise by writing the hours on her own schedule. The rule fixes the number of periods (two), their length (one hour each), the floor on the children's age (three years) and the number of extra children (two). A Provider running a ninety-minute after-school block for three older children is over the exception on all three dimensions. Fourth, and this is the ceiling that most Georgia applicants have never read: Rule 290-2-3-.07(17): "Whenever Related Children or Children who reside in the Home are present in the Home, the total number of children present under the age of thirteen years may not exceed twelve, and the space requirement of 35 square feet per each child present must be met."

Two constraints in one sentence. (a) A hard household ceiling of twelve children under thirteen present at once, counting the Provider's own children, foster children, nieces and nephews and the children of any co-resident parent alongside the six enrolled unrelated children. A Provider with five of her own children under thirteen at home after school can still enrol six unrelated children — eleven — but a sixth resident child of her own puts the house at twelve and leaves no margin for a related child dropped off by a sister. (b) The 35-square-foot floor-space requirement is measured against "each child present," not against enrolled capacity. That is the same figure Rule 290-2-3-.13(1)(a) sets for the licensed space — "The areas used for child care shall provide a minimum of 35 square feet of usable floor space per child" — but .07(17) is explicit that the multiplicand is every child present. Eleven children present means 385 square feet of usable child care floor space, whether or not five of those children are the Provider's own. How the space is measured, and what does not count.

Rule 290-2-3-.13(1)(a) sets the 35 square feet per child of "usable floor space" in "the areas used for child care." Rule .13(1)(b) removes a whole class of rooms from the calculation: "Basement areas in excess of 25 linear feet from a window shall not be used for housing Children." Rule .13(1)(c) requires that "Furniture and equipment shall be arranged so as not to interfere with exits." The Applicant's Guide (DECAL, revised May 2025) makes the measurement an application deliverable rather than an inspection-day surprise: a floor plan is a required upload, and the guide instructs that "The floor plan should show all rooms in the home on the floor with the child care area being [lab]eled as 'Child Care Area'. The floor plan should be signed and dated by the provider then uploaded to the online application," with a Floor Plan Template supplied in the guide's Section 5 and marked "*Required w/ application." The capacity number does not appear on a separate approval. Unlike states that print a licensed capacity on the certificate and let the licensee petition to raise it, Georgia fixes the ceiling in the rule itself: six unrelated children, twelve children under thirteen present, 35 square feet each.

The only elasticity in the chapter is Rule 290-2-3-.16, Waivers and Variances — "The Department may, in its discretion, grant waivers and variances of specific rules upon application or petition being filed on forms provided by the Department" — with a variance available where "strict application of the rule would cause undue hardship" and the applicant shows "that adequate standards affording protection for the health, safety and care of the children exist and will be met in lieu of the exact requirements of the rule," a waiver available where "the purpose of the rule or regulation is met through equivalent standards affording equivalent protection," and an experimental variance or waiver available for "new and innovative approaches to delivery of services." A waiver of the statutory six-child definition would be a waiver of the statute rather than of a rule, and the chapter gives DECAL no authority over the statutory line; the practical use of Rule .16 is physical-plant and operational relief, not capacity. Enforcement exposure for exceeding the cap, since the number is only as real as its consequence.

Rule 290-2-3-.15(1)(f) authorizes the Department to "Impose a fine, not to exceed a total of $25,000, of up to $500 per day for each violation of the law, rule, regulation or formal order related to the initial or ongoing licensing requirement of any program. If any violation is a continuing one, each day of such violation will constitute a separate violation for the purpose of computing the applicable enforcement fine." Overcapacity is precisely the kind of continuing violation that rule contemplates, and Rule .15(2) routes it through the Compliance and Enforcement Chart, where a Violation Class (D extreme, C high, B medium, A low harm or risk of harm) is crossed against a Violation History Level (I: 0 points; II: 1-3 points; III: 4-9 points; IV: 10+ points) to produce a Prevention, Intermediate or Closure Action. The rule adds that "The guidelines for determining the Violation History Level and Violation Class shall be posted on the Department website and updated as needed" — meaning the classification of any particular overcapacity finding is set by a document DECAL publishes outside the rulebook.

Adult-to-child ratios

Georgia publishes no age-by-age staff:child ratio table for family child care learning homes. What it publishes instead is a duty of supervision defined in operational terms, three numeric trigger points that force a second person into the house, and one genuine ratio table that applies only to water activities. Reading a center ratio chart (Chapter 591-1-1) into a home is the single most common category error here, and it produces a staffing plan that is both wrong and more expensive than the law requires. THE SUPERVISION DUTY. Rule 290-2-3-.07(18): "At least one Staff person with a satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination shall supervise Children at all times appropriate to the individual age, needs and capabilities of each child. Such supervision must include, but not be limited to, indoor and outdoor activities, mealtimes, naptime, transportation, field trips, and transitions between activities. 'Supervision' means Staff members are providing watchful oversight to the children, volunteers and Students-in-Training. The person(s) supervising in the child care area must be alert, positioned to maximize their ability to hear and see the children at all times, and able to respond promptly to the needs and actions of the children being supervised, as well as the actions of the volunteers and Students-in-Training, and provide timely attention to the children's actions and needs.

Staff shall be attentive and participating with all children during mealtimes and shall be seated within an arm's length away from children thirty-six (36) months of age and younger. Plans shall be made to obtain additional Staff help in cases of emergencies." Five separately citable obligations are buried in that paragraph, and inspectors cite them separately: (1) the supervising person must hold a satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination — a Provisional Employee with only a Fingerprint Records Check Determination cannot be the supervising adult, because Rule .03(u) requires that a Provisional Employee "must be supervised at all times by another Staff member who has a current and valid satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination"; (2) supervision extends to naptime, transitions and transportation, not merely to active play; (3) positioning is a rule — "positioned to maximize their ability to hear and see the children at all times"; (4) the arm's-length rule at mealtimes for every child thirty-six months and under is a physical standard, not a guideline; (5) an emergency staffing plan must exist in advance.

Rule .03(z) supplies the general definition of "Supervision" and "Supervised" for the rest of the chapter: "the Provider or authorized Adult providing care is alert, is providing watchful oversight to the Children, is able to respond promptly to the needs and actions of the Children and can intervene promptly in the case of an emergency." THE SECOND-PERSON TRIGGERS. Rule 290-2-3-.07(19): "An Employee or Provisional Employee, who must be at least sixteen (16) years of age, must be present to assist with supervision whenever more than three (3) children under the age of twelve (12) months are present, more than six (6) children under the age of three (3) years are present or more than eight (8) children under the age of five (5) years are present." Parse it as three independent thresholds joined by "or" — any one of them fires: — more than three children under 12 months present (i.e., a fourth infant); — more than six children under 3 years present (i.e., a seventh toddler-or-younger); — more than eight children under 5 years present (i.e., a ninth preschooler-or-younger). Two consequences that applicants routinely miss.

First, the verb is "present," not "enrolled" — and Rule .07(17) has already established that up to twelve children under thirteen may be present in the home when the Provider's own and other Related Children are there. A Provider with two infants of her own therefore reaches "more than three children under 12 months are present" with only two enrolled infants, and must have a second person in the house at that moment, even though her enrolled headcount is nowhere near six. Second, the assisting person is a defined role, not a warm body: an "Employee" (Rule .03(i)) has already submitted a Records Check Application and received a satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination; a "Provisional Employee" (Rule .03(u)) has a satisfactory Fingerprint Records Check Determination and must be supervised at all times by someone with the comprehensive determination. Either way the person must be at least sixteen. Note the interaction with Rule .07(18): if the assisting person is a Provisional Employee, the Provider herself remains the supervising Staff person with the comprehensive determination, and cannot leave the assistant alone with the children.

THE ONE REAL RATIO TABLE — WATER. Rule 290-2-3-.07(20): "If Children are allowed to participate in water activities where the water is over two feet in depth, the Provider or an Adult shall supervise such activities and must have successfully completed a training program in lifeguarding offered by a water-safety instructor certified by the American Red Cross or YMCA or other recognized standard setting agency for water safety instruction." Rule .07(20)(a) then sets, "For water-related activities where water is over two feet in depth, the following Staff: Child ratios shall be maintained": — Under 2 1/2 years: 1:2 — 2 1/2 to 4 years: 1:5 — 4 years and older who cannot swim a distance of 15 yards unassisted: 1:6 — 4 years and older who can swim a distance of 15 yards unassisted: 1:8 Rule .07(20)(b) supplies the documentary alternative to testing each child yourself: "In lieu of requiring each Child four years and older to take a swimming test, the Provider may accept copies of verifications from a recognized water safety instruction organization stating that the Child has successfully completed a swimming class which required the Child to swim a distance of 15 yards unassisted."

Two structural notes. The lifeguarding requirement attaches to "the Provider or an Adult" — and "Adult" is defined at Rule .03(a) as "any competent individual eighteen (18) years of age or older," so the sixteen-year-old who may assist with supervision under .07(19) may not be the qualified water supervisor. And these ratios bite at a depth of two feet, which is a wading pool, not only a swimming pool; the physical-plant rule at .13(2)(d) separately requires "A fence shall be provided around swimming pools to make them inaccessible when not in use." WHO MAY BE COUNTED AS SUPERVISING STAFF AT ALL. Rule .03(y) defines "Staff" or "Personnel" as "all persons including the Provider, Employees and Provisional Employees." Four categories of helper are expressly excluded from carrying supervisory responsibility alone: Parents assisting occasionally ("No Parent shall be solely responsible for Children other than their own and must be under continuous direct supervision of the Provider or Home Employee with a valid and current satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination," Rule .07(24)(b)); volunteers (same formula, Rule .07(25)(b)); Students-in-Training (same formula, Rule .07(26)(b)); and Provisional Employees (Rule .07(22)(e)).

Independent contractors brought in "to offer supplemental educational or physical activities" are treated as Employees or Provisional Employees for background-check purposes (Rule .07(23)(a)) but are exempted from annual training and first-aid/CPR requirements (Rule .07(23)(b)) — which means a contractor cannot be the person satisfying Rule .07(8)(b)'s requirement that someone with current pediatric CPR and first aid always be on the premises. WHAT GEORGIA DOES NOT REQUIRE, STATED SO YOU DO NOT OVERBUILD. There is no infant-specific staff:child ratio for family homes, no requirement that infants be cared for in a separate room, no maximum number of infants as such (the infant number is governed by the .07(19) trigger and the six-child cap), and no requirement for a substitute caregiver on file — only Rule .07(18)'s instruction that "Plans shall be made to obtain additional Staff help in cases of emergencies" and Rule .08(8)(b)(10)'s requirement that the parent-facing policies identify "the names of any caregiver and their responsibilities, and the names of the persons who would be called upon in an emergency."

Training you must complete before licensure

Georgia front-loads more than most states, and it front-loads it before the application rather than before the license. Four separate bodies of preparation have to exist on paper before a Georgia family child care learning home can open: an age and credential qualification for the Provider personally; a three-part pre-service training package completed before the application is submitted; a program orientation before anyone is assigned to children; and a health-and-safety orientation within the first 90 days that also counts toward first-year training hours. 1. THE PERSONAL QUALIFICATION — AGE AND CREDENTIAL. Rule 290-2-3-.07(1): "The Provider shall be at least 21 years of age." Rule 290-2-3-.07(2): "Providers must possess and submit valid evidence/documentation of one of the following credentials/degrees issued by either the organizations listed below, an accredited educational institution, or another organization approved/recognized by the Department: (a) Child Development Associate (CDA) credential (issued by the Council for Professional Recognition and kept current); or (b) Technical Certificate of Credit (TCC) in Early Childhood Education; or (c) Technical College Diploma (TCD) in Early Childhood Education; or (d) Associate Degree in Early Childhood Education (AA, AAS, AAT); or (e) Paraprofessional Certificate (issued by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission and kept current); or (f) Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education; or (g) Master's degree in Early Childhood Education."

Rule 290-2-3-.07(3) is the grandfather clause, and it has a trap in its second sentence: "Providers and applicants who have submitted an application for License on or before June 30, 2009 shall be exempt from the requirement stated in (2)(a) through (g) above, except if the Family Child Care Learning Home closes for business and then submits a new application for License on or after July 1, 2009. Any Provider who submits an application for License on or after July 1, 2009 must meet one of the education requirements listed above. Any Provider who has submitted an application for License on or before June 30, 2009 shall have a high school diploma, General Education Diploma (GED), or similar credentials and shall submit valid evidence/documentation of such credential." A pre-2009 Provider who closes and later reapplies loses the exemption permanently. For anyone reading this in 2026 as a prospective applicant, the practical rule is simple: a high school diploma is not enough; one of the seven credentials at .07(2) is a condition of licensure, and it takes months to obtain. Two of the seven — the CDA and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission Paraprofessional Certificate — must be "kept current," which makes them recurring obligations rather than one-time hurdles. 2. THE PRE-SERVICE PACKAGE — DUE BEFORE THE APPLICATION IS SUBMITTED.

Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(b): "Pre-Service Training. Prior to the submission of the License application, the applicant who will be responsible for the day-to-day operations shall complete the pre-service training listed below that has been approved by the Department and which will include: 1. Licensure orientation that provides, at a minimum, instruction on the application process and gives an overview of the Department's rules and regulations that relate to the operation of the Family Child Care Learning Home; 2. Pre-licensure training course on Provider competencies that serve as a framework for professional development, which includes, but is not limited to, early learning standards, communication, developmentally appropriate practices, professional and leadership development, business management, and advocacy for the Family Child Care Learning Home, Parents, Children, and Staff; 3. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid training programs offered by certified or licensed health care professionals or trainers and approved by the Department, which include emergency care for infants and children."

Read the timing word carefully. It is "Prior to the submission of the License application" — not before licensure, not before opening. Georgia is one of the states where the sequencing itself is the trap: an applicant who submits first and trains while waiting has already violated the rule that governs her application. The rule sets no hour count for item 2. DECAL does. The hour count comes from agency material and is stated here as agency material. The Applicant's Guide to Licensing for Family Child Care Learning Homes (DECAL, revised May 2025, read from an archived capture dated 2025-10-02) requires on its Application Checklist "Documentation of required pre-service training (10 hours total) ... The applicant must obtain at least two (2) hours of training in each of these topic areas below totaling (10 hours). Documentation of completion required. • Early Learning Standards (2 hours) • Communications (2 hours) • Leadership & Professional Development (2 hours) • Business Management (2 hours) • Advocacy for the Parents, Children, and Staff in the Family Child Care Home (2 hours)." The same guide contains DECAL's "Training Approval Application Submission Guide for FAMILY CHILD CARE LEARNING HOME PRE-SERVICE COURSE," addressed to trainers, which states: "DECAL provides the Licensure Orientation online (Item 1). Further, CPR and first aid training (Item 3) must be obtained from a health care professional.

Georgia Approved Trainers can submit training to be approved for the remaining topic areas ... to be packaged together in a course and, once approved, may list their Course in the Georgia Professional Development System (www.gapds.decal.ga.gov). The Course must consist of a minimum of 10 hours." The trainer guide cross-references each topic to Georgia's Workforce Knowledge and Competencies (for example "ECE 5.1: Utilizing the GELDS as a framework for growth and development") and notes that "One Course may be counted in more than one content area if the Course is longer than two hours." The orientation has a name and a certificate. The Applicant's Guide checklist requires "Completion of Family Child Care Learning Home - Licensing Orientation Meeting (FCCLH - LOM)" and the application steps require that "A certificate of completion from a Licensure Orientation Meeting (FCCLH-LOM) must be submitted with the application. A copy is acceptable." A documented discrepancy between the agency text and the regulation, which is exactly the failure mode the licensing-consultant reader is paying to avoid: DECAL's trainer guide quotes the pre-service rule as "290-2-3-.04(2)(c) Pre-Service Training" and its narrative refers to "the remaining topic areas described in rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(c)(2)." In the text the Secretary of State serves today, pre-service training is Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(b); Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(c) is the Pre-Licensing Visit.

The agency's own quotation of item 2 also differs slightly from the compiled rule, reading "early learning standards and developmentally appropriate practices, communication, professional and leadership development" where the rule reads "early learning standards, communication, developmentally appropriate practices, professional and leadership development." The substance is the same; the citation is not. Cite .04(2)(b). 3. CPR AND PEDIATRIC FIRST AID — STRICTER IN .07 THAN IN .04. Rule 290-2-3-.07(8)(a): "Every Provider, Provisional Employee and Employee with direct care responsibilities shall have current evidence of successful completion of a biennial training program in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and a triennial training program in pediatric first aid which have been offered by certified or licensed health care professionals or trainers. Such training must be completed by the Provider prior to initial licensure. Training must be completed within 45 days from the date of hire for Provisional Employees and Employees. Current and valid evidence of the successful completion of such training shall be maintained on the Home's premises."

Rule 290-2-3-.07(8)(b): "The Provider, a Provisional Employee or Employee with current evidence of successful completion of pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and pediatric first aid must always be on the Home's premises whenever any Child is present." Rule 290-2-3-.07(8)(c): "The Provider, a Provisional Employee, or Employee with current evidence of successful completion of pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and pediatric first aid must always be present on any field trip or during the transportation of children." So: CPR renews every two years, pediatric first aid every three, the Provider must hold both before initial licensure (and, under .04(2)(b)(3), before the application is even submitted), and a certified person must be physically present at all times — which in a one-person home means the Provider can never hand the house to an uncertified helper, not for an hour. DECAL's Applicant's Guide describes the same requirement in its own vocabulary, requiring "Infant, Child and Adult (for children age 8 and above) Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and First Aid Training" and listing "Current CPR (Infant and Child) & First Aid cards/certificates" on the application checklist. 4. PROGRAM ORIENTATION — BEFORE ASSIGNMENT TO CHILDREN.

Rule 290-2-3-.07(5): "Program Orientation. Prior to assignment to children or task, the Provider and all Employees (i.e., Volunteers, Students-in-Training, Independent Contractors, etc.) and Provisional Employees must receive initial program orientation." Rule 290-2-3-.07(6) lists fourteen mandatory subjects: "(a) the Home's policies and procedures; (b) the portions of these rules dealing with the care, health and safety of children; (c) the Staff person's assigned duties and responsibilities; (d) reporting requirements for suspected cases of child abuse, neglect or deprivation; (e) communicable diseases and serious injuries; (f) emergency weather plans; (g) the program's emergency preparedness plan; (h) childhood injury control; (i) the administration of medicine; (j) reducing the risk of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) which includes Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS); (k) hand washing; (l) fire safety; (m) water safety; (n) and prevention of HIV/AIDS and blood borne pathogens." DECAL supplies a Helper Orientation Checklist form in the Applicant's Guide for documenting this — and that form is itself a small artefact of drift: it is headed "Family Child Care Learning Home Rule: 290-2-3-.07 (15)" and quotes a version of the rule ("At least one adult shall supervise children at all times. Such adult, if not the provider, shall receive orientation regarding these rules; the provider's policies regarding discipline, injuries and illnesses, and release of children ...") that no longer exists in the compiled chapter, where .07(15) now reads "The Provider, Employees and Provisional Employees must comply with the background check requirements as outlined in Rule Criminal Records and Comprehensive Background Checks."

The form is still useful as documentation; its citation is obsolete. 5. HEALTH AND SAFETY ORIENTATION — WITHIN 90 DAYS, AND IT COUNTS. Rule 290-2-3-.07(7): "Health and Safety Orientation. The Provider, Employees and Provisional Employees with direct care responsibilities shall complete health and safety orientation training within the first 90 days of employment. The state-approved training hours obtained will count toward required first year training hours. The training must address the following health and safety topics: (a) prevention and control of infectious diseases (including immunization); (b) prevention of sudden infant death syndrome and use of safe sleeping practices; (c) administration of medication, consistent with standards for parental consent; (d) prevention of and response to emergencies due to food and allergic reactions; (e) building and physical premises safety, including identification of and protection from hazards that can cause bodily injury such as electrical hazards, bodies of water, and vehicular traffic; (f) prevention of shaken baby syndrome, abusive head trauma and child maltreatment; (g) emergency preparedness and response planning for emergencies resulting from a natural disaster or a human-caused event (such as violence at a child care facility); (h) handling and storage of hazardous materials and the appropriate disposal of bio contaminants; (i) precautions in transporting children; recognition and reporting of child abuse and neglect; and (j) child development to include all major domains: cognitive; social and emotional; physical development and motor skills; communication, language, and literacy; and approaches to play and learning."

These are the federally aligned CCDBG health-and-safety topics, and the sentence that matters commercially is the second one: the hours count toward first-year training, so a Provider who plans the ten topics deliberately does not pay for them twice. 6. THE OTHER PERSONAL PRECONDITIONS TO LICENSURE, WHICH READ LIKE BOILERPLATE AND ARE NOT. Rule 290-2-3-.07(11): "The Provider, Employees and Provisional Employees shall never have been shown by credible evidence, e.g., a court, a department investigation or other reliable evidence to have abused, neglected, sexually exploited, or deprived a child or adult or to have subjected any person to serious injury as a result of intentional or grossly negligent misconduct. The Department may request an oral or written statement to this effect at the time of application or hire ..." — note "credible evidence," a standard well below conviction, and note that a departmental investigation alone can satisfy it. Rule 290-2-3-.07(12): the Provider and staff "must be able to perform adequately the job duties of providing for the care and supervision of the children."

Rule 290-2-3-.07(13): no "material false statements concerning qualifications requirements either to the Department or to the Provider." Rule 290-2-3-.07(14) and Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(e): the Department may require "additional reasonable verification," which the rules define non-exhaustively as "statement(s) from an attending physician or other health care professionals attesting to the mental and/or physical health of the Provider or Employee; letters of reference from designated persons in the community where the Provider and/or Employee intends to work or is working; certified copies of court orders and additional records check submissions." Rule 290-2-3-.07(4) requires a personnel file "for the duration of the term of employment plus one (1) calendar year" containing "identifying information to include: name, date of birth, social security number, current address and current telephone number; employment history for the past ten years; as applicable to the position held: evidence of education and qualifying work experience, evidence of required program orientation including date and signature of person providing the orientation; evidence of all training required by these rules which shall include: title of training, date of training, trainer's signature, location of training and number of clock hours obtained; a statement completed by the staff member that the information provided is true and accurate; and any other records required by these rules." A ten-year employment history is an unusual demand and it applies to the Provider's own file as much as to a helper's.

Ongoing (annual) training

Ten clock hours every calendar year after the first year of employment, for the Provider, Provisional Employees and Employees alike — and the ten hours are prescriptive, not free-form. Rule 290-2-3-.07(9)(a): "Annual Training. Every calendar year after the first year of employment, the Provider, Provisional Employees and Employees shall attend ten (10) clock hours of diverse training which is offered by an accredited college, university or vocational program or other Department-approved source."

Rule 290-2-3-.07(9)(b) then dictates the composition: "The annual ten (10) clock hours of training shall include the following: 1. At least two (2) hours in evidence based, developmentally appropriate language and literacy practices; 2. At least two (2) hours in on-going child development and health and safety related topics, which could include, but not be limited to: (i) Child development (e.g., developmental domains (cognitive; social and emotional; physical development and motor skills; communication, language, and literacy; approaches to play and learning), discipline and guidance techniques, children with special needs); (ii) Health (e.g., nutrition and the support of breast feeding, physical activity, prevention and control of illnesses and infectious diseases, immunizations, prevention of and response to emergencies due to food and allergic reactions, cleanliness, sanitation, and the appropriate disposal of bio contaminants); (iii) Safety (e.g., prevention of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) which includes Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and the use of safe sleeping practices, medication administration, injury control and prevention, transportation, handling and storage of hazardous materials, identification of and protection from hazards that can cause bodily injury such as electrical hazards, bodies of water, and vehicular traffic, and emergency preparedness planning and response); (iv) Child abuse and neglect (e.g., identification and reporting, meeting the needs of abused and/or neglected children, prevention of shaken baby syndrome, abusive head trauma and child maltreatment). 3. No more than two (2) of the required ten (10) hours in business-related topics (e.g., parental communication, recordkeeping, management, business planning)."

So the shape of a compliant year is: at least 2 hours language and literacy, at least 2 hours child development / health / safety / child abuse, no more than 2 hours business, and the remaining hours in any Department-approved early care content. The business cap is a ceiling, not a floor — a Provider who spends four hours on recordkeeping and marketing has two non-compliant hours no matter how many total hours she logged. The clock. "Every calendar year after the first year of employment" means a Provider's first ten-hour year begins after her first year, and the health-and-safety orientation hours under Rule .07(7) "will count toward required first year training hours" — the only overlap the chapter allows. The certifications that run on their own clocks, independent of the ten hours. Rule 290-2-3-.07(8)(a) sets "a biennial training program in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and a triennial training program in pediatric first aid" — CPR every two years, pediatric first aid every three — with "Current and valid evidence of the successful completion of such training ... maintained on the Home's premises," and Rules .07(8)(b) and (c) require a currently certified person to be on the premises whenever any Child is present and on every field trip and transport. A Provider who lets her CPR card lapse is not merely short of training hours; she has made the home unable to legally operate for as long as no certified person is present.

Documentation, and where DECAL expects to find it. Rule 290-2-3-.07(10): "Documentation of Training. Evidence of orientation and training shall be documented and maintained in the Personnel file and/or Georgia's workforce registry and professional development system of each Staff member which shall be available to the Department for inspection. Documentation shall include the title of the training courses, the dates, and the number of hours of the courses, and the names of the trainers or sponsoring organizations." The registry referred to is the Georgia Professional Development System (GaPDS), which DECAL's own trainer guidance identifies at www.gapds.decal.ga.gov as the place approved courses are listed. Note the "and/or": a paper personnel file satisfies the rule, but the four data points — title, date, hours, trainer or sponsor — must all be there. Rule .07(4) repeats the same requirement from the personnel-file side, adding "trainer's signature" and "location of training" to the list. DECAL's Applicant's Guide states the inspection-day expectation in its own terms: consultants review "Training Certificates (a total of 10 hours for each license year)."

Who is exempt from the ten hours — and who is not exempt from anything else. Four categories of helper are relieved of annual training and first-aid/CPR requirements but not of background checks: independent contractors offering supplemental educational or physical activities (Rule .07(23)(b)), Parents assisting occasionally (Rule .07(24)(c)), volunteers (Rule .07(25)(c)), and Students-in-Training (Rule .07(26)(c)). Support staff who may have direct contact with children "may be exempted from annual training and first-aid/CPR training requirements" but are treated as Employees or Provisional Employees for records-check purposes (Rule .07(27)(a)). Maintenance and repair personnel who "must have no contact with Children in care" may be excused from the fingerprint determination only so long as that no-contact condition holds (Rule .07(27)(b)). Employees who are not exempt get their own on-boarding clock: program orientation before assignment to children or task (Rule .07(5)-(6)), health and safety orientation within the first 90 days (Rule .07(7)), pediatric CPR and first aid within 45 days from date of hire (Rule .07(8)(a)), and the ten annual hours from the calendar year after their first year of employment (Rule .07(9)(a)). A Provider who hires a helper in November is therefore committing to a 45-day CPR deadline in December and a 90-day health-and-safety deadline in February.

Background checks

This is the field where Georgia's codified rules are the stale layer and the session law is the operative one, so it is organised in that order: what the statute says today (as amended effective July 1, 2025), then what the rules say (frozen since September 14, 2023), then the practical machinery. === PART I. THE STATUTORY LAYER, REWRITTEN BY HB 175 (2025), EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2025 === HB 175 of the 2025-2026 regular session — "House Bill 175 (AS PASSED HOUSE AND SENATE) ... A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT To amend Chapter 1A Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to early care and learning, so as to revise provisions regarding employee comprehensive background checks for early care and education programs and Head Start programs; to provide for definitions; to provide for revocation and nonissuance of licenses and commissions for early care and education programs; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes" — was signed and, by its Section 5, "This Act shall become effective on July 1, 2025." It was read here in the enrolled version published by the Governor's office (2025 signed legislation, HB 175, 25 LC 49 2064/AP, seven pages).

It changes four things that a family child care learning home applicant will feel. (1) A new defined term. Section 1 adds a new paragraph (8.1) to O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-2: "'Head Start program' means any program authorized under the federal Head Start Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 9801, et seq." — extending the chapter's background-check architecture explicitly to Head Start. (2) The definition of "comprehensive records check determination" in O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-30(1) was rewritten by Section 2 to read, as amended: "'Comprehensive records check determination' means a satisfactory or unsatisfactory determination by the department, based upon a Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint check, a search of the National Crime Information Center's National Sex Offender Registry, criminal history records check, including fingerprint check; a search of one or more available and appropriate child abuse and sex offender registries, repositories, or data bases as provided by rules and regulations promulgated by the department; and a search of the following registries, repositories, or data bases in the state where the actual or potential employee or director resides and in each state where such individual resided during the preceding five years: criminal registry or repository, with the use of fingerprints being required in the state where the individual resides and optional in other states; state sex offender registry or repository; and state based child abuse and neglect registry and data base."

Two additions matter: the express search of the NCIC National Sex Offender Registry, and the express statement that fingerprints are required in the state of residence and optional in the other states searched.

The corresponding rule definition, Rule 290-2-3-.03(e), still reads without the NCIC clause: "based upon a Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint based criminal record check, a search of appropriate sex offender registries, repositories, or data bases, compliance with relevant state and federal law, and a search of the following registries, repositories or databases in the state where the actual or potential employee or provider resides and in each state where such individual resided during the preceding five years: criminal registry or repository; state sex offender registry or repository; and state based child abuse and neglect registry and database." (3) The processing section, O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-34(a), was rewritten by Section 3. As amended, the department "shall receive an application for a comprehensive records check determination, as may be required by the department and allowed under federal law, for any individual affiliated with any program that receives, either directly or indirectly, federal funds through the department for the care of children, including, but not limited to, early care and education programs and Head Start programs";

individuals "shall also submit all necessary applications, fees, and acceptable fingerprints to GCIC in order to determine the applicant's suitability for child care employment"; "If no criminal history record is identified at the state level, the applicant's fingerprints shall be forwarded by Georgia Bureau of Investigation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a national criminal history check"; "Within ten days after receiving fingerprints acceptable to GCIC, the application, and fee, GCIC shall notify the department in writing of any derogatory finding ... or if there is no such finding"; and where the determination is unsatisfactory "no such individual ... shall be allowed to be present at the facility when any child is present for care or to reside in the facility until he or she either has obtained a satisfactory comprehensive records check determination or has had the unsatisfactory determination reversed in accordance with Code Section 20-1A-43." The amendment also broadens the covered population from "director, employee" to "any individual ... director, employee, or other individual affiliated with" such a program — a phrase wide enough to reach the household adults a family home is already required to clear. (4) The consequence provisions in O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-39 were tightened from discretionary to mandatory, and a criminal penalty was confirmed.

As amended by Section 4: "The department shall revoke the license or commission of an early care and education program if the program fails to comply with the requirements of this Code section" (repeated at subsections (a), (b) and (e)); subsection (c) as amended reads that "A license or commission shall be revoked and the department shall refuse to issue a license or commission to an early care and education program if a director or employee of such program does not undergo the comprehensive records check determination applicable to such director or employee and receive acceptable determinations" — where the pre-amendment text had said the license "shall be subject to revocation" and the department "may refuse"; and subsection (f) provides that "A license holder, commission holder, permit holder, or director of a licensed, commissioned, or permitted early care and education program that allows an employee or director about whom such license holder ... knows or should reasonably know to have a criminal record that renders such employee or director ineligible to have contact with children to be present at a facility while children are present for care or to reside in a facility shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."

Section 4 also carries the clearance-currency rules at the statutory level: a potential employee may submit evidence of a satisfactory comprehensive records check determination "that includes a records check clearance date that is no more than 12 months old," and a student currently enrolled in an early education curriculum through an accredited school of higher education may rely on one "no more than 24 months old"; and subsection (b) requires that the interval between successive comprehensive records check determinations "shall not exceed five years," with an exception where fingerprints have been retained by the department under the program described in subparagraph (a)(1)(F) of O.C.G.A. § 35-3-33. Why this matters more than a normal statutory footnote: Chapter 290-2-3 has not been amended since September 14, 2023. Every rule quoted in Part II below predates HB 175 by nearly two years. Where the two conflict — most visibly on the NCIC registry search and on the shift from "may refuse" to "shall refuse" — the statute governs, and DECAL is bound by it whether or not Rule 290-2-3-.21 is ever conformed. === PART II.

THE RULE LAYER — TWO TIERS OF CLEARANCE === Georgia runs two determinations, and the difference between them decides who may be alone with children. "Comprehensive Records Check Determination" — Rule 290-2-3-.03(e), quoted above: an FBI fingerprint-based criminal record check, a search of appropriate sex offender registries, compliance with relevant state and federal law, and a search of the criminal registry, the state sex offender registry and the state child abuse and neglect registry in the state of residence and in every state of residence during the preceding five years. "Fingerprint Records Check Determination" — Rule 290-2-3-.03(m): "a satisfactory or unsatisfactory determination made by the Department that is based on national criminal history record information obtained by the use of Fingerprints." This is the narrower, faster clearance; it does not include the multi-state registry sweep. "Provisional Employee" — Rule 290-2-3-.03(u): "a person other than the Provider or Employee, who has submitted a Records Check Application to become an Employee and has not received a Comprehensive Records Check Determination but who has received a satisfactory Fingerprint Records Check Determination and who must be supervised at all times by another Staff member who has a current and valid satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination."

That last clause is the operative constraint: a provisionally cleared helper may never be left alone with the children. "Records Check Application" — Rule 290-2-3-.03(v): "a document created by the Department to be completed and submitted to the Department by every actual and potential Provider, Employee and Provisional Employee of the Home that indicates such information as the Department deems appropriate and which authorizes the Department to receive any sex offender registry, child abuse and neglect registry and criminal history record information pertaining to the individual from any local, state or national agency of appropriate jurisdiction and render a Fingerprint or Comprehensive Records Check Determination." "Records Check Clearance Date" — Rule 290-2-3-.03(w): "the date upon which an individual's fingerprint report was generated." This is the date every twelve-month currency test is measured from — not the date the letter was issued and not the date of hire. === PART III. WHO MUST BE CLEARED — THE AGE-17 RESIDENT RULE === Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(d): "Criminal Records. Before a License to operate a Home may be issued there shall be on file a valid, current satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination issued by the Department for the Provider and every potential Employee of the Home, including persons age 17 or older who reside at the Home or who, with or without compensation and regardless of age, perform duties at the Home which include personal contact between that person and Children in care."

The definition of "Employee" at Rule 290-2-3-.03(i) is what makes that sweep so wide. An Employee is any person other than the Provider or a Provisional Employee who has submitted a Records Check Application and received a satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination and who: "1. Regardless of age, is compensated by a Home for the care of children; 2. Regardless of age, cares for, supervises or has unsupervised access to children at the Home; or 3. Is 17 years of age or older and resides at the Home; or 4. Regardless of age, performs duties for or services that benefit the Home, with or without compensation, which involve personal contact between that person and any child being cared for by the Home, including but not limited to volunteers that perform consistent services for the Home, where services are considered consistent when provided more than once in a ninety calendar day period; or 5. Regardless of age, is a parent or legal guardian of a child in care who is deemed an employee by the Home or either resides at the Home and is age 17 or older, or is compensated in any fashion by the Home except through appropriate state or federal funds; or 6. Regardless of age, is an independent contractor hired by the Home to offer supplemental educational or physical activities for Children in care; or 7. Regardless of age, is a Student-in-Training."

Read paragraph 4 twice. A volunteer becomes an Employee — and therefore a person requiring a comprehensive determination — the second time she helps within any ninety-day window. The rule defines "consistent" for you: "more than once in a ninety calendar day period." The teenager who lives in the house is caught by paragraph 3 on his seventeenth birthday, whether or not he ever goes near the children. Note the mismatch with Rule .03(a), which defines "Adult" as eighteen and older: Georgia clears at seventeen and authorises supervision at eighteen. === PART IV. THE MECHANICS — RULE 290-2-3-.21 === Rule .21(1)(a): "The Home must ensure that the Provider, every actual and potential Employee (including residents age 17 and older) and Provisional Employee of the Family Child Care Learning Home must submit both a Records Check Application to the Department and Fingerprints to an authorized fingerprinting site." Rule .21(1)(b) — the Provider: "Every Provider must have a current and valid satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination on file prior to being present at the Home while any child is present for care or before residing in the Home.

The Comprehensive Records Check Determination must have a Records Check Clearance Date that is no older than the preceding 12 months of the license date; provided, however, if the Provider has had a lapse of employment from the child care industry that lasted for 180 days (6 months) or longer, a new satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination is required." Rule .21(1)(c) — Employees: same formula, measured against "the hire date" rather than the license date, with the same 180-day industry-lapse rule. Rule .21(1)(d) — Provisional Employees: a satisfactory Fingerprint Records Check Determination on file before being present or residing, dated within the preceding 12 months of the hire date, the same 180-day lapse rule, and supervision "at all times by a Provider or Employee with a current and valid satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination." Rule .21(1)(e) — the exclusion: "No actual or potential Provider, Employee or Provisional Employee of the Family Child Care Learning Home with an unsatisfactory Fingerprint Records Check Determination or an unsatisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination may be present at a Home when any child is present for care or reside in a Home."

An unsatisfactory determination for a household member is not a staffing problem; it is a residency problem. Rules .21(1)(f) and (g) — retention: evidence of the fingerprint determination for each Provisional Employee, and of the comprehensive determination for the Provider and each Employee "(including Students-in-Training, volunteers, independent contractors and residents age 17 and older)," must be kept "for the duration of employment or residency plus one year," and "such electronic evidence must be made immediately available to the Department upon request." Note "immediately" — this is one of the few rules in the chapter with no grace period. Rule .21(1)(h) — a legacy deadline still printed in the current text: "Every Provider must receive a satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination before October 1, 2018." It is spent as a transition rule but remains in force as a floor. Rule .21(1)(i) — the out-of-state duty, and its automatic sanction: "The Home must ensure that every Provisional Employee requests child abuse and neglect registry information and criminal history documents from any U.S. state, territory or tribal land other than Georgia in which they have resided in the preceding five years and submit such documents to the Department in a timely manner.

Failure to request out-of-state information will result in the issuance of an unsatisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination." Failure to ask is itself the disqualifying event — the outcome does not depend on what the other state would have said. Rule .21(1)(j): "For a Provisional Employee to become a permanent Employee, the individual must have a satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination." Rule .21(1)(k) — portability: "Only the most recently issued determination letter is eligible for portability and must be ported electronically. A Provider may accept a satisfactory Fingerprint Records Check Determination letter for a Provisional Employee or a satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination letter issued by the Department for a potential Employee if the individual's Records Check Clearance Date is within the preceding 12 months from the hire date, the individual has not had a lapse of employment from the child care industry that lasted for 180 days (6 months) or longer, and the Provider does not know or reasonably should not know that the individual's satisfactory status has changed."

Rule .21(1)(l) — portability for Students-in-Training: the same, at 24 months rather than 12, with the added condition that the Provider "has verified and maintains evidence on file at the Home that the Student-in-Training is currently enrolled in a high school recognized by the Department of Education or an early education curriculum through an accredited school of higher education." "Student-in-Training" is defined at Rule .03(aa) and requires direct supervision by Home personnel at all times. Rule .21(1)(m) — mandatory rechecks: "The Home must immediately require that every Provider, Employee and Provisional Employee submit to the Comprehensive Records Check Determination process at the following times: 1. When the Provider knows or reasonably should know that an Employee or Provisional Employee has been arrested or charged for any covered Crime; 2. When there is a lapse of employment from the child care industry that lasted for 180 calendar days (6 months) or longer; 3. At least once every five years; and 4. When the Department so requests."

The five-year cycle matches the statutory five-year maximum interval in O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-39(b) as amended by HB 175. === PART V. WHAT DISQUALIFIES — THE DEFINED "CRIME" AND "CRIMINAL RECORD" === Rule 290-2-3-.03(f) defines "Crime" as: "1. Any felony pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-30 and in accordance with 42 U.S.C. § 9858f(c)(1)(E); 2. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-5-23, relating to simple battery, where the victim is a minor; 3. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-5-23.1, relating to battery, where the victim is a minor; 4. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-21-1, relating to contributing to the delinquency of a minor; 5. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-6-1 et seq. relating to sexual offenses; 6. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-5-29, relating to battery of an unborn child; 7. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-5-60, relating to reckless conduct causing harm when the victim is a minor; 8. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-5-70, relating to cruelty to children; 9. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-12-1.1, relating to child care facility operators being prohibited from employing or allowing to reside or be domiciled persons with certain past criminal violations;

10. A violation of O.C.G.A. §§ 16-12-100, 16-12-100.1, 16-12-100.2, 16-12-100.3, relating to obscenity and related offenses where the victim is a minor; 11. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 40-6-391, relating to endangering a child while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs; 12. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 19-7-5, relating to a failing to report if mandated to do so by law; 13. Child pornography, in accordance with 42 U.S.C. § 9858f(c)(1)(E); 14. Abuse of, endangerment of, or sexual assault against a child by an adult, in accordance with 42 U.S.C. § 9858f(c)(1)(E); 15. Any other violent misdemeanor against a child by an adult, in accordance with 42 U.S.C. § 9858f(c)(1)(E); 16. A violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-4-1, relating to criminal attempt when the crime attempted is any of the crimes specified by this paragraph; or 17. Any other offenses committed in another jurisdiction which, if committed in this state, would be one of the enumerated crimes listed in this paragraph."

Rule 290-2-3-.03(g) defines "Criminal Record" more broadly than conviction: "1. Conviction of a crime; or 2. Arrest, charge, and sentencing for a crime where: (i) A plea of nolo contendere was entered to the charge; or (ii) First offender treatment without adjudication of guilt pursuant to the charge was granted; provided, however, that this division shall not apply to a violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-13-1 et seq., relating to controlled substances ... if such violation or offense constituted only simple possession; or (iii) Adjudication or sentence was otherwise withheld or not entered on the charge; provided, however, that this division shall not apply to [controlled substance offences] if such violation or offense constituted only simple possession; or 3. Arrest and being charged for a crime if the charge is pending, unless the time for prosecuting such crime has expired pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 17-3-1 et seq." A pending charge is a Criminal Record. A first-offender disposition is a Criminal Record, except for simple possession. This is the paragraph that surprises applicants who were told their record was "cleared."

The statutory list behind it, O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-30, was read on the FindLaw reproduction (page last updated March 28, 2024) and matches in structure: any felony, sexual offenses involving minors across multiple code sections, child abuse violations, DUI child endangerment, and "Any other offenses committed in another jurisdiction which, if committed in this state, would be one of the enumerated crimes." Reversal is possible and is a contested case. O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-43 provides the route to have an unsatisfactory determination reversed: the matter is "a contested case" under the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act; a hearing must be held "reasonably expeditiously after such determination or action"; the hearing officer may consider mitigating factors only where "all terms of probation have been successfully completed" and after independent findings that no physical harm occurred and that the person lacks a propensity for cruelty or moral turpitude; and the prosecuting attorney must receive notice "at least 30 days prior" to the hearing and may file objections the hearing officer "shall take ... into consideration" (FindLaw reproduction, page last updated March 28, 2024). === PART VI.

REPORTING AND THE 24-HOUR CLOCK === Rule 290-2-3-.14(2): "Criminal Record. Within twenty-four (24) hours or the next work day, that the Home knows or reasonably should know that there has been an arrest or change in the Comprehensive Records Check Determination of any Provider or Employee (including any resident of the Home age 17 or older), or the Fingerprint Records Check Determination for any Provisional Employee, the Provider or designated person-in-charge shall report or cause to be reported to the Department the incident and the name of any such Provider, Employee or Provisional Employee of the Home." And the licence-level consequences, which are mandatory rather than discretionary: Rule 290-2-3-.15(3)(g) — "The Department shall refuse to issue a License or Permit if a Home knows or should reasonably know that any actual or potential Provider, Employee (including Independent Contractors, Students-in-Training, and Volunteers) or Provisional Employee has a Criminal Record, an unsatisfactory Fingerprint Records Check Determination or an unsatisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination and allows such individual to either reside at the Home or be present at the Home while any Child is present for care"; Rule .15(3)(k) — the identical formula, this time as a mandatory revocation; Rule .15(3)(l) — "The Department shall revoke a License or Permit if a Home knowingly or intentionally violates other provisions relating to Criminal Records or Comprehensive Background Checks."

These three sit in the list of adverse actions that Rule .15(3) expressly removes from the discretionary Compliance and Enforcement Chart. === PART VII. HOW IT IS ACTUALLY DONE, PER DECAL === From the Applicant's Guide (revised May 2025, archived capture 2025-10-02), stated as agency guidance: applicants "must register through Bright from the Start, for the fingerprint processing"; "Applicants and all other adults (17 years of age and older) residing in the home, or who will be present when children are in care, must be fingerprinted through Bright from the Start. These record checks must be maintained in the home"; and the application checklist requires "Fingerprint Results visible in KOALA" with the note "*NOTE: ALL satisfactory comprehensive criminal records check must be completed prior to the Initial Licensing Study (ILS) and should be displayed in Koala." The guide's Criminal Records Check Guidelines page states that "Georgia law requires that a criminal records check clearance for an employee or director be on file before the person begins employment" and that clearance must be "within the preceding twelve months."

The guide also carries a "Criminal Record Check Acknowledgment Form," dated 08/01/2023 in its footer, which the Provider signs to attest that "no person lives at or is employed at the child care facility listed below who has been convicted of, has entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to, or has been adjudicated delinquent for any of the above listed crimes," and which is "maintained in the facility's State File." That form is worth reading with a critical eye for two reasons. It describes the covered facilities as "family day care homes, group day care homes, or child care learning centers" — two terms that were removed from the statutory definitions a decade ago — and it summarises the disqualifying list far more narrowly than Rule .03(f) does ("any felony; all sexual offenses found in chapter six (6) of title 16; certain misdemeanors including: A) simple battery, when the victim is a minor; B) contributing to the delinquency of a minor; criminal attempt"). The form is a signature artefact, not the standard. The standard is Rule 290-2-3-.03(f) and O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-30 as amended by HB 175.

The application, step by step

Work through these in order — the prep packet turns them into a checklist you can tick off:

1. STEP 1 — Confirm you are in the right category before spending a dollar, because Georgia's boundary is arithmetic and it is unforgiving. The licence applies to "at least three but not more than six Children for pay under 13 years of age who are not Related to such persons and whose Parent(s) are not residents in the same private residence as the Provider" (Rule 290-2-3-.04(1)(c)); below three unrelated paid children there is no licence to obtain and no registration tier to join (DECAL's Applicant's Guide, revised May 2025, states the working version: "You may legally care for (2) children for pay until a license has been issued"); above six paid children — "related or unrelated" — Rule 290-2-3-.04(1)(d) sends you to apply for a Child Care Learning Center licence under Chapter 591-1-1 instead, which is a different rulebook with different ratios, different space rules and a fee schedule keyed to capacity. Check the household ceiling in the same breath: with your own or other Related Children present, no more than twelve children under thirteen may be in the home at once, and 35 square feet of usable child care floor space is required per child present (Rule 290-2-3-.07(17); Rule .13(1)(a)).
2. STEP 2 — Confirm the personal qualification, which takes months and cannot be bought late. The Provider must be at least 21 (Rule 290-2-3-.07(1)) and must hold one of seven credentials listed at Rule 290-2-3-.07(2): a current CDA credential from the Council for Professional Recognition, a Technical Certificate of Credit in Early Childhood Education, a Technical College Diploma in Early Childhood Education, an Associate Degree in Early Childhood Education (AA, AAS, AAT), a current Georgia Professional Standards Commission Paraprofessional Certificate, or a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Early Childhood Education. A high school diploma alone is sufficient only for a Provider whose application was submitted on or before June 30, 2009, and Rule .07(3) strips even that grandfathering if the home closes and reapplies on or after July 1, 2009. Two of the seven credentials (the CDA and the Paraprofessional Certificate) must be "kept current" for as long as you hold the licence.
3. STEP 3 — Complete the three-part pre-service package BEFORE you submit the application, not before the licence issues. Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(b) requires, "Prior to the submission of the License application," that the applicant responsible for day-to-day operations complete (1) a Department-approved licensure orientation covering the application process and an overview of the rules; (2) a pre-licensure training course on Provider competencies covering early learning standards, communication, developmentally appropriate practices, professional and leadership development, business management, and advocacy; and (3) CPR and first aid training from certified or licensed health care professionals or trainers, approved by the Department, including emergency care for infants and children. Per DECAL's Applicant's Guide (May 2025) the orientation has a name and a certificate — the Family Child Care Learning Home Licensure Orientation Meeting (FCCLH-LOM), delivered online by DECAL — and the competency course is ten hours, "at least two (2) hours of training in each of these topic areas": Early Learning Standards, Communications, Leadership & Professional Development, Business Management, and Advocacy for the Parents, Children, and Staff. The ten-hour figure and the five-topic split are DECAL requirements, not text in the regulation; approved courses are listed in the Georgia Professional Development System at www.gapds.decal.ga.gov. Independently of the application, Rule 290-2-3-.07(8)(a) requires that pediatric CPR (biennial) and pediatric first aid (triennial) "be completed by the Provider prior to initial licensure."
4. STEP 4 — Get everyone in the household and every prospective helper fingerprinted and cleared, and understand that the clearance runs on the fingerprint date. Rule 290-2-3-.21(1)(a) requires the Provider, every actual and potential Employee "(including residents age 17 and older)" and every Provisional Employee to submit both a Records Check Application to the Department and fingerprints to an authorized fingerprinting site. Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(d) makes a "valid, current satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination" a precondition to issuance for the Provider and for "every potential Employee of the Home, including persons age 17 or older who reside at the Home or who, with or without compensation and regardless of age, perform duties at the Home which include personal contact between that person and Children in care." The Records Check Clearance Date — "the date upon which an individual's fingerprint report was generated" (Rule .03(w)) — must be no older than the preceding 12 months of the licence date (Rule .21(1)(b)), and any lapse from the child care industry of 180 days or longer voids it. Anyone who lived outside Georgia in the previous five years must request out-of-state child abuse and neglect registry information and criminal history documents; "Failure to request out-of-state information will result in the issuance of an unsatisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination" (Rule .21(1)(i)). Per DECAL, results must be "visible in KOALA" and every comprehensive check "must be completed prior to the Initial Licensing Study (ILS)."
5. STEP 5 — Open a DECAL KOALA account and file the application online, with the exhibits. The regulation says only that "An application for a License to operate a Family Child Care Learning Home shall be submitted to the Department on the forms provided by the Department" (Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(a)) and that every applicant "shall submit a valid e-mail address to the Department at the time of application on forms provided by the Department" (Rule 290-2-3-.20). DECAL's Applicant's Guide fills in the mechanics: the application is filed online through DECAL KOALA at https://www.decalkoala.com/Default, and the uploads include a notarized Affidavit for Lawful Presence Verification with a copy (front and back) of a secure and verifiable document, a signed and dated floor plan labelling the "Child Care Area," proof of ownership (tax bill or tax assessment) or a lease agreement stating you are permitted to operate a family child care in the residence, a homeowners association letter where applicable, the credential documentation, the CPR and first aid cards, the FCCLH-LOM certificate and the ten hours of pre-service documentation.
6. STEP 6 — Handle the local layer that the state rulebook never mentions. Chapter 290-2-3 contains no zoning provision, no business-licence provision and no fire-marshal provision; DECAL's Applicant's Guide supplies all three as application requirements: "Contact the local fire Marshall to determine if there are local ordinances that apply to operating a Family Child Care Learning Home in your area"; "Copy of Zoning Approval from agency with jurisdiction or letter stating no zoning required (Must be dated within the past 12 months)"; "Copy of current Business license or letter stating no business license is required"; "Fire Inspection (only if applicable) (dated within past 12 months)." The guide also states the siting rule in terms the regulation does not use: "The home that is issued a license must be in a residential zone and cannot be in a commercial facility." Treat all of this as DECAL policy plus local law — it is the layer most likely to have changed since May 2025 and the layer this verification could not read live, because decal.ga.gov was unreachable.
7. STEP 7 — Prove your water and sewage. Rule 290-2-3-.13(1)(h): "Water supply and sewage disposal systems, if other than approved county or city systems, shall be approved by the proper authority having jurisdiction," and Rule 290-2-3-.08(14) requires that "If applicable, documentation of approved water and sewage disposal systems shall be maintained in the Home by the Provider." DECAL's checklist operationalises it: "Confirmation of city/county water/sewer (copy of bill)" and, for a well or septic system, an "Environmental Health Letter."
8. STEP 8 — Write the emergency plan, because it is a document with a fixed content list and an inspector will read it. Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(a): "A Home shall have a written plan for handling emergencies, including but not limited to fire, severe weather, loss of electrical power or water, and death, serious injury or loss of a child, a threatening event, or natural disaster which may occur at the Home. The Home will have in place procedures for evacuation, relocation, shelter-in-place, lock-down, communication and reunification with families, continuity of operations, accommodation of infants and toddlers, children with disabilities, and children with chronic medical conditions. No Home personnel shall impede in any way the delivery of emergency care or services to a child by licensed or certified emergency health care professionals." Pair it with the drill obligation you will start immediately on opening: monthly fire drills, tornado and other emergency drills every six months, with dates and times documented and retained two years (Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(c)).
9. STEP 9 — Write the parent-facing policies and procedures, which Rule 290-2-3-.08(8) turns into a seventeen-item drafting assignment. Subsection (a) requires a written description of services specifying "ages of children served, months of operation, days of operation, hours of operation, dates the Family Child Care Learning Home will be closed, admission requirements, including parental responsibilities for supplying and maintaining accurate required record information and escorting Child to and from the Family Child Care Learning Home; standard fees, payment of fees, fees related to absences and vacations and other charges such as transportation, etc. and transportation provided, if any." Subsection (b) then requires written procedures for: behaviour management and discipline "to include the program's practices regarding the expulsion and suspension of children enrolled for care"; handling emergency medical care including where children will be taken; administering medication and recording adverse reactions; notifying parents in writing of illness, injury and exposure to a notifiable communicable disease or suspected cases of viruses identified during a public health emergency "within twenty-four (24) hours after the Home becomes aware of the illness or the next working day"; noticeable adverse reaction to medications; exclusion of sick children; exclusion and readmission of children with communicable diseases "as defined on the most current version of the communicable disease chart, as found on the Department's website"; protection of children in severe weather, fire and physical plant problems; transportation to and from school or home including the procedure if no one is home to receive a transported child; identification of others providing care and of persons who would be called in an emergency; parents' ability to visit unannounced at any time; any information requested by the parent, with daily verbal or written communication about the child's care "especially with infants, toddlers and nonverbal Children"; notification of the existence of a firearm in the home; notification of any changes in the regular composition of the household, "including but not limited to spouse, friend(s), relative(s), or significant other(s)"; notification of the existence of any pets or other animals; notification of infant sleep position practices and SIDS risk reduction; and a description of the home's shaken baby syndrome and abusive head trauma prevention practices covering recognition, response and reporting, strategies for coping with a crying or distraught child, staff understanding of brain development to age five, and "a list of prohibited behaviors when dealing with children."
10. STEP 10 — Settle the liability insurance question before the inspection, because Georgia's answer is a posted sign and a signed acknowledgment rather than a policy. Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(n): "If a Provider does not carry liability insurance coverage sufficient to protect its clients, the Provider shall post that fact in a conspicuous place in the program. Such notice shall be in at least 1/2 inch letters. A Provider that fails to post may be subject to a civil fine of $1,000.00." Rule 290-2-3-.08(11) adds the per-parent duty: written notice to the Parent of each child, with each Parent acknowledging receipt and "a copy of the acknowledgment ... kept in the Child's file." The statutory hook is O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-4, which authorises the department to recommend liability insurance and to impose a civil fine of $1,000.00 per infraction for failure to give the notice; DECAL's own form notes the origin as "SB 24 (2004)." Note for anyone tracking the legislature: a mandate to actually carry commercial general liability insurance has been proposed repeatedly and has never passed — HB 269 of the 2025-2026 session ("Education; regulation of early care and education programs; revise requirements") never left the House Education Committee, and HB 1281 of 2026 ("Child care learning centers; require liability insurance coverage; provisions") likewise stalled after its second reading. As of 2026-08-25 the posting-and-notice regime is still the whole of Georgia law on the point.
11. STEP 11 — Prepare the physical house against Rules .11, .12, .13 and .19, which together are the inspection. Minimum 35 square feet of usable floor space per child in the areas used for child care, no use of basement areas more than 25 linear feet from a window, furniture arranged so as not to interfere with exits, no multiple plugs or extension cords, outlets within reach of children plugged or covered, fans inaccessible, screens on windows and doors used for ventilation, barriers or screens on radiators, open fires, oil or wood burning stoves and floor furnaces, and no unvented fuel-fired heaters without an oxygen depletion safety shut-off (Rule .13(1)). At least one UL Approved smoke detector on each floor and at least one 2-A:10-B:C fire extinguisher in the child care area "to be located no more than thirty feet from the kitchen," maintained in working order and inaccessible to children; no flammable liquids stored inside; poisons, medicines, cleaning agents, razors, aerosol cans and other hazardous materials out of reach or in locked cabinets; firearms "stored so they are not accessible to children"; no access to hanging cords; clear glass doors marked (Rule .11(2)(d)-(i)). A stocked first aid kit — "scissors, tweezers, gauze pads, thermometer, adhesive tape, band-aids, insect-sting preparation, antiseptic cleaning solution, antibacterial ointment, bandages, disposable rubber gloves, protective eyewear, facemask, and cold pack" — with a first aid instruction manual kept with it and written universal-precautions directions, stored inaccessible to children but easily accessible to staff, and a second kit in any vehicle used to transport children (Rule .11(1)(e)). Outdoor play areas free of hazards, non-portable climbing and swinging equipment securely anchored with maintained resilient surfacing beneath and in the fall zone, and areas "protected from traffic or other hazards by fencing or other barriers at least four feet in height and approved by the Department," with "A fence ... provided around swimming pools to make them inaccessible when not in use" (Rule .13(2)). Safety-approved cribs compliant with CPSC and ASTM standards, firm tight-fitting mattresses at least two inches thick covered in waterproof washable material, individual tight-fitting sheets changed daily, no stack cribs and no drop-side cribs, cots or mats for children two and older, pillows only for children two and older, and the 24-inch corridor / 12-inch spacing / head-to-feet arrangement rules (Rule .19). Toys stored on low open shelves; no projectile toys; balloons inaccessible to preschool children; furniture at risk of tipping secured (Rule .12).
12. STEP 12 — Pass the pre-licensing on-site inspection, and understand what applying has already consented to. Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(c): "Pre-Licensing Visit. Following receipt and review of the complete license application package, the Department shall conduct an on-site inspection of the potential Family Child Care Learning Home to assess compliance with these rules. The Department may deny the application for License if conditions are found during the on-site inspection that pose health and/or safety risks to children." Rule 290-2-3-.05(b) is the consent provision, and it is broad: "An application for a License to operate a Home or the issuance of a License by the Department constitutes consent by the applicant and Provider to allow any representative of the Department to enter the premises at any time Children are being cared for in the Home. This consent applies to both scheduled and unscheduled inspections and includes consent for meaningful access to all Staff, all parts of the premises of the Home, all Children present, and all records, to include but not be limited to, audio, video, photos, written documentation, social media posts, and other electronic information." Failure to allow access or to cooperate is itself "good cause for the denial, restriction, revocation or suspension of a License" (Rule .05(c)-(d)), and making false or misleading statements to the Department in an inspection or investigation is separately prohibited (Rule .05(e)).
13. STEP 13 — Pay the fee on Georgia's clock. Rule 290-2-3-.04(1)(f): "Every License or Commission issued by the Department to operate a Family Child Care Learning Home shall be subject to an annual fee of $50.00. If such annual fee is not paid by the date set forth by the Department, the Department may issue a late fee of up to $250.00 within 30 days of the due date. If such annual fee and any imposed late fees are not paid within 30 days of the due date, the Department shall revoke the License or Commission." The statutory fee schedule at O.C.G.A. § 20-1A-10 sets the same $50.00 for programs of 1 to 25 children, rising to $250.00 for 200 or more. DECAL's Applicant's Guide describes the sequence: "The non-refundable $50 license fee will not be accepted until final license is granted during the initial licensing visit. At that time, payment can be made via your DECAL Koala account"; the fee is then due "within 30 days in order to receive a licensing certificate"; and thereafter "You will be required to pay the non-refundable license fee of $50 by December 1st each year on your user account at www.decalkoala.com." Failure to pay is one of the mandatory-revocation grounds under Rule 290-2-3-.15(3)(j).
14. STEP 14 — Complete the annual lawful-presence formality that has nothing to do with child care and will stop your licence anyway. Per DECAL's Applicant's Guide, "Effective January 1, 2012, Georgia law (O.C.G.A. Section 50-36-1) requires all applicants for a public benefit to verify their lawful presence in the United States before receiving the benefit. A Bright from the Start license or registration is a public benefit issued to the owner of a child care facility each year. Therefore, Bright from the Start must have the required verification documents before the annual license will be issued ... You cannot pay your license fee or receive your new license each year until the Affidavit or Affirmation for Lawful Presence Verification has been completed." The affidavit is notarized, is accompanied by a copy of a secure and verifiable document (US passport or passport card, US military ID, US-issued driver's licence), and is submitted to ccsaffidavit@decal.ga.gov or by fax to (404) 463-7262; owners previously verified as US citizens complete an annual Affirmation inside KOALA instead, and non-citizen owners must resubmit documents every year, with pre-printed affidavit forms e-mailed on November 1.
15. STEP 15 — Open with every child's record complete on day one, because Rule 290-2-3-.08 is enforced per child. Identifying information (child's name, birth date, Parent's name, home and business addresses, telephone numbers), emergency contacts including the child's physician, and the names, addresses, telephone numbers and relationship of persons to whom the child may be released (Rule .08(1)); evidence of age-appropriate immunizations or a signed religious-objection affidavit or a physician's contraindication statement, "on file for each Child upon admission to the Home or within 30 days thereafter" (Rule .08(2)); written authorization for emergency medical treatment when the Parent is unavailable (Rule .08(3)), a copy of which must be kept in the vehicle if children are transported (Rule .11(2)(m)); a record of allergies and other known medical problems (Rule .08(4)); documentation of medications given (Rule .08(5)); descriptions of accidents or serious illnesses with "date, time and condition under which it occurred and the action taken" (Rule .08(6)); parental agreements for transportation, field trips and swimming (Rule .08(7)); the daily arrival and departure log signed or initialled by the Parent or authorized person (Rule .08(9)); a signed written feeding plan for every child under one year, posted in the main child care area (Rule .10(3)); the no-liability-insurance acknowledgment (Rule .08(11)); and the notarized statements for related children and for non-pay children (Rules .08(12) and (13)). Records are kept "while the Child is in care and for a period of one (1) year after such Child is no longer in care" (Rule .08(1)).
16. STEP 16 — Set up the ongoing calendar before you are busy. Within 24 hours or the next work day, report to DECAL any child death, any serious illness or injury requiring hospitalization or professional medical attention beyond first aid, any child who becomes missing (including "a Child who is left on a vehicle, a Child who leaves the Home, playground, or property, or a Child who is left behind on any trip"), any fire, any structural disaster, any emergency situation requiring temporary relocation of children, and "any time the Home's operating status changes" (Rule 290-2-3-.14(1)); any arrest or change in a records check determination for a Provider, Employee, resident aged 17 or older or Provisional Employee (Rule .14(2)); any suspected child abuse, neglect or deprivation, reported to the local County Division of Family and Children Services and notified to DECAL (Rule .14(3)); and any notifiable communicable disease, reported immediately to DECAL and the county health department under Georgia Department of Public Health Rule 511-2-1 (Rule .14(4)). Annually: ten clock hours of training with the 2/2/max-2 composition (Rule .07(9)), the $50 fee, and the lawful-presence affirmation. Every two years: pediatric CPR. Every three years: pediatric first aid. Every five years, at minimum: a fresh comprehensive records check for everyone (Rule .21(1)(m)(3)). Monthly: fire drills. Every six months: tornado and other emergency drills, with menus retained six months (Rule .10(6)). And keep e-mail current — under Rule 290-2-3-.20, delivery of directives, bulletins, data requests and notices of proposed rule amendments to the address on file "shall be considered valid so long as the Department does not receive a failure to deliver message."

What you must post on your walls

• Emergency telephone numbers, posted in a conspicuous place next to an operable telephone. Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(b): "An operable telephone shall be readily available in the Home with the following telephone numbers posted in a conspicuous place next to the telephone: a physician or hospital, an ambulance or rescue squad service, the local fire department, the local police department, the county health department and the regional poison control center. In those areas of the state serviced by the 911 emergency number, 911 may be posted in lieu of the phone numbers required for ambulance, fire and police." DECAL supplies a fill-in poster in the Applicant's Guide which adds two lines the rule does not require but the agency prints: the Local Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) and Consumer Safety Information at 1 (800) 638-2772, with the Regional Poison Control Center pre-printed as 1 (800) 222-1222.
• "No smoking" signs. Rule 290-2-3-.11(1)(l): "Smoking is prohibited on the premises of a Home during the hours of operation and no smoking signs must be posted. Smoking is also prohibited in any vehicle used to transport children during the hours that the Home is in operation." The sign is mandatory language in the rule itself — "must be posted" — and DECAL provides a printable No Smoking Sign in the Applicant's Guide.
• Notice of no liability insurance, if applicable, in letters at least half an inch high. Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(n): "If a Provider does not carry liability insurance coverage sufficient to protect its clients, the Provider shall post that fact in a conspicuous place in the program. Such notice shall be in at least 1/2 inch letters. A Provider that fails to post may be subject to a civil fine of $1,000.00." The parallel private notice — written notice to each Parent with a signed acknowledgment kept in the child's file — is required by Rule 290-2-3-.08(11), and the acknowledgment is a file document, not a posting; DECAL's form makes the distinction explicit: "Parent/Guardian Acknowledgement of No Liability (Place a signed copy in each child's file/Do not post)."
• The infant feeding plan for each child under one year of age, posted in the main child care area. Rule 290-2-3-.10(3): "A signed written feeding plan for children less than one (1) year of age shall be obtained from Parent(s). Instructions from the Parent(s) shall be updated regularly as new foods are added or other dietary changes are made. The feeding plan shall be posted in the main child care area and must include the child's feeding schedule, the amount of formula or breast milk to be given, instructions for the introduction of solid foods, the amount of food to be given and notation of any type(s) of commercially premixed formula which may not be used in an emergency because of food allergies."
• The current week's menu of all meals and snacks, with substitutions recorded on the posted menu. Rule 290-2-3-.10(6): "Menus. The Home shall provide a menu listing all meals and snacks to be served during the current week. Substitutions shall be recorded on the posted menu. Menus shall be retained at the Home for six (6) months."
• The licence itself — an agency requirement rather than a rule requirement, and worth stating precisely because the distinction has been mis-stated before. Chapter 290-2-3 as served by the Secretary of State on 2026-08-25 contains no rule requiring the licence to be displayed. DECAL requires it anyway: the Applicant's Guide (revised May 2025) states that "Once the license fee is paid, you will receive a license by e-mail that you must print and post," and lists among the items "posted so that they are easily seen by you, the children's parents, and your helper/assistant" the "Bright from the Start License." Post it; just do not cite Chapter 290-2-3 for the duty.
• The "Parents You Have the Right" poster — again DECAL policy rather than rule text. The Applicant's Guide lists it among the items consultants expect to see posted, and reproduces it: "You have the right: • To access this facility anytime your child is in care. However, you need to immediately make your presence known to the person in charge of the facility. • To review a copy of the facility's latest licensure evaluation report. The facility director has the report." The poster also carries the complaint line, (404) 657-5562. The underlying access right is in the rule — Rule 290-2-3-.06: "The Parent(s) of a Child shall be permitted access to all child care areas of the Home at all times a Child is in attendance, unless otherwise ordered by a court of proper jurisdiction" — and Rule .08(8)(b)(11) requires the home's written policies to cover "Parents' ability to visit the Family Child Care Learning Home unannounced and at any time that their Child is in care."
• Written emergency plans, kept posted per DECAL's inspection list and required in substance by Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(a). The rule requires the plan to exist in writing and to cover fire, severe weather, loss of electrical power or water, death, serious injury or loss of a child, a threatening event and natural disaster, with procedures for evacuation, relocation, shelter-in-place, lock-down, communication and reunification with families, continuity of operations, and accommodation of infants and toddlers, children with disabilities and children with chronic medical conditions; DECAL's Applicant's Guide lists "Written Emergency Plans" among the documents that must be "accurate, current, and posted."
• During any adverse action: the Department's formal notice, posted where parents can see it, for as long as the action is pending — and the inspection reports with it. Rule 290-2-3-.15(4)(g)(2): "the Home shall post the formal notice in an area that is visible to the Parents and others whose Children attend the Home"; Rule .15(4)(k): "the Home shall ensure that the notice continues to be visible to the Parents and others throughout the pendency of the revocation or emergency action, including throughout any appeal period"; Rule .15(4)(m): "the Home shall post any inspection reports that are prepared by the Department during the pendency of any revocation or emergency action in an area that is readily visible to the Parents and others"; Rule .15(4)(n): "A Home shall not permit the removal or obliteration of any notices of revocation, emergency action, resolution, or inspection survey report posted on the premises of the Home during the pendency of any revocation or emergency action." Rule .15(4)(g)(4) adds a distribution duty — the home must give the Department's brief notice to all Parents or persons authorized to pick up children — and Rule .15(4)(l) requires that where the home transports children and parents do not come to the home regularly, copies of the brief notice go home with the children the day it is delivered.
• Kept on the premises rather than posted, but produced on demand at every inspection: documentation of monthly fire drills and of tornado and other emergency drills every six months, "the dates and times of these drills," retained two years (Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(c)); current pediatric CPR and pediatric first aid certificates, "maintained on the Home's premises" (Rule .07(8)(a)); evidence of records check determinations for the Provider, each Employee and each resident aged 17 or older, "for the duration of employment or residency plus one year," available to the Department "immediately" upon request (Rule .21(1)(f)-(g)); personnel files for the term of employment plus one calendar year (Rule .07(4)); children's records while in care and for one year after (Rule .08(1)); menus for six months (Rule .10(6)); and the home's written policies and procedures, which must be "made available to the Parents" (Rule .08(8)). DECAL's inspection list adds the practical set a consultant asks for on arrival: criminal record checks, helper orientation forms, enrolment forms, immunization records, CPR and first aid cards, training certificates totalling ten hours for the licence year, infant feeding plans, incident and accident reports, medical authorization forms, pet vaccination records, the driver's licence of anyone providing transportation, and notarized no-compensation forms for any child in care for whom no pay is received.

Enrollment forms for each child

• The licence application itself, filed on DECAL's forms and — per the agency — online. Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(a): "An application for a License to operate a Family Child Care Learning Home shall be submitted to the Department on the forms provided by the Department." Rule 290-2-3-.20 makes an e-mail address part of the filing: "All Family Child Care Learning Home license applicants shall submit a valid e-mail address to the Department at the time of application on forms provided by the Department. It shall be the Family Child Care Learning Home's responsibility to maintain correct contact information, to update the Department if contact information changes, and to respond timely to information requests from the Department transmitted to the provided e-mail address. Delivery of any such information, including but not limited to directives, bulletins, data requests, notices of proposed amendments to rules and regulations, and any other matters affecting Family Child Care Learning Homes, to said e-mail address shall be considered valid so long as the Department does not receive a failure to deliver message." Per DECAL's Applicant's Guide (revised May 2025), the application is filed through a DECAL KOALA account at https://www.decalkoala.com/Default, and the guide instructs that a signature on the application "is your consent and understanding that Child Care Services staff may visit your home at any time during operating hours."
• A Records Check Application to the Department plus fingerprints at an authorized fingerprinting site, for the Provider, every actual and potential Employee and Provisional Employee, and every resident aged 17 or older. Rule 290-2-3-.21(1)(a). The Records Check Application is defined at Rule 290-2-3-.03(v) as "a document created by the Department ... which authorizes the Department to receive any sex offender registry, child abuse and neglect registry and criminal history record information pertaining to the individual from any local, state or national agency of appropriate jurisdiction and render a Fingerprint or Comprehensive Records Check Determination." For anyone who lived outside Georgia in the previous five years, add the out-of-state child abuse and neglect registry information and criminal history documents required by Rule .21(1)(i) — the failure to request them is itself disqualifying.
• The Comprehensive Record Check Acknowledgement. Listed on DECAL's Application Checklist as an owner/applicant document and reproduced in the Applicant's Guide as the "Criminal Record Check Acknowledgment Form," on which the Provider attests: "To my knowledge, no person lives at or is employed at the child care facility listed below who has been convicted of, has entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to, or has been adjudicated delinquent for any of the above listed crimes," signed and dated, with the note "This document will be maintained in the facility's State File." Read the form's own summary of disqualifying crimes with caution — it is narrower than Rule 290-2-3-.03(f) and still uses the pre-2015 statutory vocabulary ("family day care homes, group day care homes").
• The notarized Affidavit for Lawful Presence Verification under O.C.G.A. § 50-36-1(e)(2), with a legible copy (front and back) of a secure and verifiable document — a US-issued passport or passport card, a US military ID, or a US-issued driver's licence. The affidavit requires the applicant to verify one of three statuses: US citizen 18 or older; legal permanent resident 18 or older; or "qualified alien or non-immigrant under the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act, 18 years of age or older, with an alien number issued by the Department of Homeland Security," with the alien number stated. Owners previously verified as US citizens complete an annual Affirmation in KOALA instead; non-citizen owners resubmit every year. Submission is to ccsaffidavit@decal.ga.gov or fax (404) 463-7262. Per DECAL: "You cannot pay your license fee or receive your new license each year until the Affidavit or Affirmation for Lawful Presence Verification has been completed." This requirement appears nowhere in Chapter 290-2-3; it comes from Georgia's public-benefit verification statute as applied by DECAL.
• Proof of your right to use the residence: a copy of the tax assessment or tax bill if you own the home, or "a copy of a current lease agreement that states you are allowed to operate a family child care in the residence" if you do not, plus a homeowners association letter "giving permission for a Family Child Care Learning Home" where an association has jurisdiction (DECAL Application Checklist and Steps for Successful Application, May 2025). No rule in Chapter 290-2-3 requires any of these; they are DECAL application requirements.
• A signed and dated floor plan, marked "*Required w/ application" on DECAL's checklist, showing "all rooms in the home on the floor with the child care area being [lab]eled as 'Child Care Area'." A Floor Plan Template is supplied in Section 5 of the Applicant's Guide. The floor plan is how the 35-square-feet-per-child rule of Rule 290-2-3-.13(1)(a) and the basement restriction of Rule .13(1)(b) are checked before anyone drives out to the house.
• Approvals from other jurisdictions: written zoning approval from the county or city, or a letter stating no zoning approval is required, dated within the past 12 months; a current business licence or a letter stating none is required; a fire inspection where applicable, dated within the past 12 months; confirmation of city or county water and sewer (a copy of a bill), or an Environmental Health letter approving well water and septic capacity where applicable (DECAL Application Checklist). The regulation touches only the last of these — Rule 290-2-3-.13(1)(h) requires that non-municipal "Water supply and sewage disposal systems ... be approved by the proper authority having jurisdiction," and Rule 290-2-3-.08(14) requires the Provider to maintain "documentation of approved water and sewage disposal systems" in the home.
• Documentation of the Provider's credential or degree under Rule 290-2-3-.07(2) — CDA, TCC or TCD in Early Childhood Education, Associate degree, Georgia PSC Paraprofessional Certificate, or Bachelor's or Master's in Early Childhood Education — together with the certificate of completion of the Family Child Care Learning Home Licensure Orientation Meeting (FCCLH-LOM), documentation of the ten hours of pre-service training in the five two-hour topic areas, and current pediatric CPR and first aid cards (Rule 290-2-3-.04(2)(b); DECAL Application Checklist).
• Per child, the enrolment record required by Rule 290-2-3-.08(1): "identifying information (Child's name, birth date, Parent's name, home and business addresses, telephone numbers); name, address and telephone number of persons, including Child's physician, to contact in emergencies; and name, address, telephone numbers, relationship to Child and to Parent(s) and other identifying information of person(s) to whom the Child may be released." Kept while the child is in care and for one year afterwards.
• Per child, immunization documentation under Rule 290-2-3-.08(2): "evidence of age appropriate immunizations, or a signed affidavit certifying that the required immunizations conflict with the religious belief of the Parent or a physician statement that immunization is contraindicated. Evidence of immunizations or required documentation shall be on file for each Child upon admission to the Home or within 30 days thereafter." The rule does not name a form number; Georgia's immunization certificate is administered by the Department of Public Health, and DECAL's inspection list asks for "Immunization Records (for each child in care that is not enrolled in a school-age program)."
• Per child, written authorization to receive emergency medical treatment when the Parent is not available (Rule 290-2-3-.08(3)) — with a copy kept in the vehicle whenever children are transported (Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(m)) — and a record of "any allergies and other known medical problems" (Rule .08(4)).
• Per child, medication documentation. Rule 290-2-3-.11(1)(d): "Except for first aid and as authorized under Georgia law, personnel shall not dispense prescription or nonprescription medications to a Child without specific written authorization from the Child's physician or Parent. All medications shall be stored as authorized under Georgia law or in accordance with the prescription or label instructions and kept in places that are inaccessible to children. Each dose of medication given to a Child shall be documented showing the Child's name, name of medication, date and time given, and the name of the person giving the medication." Rule .08(5) requires those records in the child's file. DECAL supplies two forms in the Applicant's Guide — "Authorization to Dispense Medication" and "Authorization to Dispense External Preparations."
• Per child, incident documentation: "descriptions of accidents or serious illnesses occurring while the Child is in the Family Child Care Learning Home, including date, time and condition under which it occurred and the action taken" (Rule 290-2-3-.08(6)); DECAL's version is the "Injury/Illness Report" form in the Applicant's Guide.
• Per child, parental agreements "for transportation, field trips, swimming and/or other activities away from the Home if the Child will be participating in these activities" (Rule 290-2-3-.08(7)), and, for every child under one year, the signed written feeding plan obtained from the Parent and posted in the main child care area (Rule 290-2-3-.10(3)).
• The daily arrival and departure log. Rule 290-2-3-.08(9): "The Parent or person(s) authorized by the Parent to drop off and pick up the Child will document each time the Parent or authorized person drops off and picks up the Child. The documentation shall include at least the following information: the date, the Child's name, the arrival and departure times, and the signature or initials of the Parent or authorized person and shall be made available to the Department in printed or written form upon request." Note who signs — the parent or authorized person, not the Provider — and pair it with Rule .08(10), which requires the Home to "take necessary steps to determine that any such person(s) presenting to pick up a Child in care is authorized by the Parent(s) of the Child and that person matches the identifying information provided by the Parent."
• Two notarized statements that decide whether your six-child count is honest. Rule 290-2-3-.08(12): "Documentation of family relationships for related children, other than the Provider's own children, cared for in the Home shall be maintained and shall include a notarized statement by the related child's Parent(s) attesting to the relationship." Rule 290-2-3-.08(13): "Documentation of the non-pay status of related and unrelated children in care for whom no pay is received shall be maintained and shall include a notarized statement by such child's Parent(s) attesting to the non-pay status." DECAL's inspection list calls the latter the "Notarized No Compensation Forms."
• The written notice of the absence of liability insurance and the parent's signed acknowledgment, kept in the child's file (Rule 290-2-3-.08(11)), with the corresponding half-inch-letter posting under Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(n). DECAL supplies both the "Notice of No Liability Insurance" and the "No Liability Acknowledgement," the latter reciting: "I understand I am being informed in writing by signing this acknowledgment that this child care facility does not carry liability insurance sufficient to protect my children in the event of an injury, etc."
• The home's written policies and procedures (Rule 290-2-3-.08(8)) and the written emergency plan (Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(a)) — both drafting exercises rather than fill-in forms, with content lists set out in the prelicensing steps above. DECAL provides an "Emergency Procedures Form" and emergency procedure examples in the Applicant's Guide as a starting template.
• Personnel documentation for every Staff member, including the Provider. Rule 290-2-3-.07(4) requires a personnel file kept "for the duration of the term of employment plus one (1) calendar year" containing name, date of birth, social security number, current address and telephone number, "employment history for the past ten years," evidence of education and qualifying work experience, "evidence of required program orientation including date and signature of person providing the orientation," evidence of all required training with "title of training, date of training, trainer's signature, location of training and number of clock hours obtained," and "a statement completed by the staff member that the information provided is true and accurate." DECAL's Helper Orientation Checklist is the agency's template for documenting the orientation of an assistant — note that the form still cites a superseded version of Rule 290-2-3-.07(15).
• Drill and training records: dates and times of monthly fire drills and of tornado and other emergency drills every six months, retained two years (Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(c)); training documentation in the personnel file and/or the Georgia Professional Development System showing "the title of the training courses, the dates, and the number of hours of the courses, and the names of the trainers or sponsoring organizations" (Rule 290-2-3-.07(10)); and current CPR and first aid evidence maintained on the premises (Rule 290-2-3-.07(8)(a)). DECAL's inspection list also asks for pet vaccination records — the rule behind them is Rule 290-2-3-.11(1)(n), "Pets in the Home shall be vaccinated in accordance with the requirements of the local county Boards of Health" — and the driver's licence of anyone providing transportation, per Rule 290-2-3-.11(2)(j).
• If you ever need relief from a rule: a waiver or variance petition "filed on forms provided by the Department" under Rule 290-2-3-.16, which distinguishes a variance (strict application "would cause undue hardship," with "adequate standards affording protection for the health, safety and care of the children" met in lieu of the rule), a waiver (the rule's purpose "is met through equivalent standards affording equivalent protection"), and an experimental variance or waiver for "new and innovative approaches to delivery of services." And if the Department moves against you: a written statement submitted "within ten (10) days of the receipt of notice of the Departmental intent to impose an Adverse Action," which is placed in the facility's state file (Rule 290-2-3-.15(4)(a)), and a written hearing request — within ten days for a revocation, suspension or restriction notice, and within 48 hours excluding weekends and holidays for an emergency closure order (Rule .15(4)(d) and (f)).

What's specific about getting licensed in Georgia

Georgia doesn't call it "family day care" — the license category is a Family Child Care Learning Home, regulated by DECAL (Bright from the Start) under Rule 290-2-3, and that specific name plus rule number is worth anchoring the page on. What really distinguishes Georgia is the head-count math: one provider can legally run up to 6 children under 13, but the state layers age-based sub-caps (more than 3 under 12 months, 6 under age 3, or 8 under age 5 forces a second adult), your own related children don't count toward the six, and you may add just 2 older children for two one-hour periods a day with DECAL approval. That age-tiered solo-provider ceiling, paired with a flat $50 annual fee, is the fingerprint that sets Georgia apart from neighboring states.

How long it takes and what it costs in Georgia

Timeline: Georgia's rule (290-2-3) doesn't promise a fixed number of days, so plan for a few weeks to a few months rather than a set deadline. The sequence is: complete DECAL's licensure orientation, submit a complete application package, clear a fingerprint-based Comprehensive Records Check, then pass an on-site pre-licensing inspection before your license is issued. The two things that stretch the timeline most are how fast your background-check results come back and how quickly the pre-licensing visit gets scheduled, so start both early.

Cost: The Family Child Care Learning Home license carries a $50.00 annual fee under Rule 290-2-3, and DECAL can add a late fee of up to $250 if it isn't paid within 30 days of the due date. Beyond that flat fee, budget for the real out-of-pocket items the rules require but don't price: a fingerprint-based background check (Comprehensive Records Check), pediatric CPR and first-aid certification, and your ongoing training. Georgia requires 10 clock hours of training each year after your first year (no more than 2 of those hours in business topics), which can often be taken free through the state's professional development registry, though college or vocational courses cost more. I don't have official dollar figures for the fingerprint check or certification classes, as those are set by outside vendors, not the rule.

Source: PRIMARY — RULES (read live, in full, 2026-08-25, via the Secretary of State's live hierarchy rather than any pinned URL): Georgia Rules and Regulations, Subject 290-2-3, "RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR FAMILY CHILD CARE LEARNING HOMES," Rules 290-2-3-.01 through 290-2-3-.21, https://rules.sos.ga.gov/gac/290-2-3 — reached from the department index https://rules.sos.ga.gov/gac/290 and the chapter index https://rules.sos.ga.gov/gac/290-2. Effective dates established from the Department 290 ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY at https://rules.sos.ga.gov/gac/290: chapter renamed and substantially readopted F. Dec. 4, 2015, eff. Dec. 24, 2015; amended F. June 2, 2016, eff. June 22, 2016; F. Sep. 26, 2016, eff. Oct. 16, 2016; F. May 26, 2017, eff. June 15, 2017; F. Aug. 17, 2018, eff. Sep. 6, 2018; F. Aug. 28, 2019, eff. Sep. 17, 2019; F. Aug. 31, 2020, eff. Sept. 20, 2020; and last, "Rule 290-2-3-.11 amended. F. Aug. 25, 2023; eff. Sept. 14, 2023." The chapter text served on 2026-08-25 is the text effective since 2023-09-14. PRIMARY — CONTROL ON THE COMPETING CHAPTER: Georgia Rules and Regulations, Department 591, "RULES OF BRIGHT FROM THE START GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CARE AND LEARNING," index and administrative history at https://rules.sos.ga.gov/gac/591, and sub-chapter index at https://rules.sos.ga.gov/gac/591-1. Read to confirm that Department 591 contains only Chapter 591-1 (sole subject 591-1-1, "Child Care Learning Centers," last amended F. May 15, 2025; eff. June 4, 2025), Chapter 591-2 (Grant Programs) and Chapter 591-3 (Support Centers) — i.e. that no family-home chapter exists under 591 and that any "591" citation for a family child care learning home is a citation to the centers rulebook.

PRIMARY — SESSION LAW: HB 175, 2025-2026 regular session, "AS PASSED HOUSE AND SENATE" (25 LC 49 2064/AP), enrolled text read in full at https://gov.georgia.gov/document/2025-signed-legislation/hb-175/download. Amends O.C.G.A. Chapter 1A of Title 20: adds § 20-1A-2(8.1) ("Head Start program"), revises § 20-1A-30(1) (comprehensive records check determination, adding the NCIC National Sex Offender Registry search), revises § 20-1A-34(a) (application, GCIC/GBI/FBI processing, ten-day GCIC notification, exclusion pending a satisfactory determination), and revises § 20-1A-39 (mandatory revocation and refusal, 12-month and 24-month clearance currency, five-year recheck interval, misdemeanor liability). Section 5: "This Act shall become effective on July 1, 2025." PRIMARY — LEGISLATIVE STATUS AND THE NEGATIVE FINDINGS: Governor's signed-legislation lists, read in full and parsed bill by bill, at https://gov.georgia.gov/executive-action/legislation/signed-legislation/2026 (351 acts), /2025 (350 acts), /2024 (354 acts), and /2026-special-session (one act, SB 3EX). Georgia House of Representatives, "2026 COMPOSITE STATUS," Thursday March 19, 2026, https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/house-calendars/20252026/hcompositef7ca2855f9fd4b4285da3d2c87be5214.pdf — used to establish the status of HB 269 (Education; regulation of early care and education programs; revise requirements — read 1st 2/5/2025, 2nd 2/6/2025, House Education, no further action), HB 1281 (Child care learning centers; require liability insurance coverage — read 1st 2/12/2026, 2nd 2/17/2026, no further action) and SB 554 (Early Care and Learning; grant program to expand access to child care — read 1st 2/25/2026, Senate only).

STATUTE — CODIFIED TEXT, VIA REPRODUCTION, WITH ITS DATE STATED: O.C.G.A. §§ 20-1A-2 (definitions of "family child care learning home," "child care learning center," "early care and education programs"), 20-1A-4 (powers and duties; annual fees; liability-insurance notice and the $1,000.00 civil fine), 20-1A-6 (succession to the rules of the Office of School Readiness in effect on September 30, 2004), 20-1A-9 (succession to the Department of Human Resources' licensing rights and responsibilities — the provision that explains why the family-home rules still sit in Department 290), 20-1A-10 (licence, commission or registration requirements; annual licensure; fee schedule beginning at $50.00 for 1-25 children; inspection and right of entry; the two-additional-children provision; support-center treatment), 20-1A-11 (misdemeanor for operating without a licence; civil penalty up to $500.00 with each day a separate violation; notice by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery), 20-1A-30 (records-check definitions and the enumerated crimes) and 20-1A-43 (reversal of an unsatisfactory determination as a contested case;

mitigating factors only after completion of all terms of probation; 30 days' notice to the prosecuting attorney) — all read on the FindLaw reproduction of the Georgia Code at codes.findlaw.com, each page stamped "last updated March 28, 2024." Georgia's official free code, hosted for the state by LexisNexis at https://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/, serves only a JavaScript redirect shell to a non-browser client, and law.justia.com/regulations.justia.com refused all requests during this verification; the March 2024 date is therefore stated wherever the codified text is relied on, and it necessarily predates HB 175. AGENCY — READ FROM AN ARCHIVED CAPTURE BECAUSE THE LIVE SITE IS UNREACHABLE: Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, "Applicant's Guide to Licensing for Family Child Care Learning Homes," 113 pages, "Revised May 2025," read in full from the Internet Archive capture dated 2025-10-02 of https://www.decal.ga.gov/documents/attachments/FCCLHApplicantGuide.pdf (archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20251002211913/https://www.decal.ga.gov/documents/attachments/FCCLHApplicantGuide.pdf).

Source of: the DECAL KOALA filing process (https://www.decalkoala.com/Default), the FCCLH-LOM orientation, the ten-hour five-topic pre-service breakdown and the GaPDS listing (www.gapds.decal.ga.gov), the application checklist (zoning letter within 12 months, business licence, HOA letter, floor plan, tax assessment or lease, water/sewer confirmation, Environmental Health letter, fire inspection where applicable), the Affidavit for Lawful Presence Verification under O.C.G.A. § 50-36-1 and its annual affirmation, the fee sequence ($50 collected at final licence, due within 30 days, then annually by December 1), the instruction to print and post the licence, the "Parents You Have the Right" poster, the Criminal Record Check Acknowledgment Form (footer dated 08/01/2023), the Helper Orientation Checklist, and the consultant's inspection-day document list. DECAL's live site could not be read on 2026-08-25: https://www.decal.ga.gov/ returned a page titled "Blocked" and every advertised document path returned HTTP 404 to this network. READ AND REJECTED AS STALE, RECORDED SO IT IS NOT RE-USED: "Code of Georgia Annotated, Title 20. Education, Chapter 1A.

Early Care and Learning, Article 1," PDF at https://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/Georgia%20Statute%20Title%2020%20Chapter%201A%20Article%201.pdf — a complete, official-looking annotated reproduction whose § 20-1A-2 is stamped "Effective: July 1, 2013" and still defines a child care learning center as "19 or more children under 18 years of age" and uses the repealed categories "family day-care home" and "group day-care home." Not used for any statement in this entry except as an illustration of source drift.

Verified 2026-08-25. General information, not legal advice and not a guarantee of licensure — confirm with your state’s licensing agency before applying.