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Home Daycare License Requirements in Indiana (2026)

Opening a home daycare in Indiana means getting a family child care home license from the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. 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 Indiana

Indiana does not license anything called a "family child care home." The statutory object is a CHILD CARE HOME, and it comes in exactly two licensed grades — a CLASS I CHILD CARE HOME and a CLASS II CHILD CARE HOME — plus one enormous unlicensed lane, the REGISTERED CHILD CARE MINISTRY, which is where most of the traffic to this page is actually headed. The regulator is the Family and Social Services Administration, Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL); the rules sit in Title 470 IAC because they were promulgated by the Division of Family Resources, and the statutes sit in IC 12-17.2 (Day Care Regulation). If you were told to read the definitions at IC 12-7-2, stop: that chapter is dead. The 2026 Indiana Code carries the line "IC 12-7-2 Chapter 2. Repealed. Note: This version of chapter repealed by P.L.145-2026, SEC.62," and the Revisor's Note under the surviving stub says, verbatim, "P.L.145-2026 repealed IC 12-7-2 and relocated the chapter to IC 12-7-2.1, effective July 1, 2026." Every child care definition you need now lives in IC 12-7-2.1, each section tagged "As added by P.L.145-2026, SEC.63." FSSA's own laws-and-rules page still says in prose that the definitions are "as contained in IC 12-7-2" while the links underneath point at IC 12-7-2.1-54, -55, -57, -58, -68 and -69. The agency page is behind its own hyperlinks.

Cite IC 12-7-2.1. Here is the definition that decides whether you need a licence at all. IC 12-7-2.1-57 provides: "(a) Except as provided in subsection (c), 'child care home', for purposes of IC 12-17.2, means a residential structure in which at least eight (8) children, or at least four (4) children under twelve (12) months of age, (not including the children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative) at any time receive child care from a provider: (1) while unattended by a parent, legal guardian, or custodian; (2) for regular compensation; and (3) for more than six (6) hours per day but less than twenty-four (24) hours per day for ten (10) consecutive days, not including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. (b) The term includes: (1) a class I child care home; and (2) a class II child care home. (c) A child who is: (1) a relative of a provider; (2) under the custody or guardianship of a provider; or (3) at least fourteen (14) years of age and does not require child care; is not a child described under subsection (a)." Read that as a four-part trigger; all four must be true at once: a residential structure, eight unrelated children at any one time (or four unrelated children under twelve months, which is the trip-wire nobody sees coming), regular compensation, and more than six hours a day across ten consecutive weekday-counted days.

Miss any one element and you are not a "child care home" and cannot be licensed as one. The eight-child and six-hour numbers are new, and the number repeated all over the internet — six children, four hours — is the pre-2024 law. HEA 1102 of the 2024 session, enacted as P.L.134-2024, rewrote the definition; the 2025 Indiana Code prints the trail on the then-current IC 12-7-2-28.6 as "As added by P.L.20-1992, SEC.9 and P.L.81-1992, SEC.9. Amended by P.L.1-1993, SEC.73; P.L.136-1993, SEC.2; P.L.124-2007, SEC.1; P.L.134-2024, SEC.1," effective 1 July 2024. In plain terms, since that date an Indiana provider may care for up to SEVEN unrelated children, of whom no more than THREE may be under twelve months, entirely outside licensure, and may do it six hours a day rather than four. The same act moved the voucher threshold to match: IC 12-17.2-3.5-3.5, "As added by P.L.134-2024, SEC.5," makes a provider eligible for a CCDF voucher payment if the provider "(3) Cares for less than eight (8) children, not including children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative."

Now the trap that costs Indiana applicants the most money, and it is a trap of your own regulator's making. THE ADMINISTRATIVE RULE STILL CARRIES THE OLD NUMBERS. 470 IAC 3-1.1-7 reads, today, "As used in this rule, 'child care home' means a residential structure in which at least six (6) children (not including the children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative) at any time receive child care from a provider: (1) while unattended by a parent, legal guardian, or custodian; (2) for regular compensation; and (3) for more than four (4) hours but less than twenty-four (24) hours in each of ten (10) consecutive days per year, excluding intervening Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The term does not include a child care center." And 470 IAC 3-1.1-26 still reads "Licensing is not required for a child care home if the provider: (1) does not receive regular compensation; (2) cares only for children who are related to the provider; (3) cares for less than six (6) children, not including children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative; or (4) operates to serve migrant children."

Both carry the same filing history, ending at "Readopted filed 11/13/2019, 11:56 a.m.: 20191211-IR-470190490RFA." They were readopted unchanged months before HEA 1102 was filed, and no rulemaking has touched them since: the OECOSL rulemaking now in the Indiana Register under LSA document 20260603-IR-470260159RAA proposes changes to 470 IAC 3-4.7 (licensed centres) and 470 IAC 3-4.8 (emergency and temporary closure), not to the home rules at 470 IAC 3-1.1 or 470 IAC 3-1.3. So when a checklist, an FSSA interpretive guide, or the rule itself says "six children" and "four hours," you are reading law the General Assembly overwrote on 1 July 2024. A statute beats a rule. Do not surrender a licence-free seventh child, and do not buy a licence you were never obliged to hold. The counting rules are where applicants lose seats. Your own children never count against the licensing trigger — IC 12-7-2.1-57(a) excludes "the children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative" with no age qualifier, and subsection (c) separately removes any child who is "a relative of a provider," "under the custody or guardianship of a provider," or "at least fourteen (14) years of age and does not require child care." "Relative" is defined for the rule at 470 IAC 3-1.1-15 as "a relationship to an individual who is less than eighteen (18) years of age by marriage, blood, or adoption, including parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, stepparents, stepgrandparents, stepsisters, stepbrothers, uncles, aunts, and first cousins" — nieces, nephews, grandchildren and foster children are read in by FSSA practice but not named in that text; second cousins are outside it.

Plan around the asymmetry: your own children are invisible to the LICENSING TRIGGER but not to the CAPACITY CAP once you are licensed. 470 IAC 3-1.1-24 provides that "A maximum of fifteen (15) children who are less than eleven (11) years of age may be present in the Class I child care home at any one (1) time during any part of the day. This number includes the caregiver's own children, related children, unrelated children, and any part-time child care children present." Three children of your own under eleven are three seats gone the day your licence issues, and your assistant caregiver’s children count as unrelated children. Does the home have to be YOUR home? No — and the answer is worth money, because Indiana will licence a house nobody lives in. 470 IAC 3-1.1-16 provides: "(a) As used in this rule, 'residential structure' means a dwelling unit as defined in 675 IAC 14-4. It may be the applicant's or licensee's own residence. (b) If the applicant, or any person, does not presently physically reside in the structure, the applicant or licensee shall provide documentation by a design professional that the structure qualifies as a residential structure before a license for a child care home may be issued."

The word is MAY, not must. The price is subsection (b): a written opinion from a "design professional," defined at 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.4 as "(1) an architect; (2) an engineer; or (3) other professional; who is approved to file building plans and is qualified to determine if a structure meets the definition of a residential structure." Budget that letter before you lease an empty bungalow. A structure built and designed for a commercial purpose is not a home, and if the building is not residential the licence is unavailable — you would have to apply as a child care CENTER under IC 12-17.2-4 and 470 IAC 3-4.7. The licence is also location-locked: IC 12-17.2-5-12(b) provides that it "(1) is not transferable; (2) applies only to the licensee and the location stated in the application; and (3) remains the property of the division," and it "expires two (2) years after the date of issuance." CLASS I versus CLASS II is the distinction Indiana applicants most often get backwards, because it sounds like a quality tier and is in fact a BUILDING AND FIRE-CODE tier. IC 12-7-2.1-68 provides: "(a) As used in this chapter, 'class I child care home' means a child care home that serves any combination of full-time and part-time children, not to exceed at any one (1) time twelve (12) children plus three (3) children who are enrolled in at least full-day kindergarten. (b) A child: (1) for whom a provider of care in the child care home is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative and who is at least seven (7) years of age; or (2) who is at least fourteen (14) years of age and does not require child care; shall not be counted in determining whether the child care home is within the limit set forth in subsection (a)."

IC 12-7-2.1-69 provides that a "class II child care home" "means a child care home that serves more than twelve (12) children but not more than any combination of sixteen (16) full-time and part-time children at any one (1) time," with the same subsection (b) exclusions. Twelve plus three school-aged for Class I; thirteen to sixteen for Class II. What separates them is not credentials but the structure. To hold a Class I licence, IC 12-17.2-5-6.3(a) requires you to "(1) Provide documentation to the division that the licensee has received a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate as described in IC 12-14-5-2. (2) Provide documentation to the division that the licensee: (A) has completed; (B) is enrolled in; or (C) agrees to complete within the next three (3) years; a child development associate credential program or a similar program approved by the division. (3) Complete the training course taught or approved by the division concerning safe sleeping practices ... as described in IC 12-17.2-2-1(10)," adding that "The division may grant a waiver or variance of the requirement under subdivision (2)." Subsection (b) then prices the three extra school-age seats: a Class I home "may serve three (3) school age children under IC 12-7-2.1-68 if the child care home meets the following conditions: (1) Provides at least thirty-five (35) square feet for each child. (2) Maintains the child to staff ratio required under rules adopted by the division for each age group of children in attendance. (3) Has an illuminated exit sign over each required exit or emergency lighting for each required exit."

That is a lighting and square-footage bill; you cannot claim the three seats without it. To hold a Class II licence, IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 requires you to "(1) Provide all child care services on the first story of the child care home unless the class II child care home meets the exceptions to the first story requirements contained in the Indiana building code"; "(2) Provide a smoke detection system that is: (A) hard wired to the building's electrical system; and (B) wired in a manner that activates all of the detector devices in the building when one (1) detector device is activated"; "(3) Provide a fire extinguisher in each room that is used to provide child care services"; "(4) Meet: (A) the exit requirements for an E-3 building occupancy classification under the Indiana building code ... and (B) the illumination requirements established in section 6.3(b)(3)"; "(5) Provide a minimum of thirty-five (35) square feet for each child"; "(6) Conduct fire drills required under article 37 of the Indiana fire prevention code"; "(7) Apply for a license before July 1, 1996, or after June 30, 2001"; "(8) Comply with rules adopted by the division of family resources for class II child care homes"; and "(9) Complete the training course ... concerning safe sleeping practices."

Those four seats between twelve and sixteen cost you a hard-wired interconnected smoke detection system, an extinguisher in every care room, first-story operation, E-3 exits, thirty-five square feet per child and a fire-drill regime. Class II is a construction project. The class II rule itself is one sentence: 470 IAC 3-1.3-1 provides that "A Class II child care home serves more than twelve (12) children but not more than sixteen (16) full-time and part-time children at any one (1) time," with the statute prevailing on conflict. Note what Indiana refuses to let the fire code do: IC 12-17.2-5-36 says the fire prevention and building safety commission "may not adopt rules that classify a child care home as an E building occupancy classification"; a second version effective 7-1-2027 names the department of homeland security instead, under P.L.152-2026. Your licence records the class, and stepping over the class line is punished as a licensing offence, not corrected as paperwork. IC 12-17.2-5-7.5 provides that the licence "shall indicate whether the child care home is licensed as a class I child care home or a class II child care home," and that a Class I licensee who "at any time serves a number of children greater than the number allowed under IC 12-7-2.1-68," or a Class II licensee who exceeds IC 12-7-2.1-69 or "fails to comply with the requirements for class II child care homes set forth in section 6.5 of this chapter," "is subject to sanctions under section 33 of this chapter, a civil penalty under section 34 of this chapter, and the criminal penalty set forth in section 35 of this chapter."

Section 34 permits "a civil penalty of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000)"; section 35 is blunt: "A person who knowingly or intentionally violates this chapter commits a Class B misdemeanor." Operating with no licence is worse: IC 12-17.2-5-1 forbids it, and IC 12-17.2-5-29 lets the attorney general or county attorney seek a search warrant, seek an injunction, and "Seek in a civil action a civil penalty not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) a day for each day a child care home is operating without a license." Now the exemption list, behind half the searches that reach this page. IC 12-17.2-2-8 says "The division shall exempt from licensure the following programs," and lists fourteen. The ones that matter to a home-based applicant, verbatim: "(3) A nonresidential program for a child that provides child care for less than four (4) hours a day. (4) A recreation program for children that operates for not more than ninety (90) days in a calendar year. (5) A program whose primary purpose is to provide social, recreational, or religious activities for school age children, such as scouting, boys club, girls club, sports, or the arts. (6) A program operated to serve migrant children that ... is operated during a single period of less than one hundred twenty (120) consecutive days during a calendar year. (7) A child care ministry registered under IC 12-17.2-6. (8) A child care home if the provider operates to serve migrant children."

Subdivisions (1) and (2) cover school-operated programmes for grades kindergarten through 12 and for children who turn three by December 1 of a school year; (9) through (14) are school-tethered — school-operated day care on school property, latch-key programmes under IC 20-26-5-2, contracted remote-learning and learning-recovery programmes, co-located preschool and school-age programmes, and employer-contract day care where school-owned property was "both: (i) owned by the school; and (ii) used for child care; on or before January 1, 2024" — with one exception a home educator should know: "(12) An educational program: (A) consisting of a group of not more than ten (10) students who attend the educational program in lieu of attending prekindergarten or kindergarten through grade 12 at a public or private school; (B) whose students meet in a single classroom in person or outside a classroom and which may include mixed age level groupings; and (C) that is under the supervision of a teacher or tutor." The trail ends "...P.L.81-2022, SEC.1; P.L.134-2024, SEC.4; P.L.160-2025, SEC.1," so the list moved in each of the last two sessions.

Read subdivision (3) carefully: the short-day exemption is written for "A NONRESIDENTIAL program" at "less than four (4) hours a day," while the residential trigger is "more than six (6) hours per day." A home operating five hours a day is outside the definition of a child care home and needs no licence, but it is not within subdivision (3) either — it is simply not a regulated object. Do not let anyone tell you the four-hour figure still governs homes. That brings us to subdivision (7), the exemption Indiana readers actually come for: THE UNLICENSED REGISTERED CHILD CARE MINISTRY. The entry point is a definition, and it is narrow. IC 12-7-2.1-58 provides: "'Child care ministry', for purposes of IC 12-17.2, means child care operated by a church or religious ministry that is a religious organization exempt from federal income taxation under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code." Two elements, both hard. The care must be OPERATED BY a church or religious ministry — not merely housed in a church basement, not merely faith-flavoured, not merely run by a devout individual renting from a congregation.

And the operating body must hold federal income tax exemption under Section 501; 470 IAC 3-4.5-2(a) requires verification of that exemption plus a notarised criminal history affidavit. If you are an individual wanting to run a child care business out of a church annexe, the exemption is not yours to take, and the division will ask for the determination letter or group ruling. This is the boundary that gets tested and lost. IC 12-17.2-6-1 sets the deal: "A child care ministry is exempt from licensure under this article if the child care ministry complies with this chapter. However, a child care ministry may apply for licensure." The exemption is CONDITIONAL, and IC 12-17.2-6-9 makes the condition sharp: "A child care ministry is not exempt under section 1 of this chapter if the operator or an employee of the child care ministry violates this chapter." One violation by one employee and the exemption is gone; you are then an unlicensed child care operation, and IC 12-17.2-6-32 makes violation of the chapter a Class B misdemeanor. What a registered ministry must still do is substantial, and this is the part that surprises people who read "exempt" as "unregulated."

Registration first: IC 12-17.2-6-2(a) provides that "An unlicensed child care ministry under section 1 of this chapter may not operate unless the child care ministry: (1) has registered with and met the requirements of the division; and (2) for an initial registration only, has been inspected and found to be in substantial compliance with applicable building and fire safety laws by the department of homeland security." Subsection (b) requires "a current and valid electronic mail address for the applicant"; subsection (c) provides that "Registration under this section expires two (2) years after the date of issuance unless revoked, modified to a probationary or suspended status, or voluntarily returned." IC 12-17.2-6-2.1 requires you to maintain it throughout: IC 12-17.2-6-17(b) sends denial notices by e-mail and starts a thirty-day appeal clock from your confirmation of receipt. The fee is fifty dollars (IC 12-17.2-6-12(a)), and a licensed ministry dropping to registered status must register "at least ninety (90) days before the expiration of the child care ministry's license or ninety (90) days before surrendering the license" (IC 12-17.2-6-3). Inspections next, and there are two inspecting bodies.

IC 12-17.2-6-4 provides that the division "shall inspect a child care ministry for which a registration application is made," and shall inspect a registered ministry "(1) at least semiannually; and (2) additionally as determined necessary by the division, but not more than four (4) inspections per year per child care ministry." Separately, IC 12-17.2-6-5 puts the department of homeland security into your building and sets the fire standard by the building's own occupancy class: a registered ministry "shall comply with all rules of the fire prevention and building safety commission applicable to the primary use of the building," fixed by the rules in effect "at the time that the child care ministry is first registered." Run the arithmetic before you sign: "occupant load is determined by dividing the total square footage of the area used by the child care ministry by thirty-five (35) and rounding any result that is not a whole number up to the next whole number." At an occupant load of fifty or more you must either install and maintain a compliant fire alarm system or hand every parent a homeland-security form notice "stating that the ministry does not have the same level of fire safety protection as a licensed child care center."

Below fifty, the choice is between "at least one (1) battery operated smoke detector in each room and corridor used by the ministry" and the same parental notice. Fire drill rules apply regardless. Background checks are where the ministry lane is HARDER than people expect. IC 12-17.2-6-14(a) requires a ministry to "require, at no expense to the state, an employee or volunteer who may be present on the premises of the child care ministry during operating hours of the child care ministry to submit fingerprints for a national criminal history background check by the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Fingerprints. FBI. Volunteers included — not just paid staff, not just people who touch children, but anyone on the premises during operating hours. The ministry must report to the division any police investigations, arrests and convictions of which the operator or director is aware regarding such a person, and must "Refrain from employing, or allowing to serve as a volunteer," anyone convicted of a felony related to the health or safety of a child, a sex offence as defined in IC 11-8-8-5.2, a dangerous felony, or any other felony where "less than ten (10) years have elapsed from the date the person was discharged from probation, imprisonment, or parole"; anyone convicted of "a misdemeanor related to the health or safety of a child" or of operating a centre or home without a licence under IC 12-17.2-4-35 or IC 12-17.2-5-35; or anyone "against whom an allegation of child abuse or neglect has been substantiated under IC 31-33." Subsection (b) sets the cadence: apply "before the individual is employed or allowed to volunteer and every three (3) years thereafter."

Budget fingerprint fees for every volunteer every three years; the division may deny registration on the record of a single employee or volunteer under IC 12-17.2-6-16(a)(2) unless you dismiss that person first. Training and certification. IC 12-17.2-6-7.5 provides: "(a) At least one (1) adult individual who maintains current certification in a course of pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation applicable to all age groups of children cared for by the child care ministry shall be present at all times when a child is in the care of a child care ministry. Certifications accepted under this subsection must include a live return demonstration of skills. (b) An individual who is employed or volunteers as a caregiver at a child care ministry: (1) must, not more than ninety (90) days after the individual begins ..., be trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation ...; and (2) shall maintain current certification in pediatric first aid ...." Added by P.L.9-2020, SEC.5, amended by P.L.246-2023, SEC.7 and P.L.26-2025, SEC.16 — the "live return demonstration of skills" sentence is the recent bite, and it kills the fully-online CPR card.

IC 12-17.2-6-14.1(a) then requires the operator of a ministry caring for children under twelve months to complete the division's safe sleeping course under IC 12-17.2-2-1(10) and ensure all caregivers of such children follow safe sleeping practices, on a ladder measured per inspection across a registration period: warning letter, then fifty dollars per violation, then seventy-five, then suspension up to six months plus one hundred, then suspension or revocation for a year plus two hundred fifty. Postings, notices and advertising round it out. IC 12-17.2-6-6(a) requires that after inspection a signed notice "shall be placed in a conspicuous place in the child care ministry," in substantially this form: "THIS UNLICENSED REGISTERED CHILD CARE MINISTRY has been inspected and complies with state rules concerning health and sanitation in child care ministries." IC 12-17.2-6-7 requires a signed parental acknowledgement kept "until two (2) years after the last day the child attends," reading: "I understand that this child care ministry is not licensed under the laws of Indiana. However, I understand that this child care ministry must comply with the state rules concerning sanitation and fire and life safety for the primary use of the structure in which it is conducted. I understand that it is my responsibility to ensure that the nutritional and health needs of my child are met while my child is at the child care ministry."

IC 12-17.2-6-10 requires that a ministry "must clearly state in all of its paid promotional advertising that the child care ministry is providing child care as an extension of the ministry's church or religious ministry." IC 12-17.2-6-11 requires proof of immunisation against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, rubella, poliomyelitis and mumps; IC 12-17.2-6-15 permits unscheduled parental visits whenever the ministry is operating; IC 12-17.2-6-8 forecloses any immunity from suit. Here is where the ministry boundary actually sits, stated plainly because no Indiana page states it plainly. The ministry lane exempts you from LICENSURE — from ratios, capacity caps, square footage, staff qualifications, and the whole of 470 IAC 3-1.1 — but not from registration, twice-yearly division inspection, homeland security fire inspection, FBI fingerprint checks on every employee and volunteer every three years, CPR and pediatric first aid, safe sleep, immunisation records, the posted notices, or tort liability. Read the ministry rule and see how thin its standards are: 470 IAC 3-4.5 contains exactly six sections — "Definitions," "Registration," "Water supply, plumbing and sewage disposal," "Buildings, grounds, equipment, furnishings, materials and supplies," "Food service sanitation," and "General sanitation."

There is no child-to-staff ratio, no group size, no capacity limit and no supervision standard in it, and FSSA's own Interpretative Guide for Unlicensed Registered Child Care Ministries, built around the ministry sanitation survey checklist, contains none either. In Indiana a registered ministry may lawfully care for a hundred children with whatever staffing it chooses, constrained only by fire occupant load and sanitation. That is the real answer to "is the ministry exemption worth it," and it is why the exemption is politically fragile. Two more warnings on the ministry rule text, which will cost you if you follow the rule instead of the statute. 470 IAC 3-4.5-2(a) still says application for registration "shall be submitted ANNUALLY to the SBH on forms provided" — SBH being the State Board of Health, which stopped administering this in 1992 when the function transferred under P.L.9-1991, SECTION 129 — while IC 12-17.2-6-2(c) says registration runs TWO years and IC 12-17.2-6-2(a) says you register with THE DIVISION. And 470 IAC 3-4.5-2(b) still speaks of a certificate issued "during each quarterly inspection," while IC 12-17.2-6-4(b) requires inspection "at least semiannually" and caps it at four a year.

The ministry rule was last readopted 13 November 2019 and preserves 1988 text and 1988 agency names. Follow the statute. Finally, the lane most Indiana providers actually end up in, and the one the licensed-versus-ministry framing hides: the LEGALLY LICENSED EXEMPT provider taking CCDF vouchers. IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a) provides that the voucher chapter "applies to all child care providers regardless of whether a provider is required to be licensed or registered under this article," while a provider licensed under IC 12-17.2-4 or IC 12-17.2-5 "is considered to be in compliance with this chapter." Stay under eight unrelated children to avoid licensure, then take a voucher, and you have not escaped regulation — you have swapped 470 IAC 3-1.1 for IC 12-17.2-3.5 and 470 IAC 3-18. That chapter imposes continual supervision and the home ratios and group sizes under IC 12-17.2-3.5-5.5; pediatric CPR presence at all times and current pediatric first aid for every caregiver under IC 12-17.2-3.5-8; a minimum caregiver age of fourteen under adult supervision; formal orientation; "at least twelve (12) hours of continuing education approved by the division" annually unless you are related to every child in care; child abuse detection and prevention training within three months; a national criminal history background check under IC 12-17.2-3.5-12; drug testing under IC 12-17.2-3.5-12.1; and safe sleeping compliance under IC 12-17.2-3.5-12.5. The seventh child is free of licensure. The first voucher is not.

How many children you can care for in Indiana

Indiana licenses family child care in two classes and the numbers that separate them are not in the licensing chapter you will be told to read. IC 12-17.2-5 governs the regulation of child care homes but it sets no headcount. The headcounts live in the definitions chapter, IC 12-7-2, and the licensing chapter simply points at them and attaches penalties. Applicants who read only IC 12-17.2-5 and only 470 IAC 3-1.1 will come away with the wrong ceiling, the wrong trigger for needing a licence at all, and an out-of-date exemption list. Here is what each number is, where it is written, and where the codified rule has fallen behind the statute. The Class I ceiling. IC 12-7-2-33.7 provides: "(a) As used in this chapter, 'class I child care home' means a child care home that serves any combination of full-time and part-time children, not to exceed at any one (1) time twelve (12) children plus three (3) children who are enrolled in at least full-day kindergarten. (b) A child: (1) for whom a provider of care in the child care home is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative and who is at least seven (7) years of age; or (2) who is at least fourteen (14) years of age and does not require child care; shall not be counted in determining whether the child care home is within the limit set forth in subsection (a)."

Twelve plus three is the statutory maximum, and "any combination of full-time and part-time children" means part-timers are not free. Two half-day children are two children while both are present. The administrative rule states the same ceiling in older words, and the difference is worth knowing before you argue with a consultant. 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5(a) reads "The maximum capacity in a Class I child care home shall be twelve (12) children at any one (1) time plus three (3) children during the school year who are enrolled in at least Grade 1. The addition of three (3) school age children may not occur during a break in the school year that exceeds four (4) weeks", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.2 defines the class in the same "at least grade one" terms. The statute says "full-day kindergarten"; the rule still says "Grade 1". IC 12-7-2-33.7 was last amended by P.L.74-2022, SEC.2, and 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.2 and 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5 have not been amended since 1996, carrying only readoptions, the most recent "Readopted filed 11/13/2019, 11:56 a.m.: 20191211-IR-470190490RFA". The codified rule has been four years behind the statute on this point.

The statute is the higher authority and it is the more permissive one: a kindergartner is enough. FSSA's own CCDF and On My Way Pre-K Provider Manual, updated February 2025, uses the statutory version, describing the Class I home as serving "twelve (12) children plus three (3) additional children during the school year only who are enrolled in at least full day kindergarten." The four-week school-break restriction survives only in the rule and in IC 12-17.2-5-6.3(b) conditions, so keep observing it. The three extra school-age slots are conditional, not automatic. IC 12-17.2-5-6.3(b) provides: "A class I child care home may serve three (3) school age children under IC 12-7-2-33.7 if the child care home meets the following conditions: (1) Provides at least thirty-five (35) square feet for each child. (2) Maintains the child to staff ratio required under rules adopted by the division for each age group of children in attendance. (3) Has an illuminated exit sign over each required exit or emergency lighting for each required exit." Thirty-five square feet per child, ratios met for every age group present, and illuminated exit signs or emergency lighting at every required exit.

Applicants treat the fifteenth slot as free revenue and discover it is an electrician's invoice and a floor-area calculation. If your exits have no illuminated signage, your ceiling is twelve, whatever your licence says on paper. The Class II ceiling. IC 12-7-2-33.8 provides: "(a) As used in this chapter, 'class II child care home' means a child care home that serves more than twelve (12) children but not more than any combination of sixteen (16) full-time and part-time children at any one (1) time. (b) A child: (1) for whom a provider of care in the child care home is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative and who is at least seven (7) years of age; or (2) who is at least fourteen (14) years of age and does not require child care; shall not be counted in determining whether the child care home is within the limit set forth in subsection (a)." The administrative rule repeats it in one sentence. The whole of Rule 1.3 is a single section, 470 IAC 3-1.3-1: "A Class II child care home serves more than twelve (12) children but not more than sixteen (16) full-time and part-time children at any one (1) time. A licensee who provides Class II child care shall meet all the requirements of 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 470 IAC 3-1.2 as well as the requirements of this rule.

If there is any difference in requirements, the specific information contained in IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 shall prevail." Note what Class II is not: it is not a bigger Class I with a bigger table. Its floor is thirteen, so a Class II licensee who drops to twelve children is not thereby violating anything, but a Class I licensee who serves thirteen is. The third and least-known ceiling, and the one that catches homes in the afternoon. 470 IAC 3-1.1-24 provides: "A maximum of fifteen (15) children who are less than eleven (11) years of age may be present in the Class I child care home at any one (1) time during any part of the day. This number includes the caregiver's own children, related children, unrelated children, and any part-time child care children present." Read the second sentence twice. This count has no age-seven carve-out written into it and no relationship carve-out. Your own eight-year-old counts here even though IC 12-7-2-33.7(b) excludes him from the twelve-plus-three. Your neighbour's child who stops in for forty minutes counts here. The phrase "during any part of the day" removes any averaging defence. A Class I home with three of its own children under eleven has, in practice, twelve licensed slots and a hard wall at fifteen bodies under eleven, and the wall is hit between three and six in the afternoon when the school bus arrives and the licensed children have not yet been collected.

FSSA's Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules, effective February 2016, adds a caution of its own on this section: "The child care home shall not exceed its licensed capacity. This is excluding related children age 7 or above and children age 14 that do not require child care. NOTE: The eleven years of age is not the threshold; Effective 7-1-07, new statue has defined a child in care as less than 14 years of age unless the child needs care." Treat the Guide as an agency manual and not as law; it is stale in several respects catalogued below. But its warning is directionally right, and the safe operating posture is to satisfy all three ceilings simultaneously: twelve-plus-three under IC 12-7-2-33.7, ratio under 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5(e), and fifteen under eleven under 470 IAC 3-1.1-24. Now the threshold question, which is where the codified rule is most dangerously out of date. The number of children that forces you into licensure changed in 2024 and the Indiana Administrative Code has not caught up.

IC 12-7-2-28.6, as it reads today, provides: "(a) Except as provided in subsection (c), 'child care home', for purposes of IC 12-17.2, means a residential structure in which at least eight (8) children, or at least four (4) children under twelve (12) months of age, (not including the children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative) at any time receive child care from a provider: (1) while unattended by a parent, legal guardian, or custodian; (2) for regular compensation; and (3) for more than six (6) hours per day but less than twenty-four (24) hours per day for ten (10) consecutive days, not including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. (b) The term includes: (1) a class I child care home; and (2) a class II child care home. (c) A child who is: (1) a relative of a provider; (2) under the custody or guardianship of a provider; or (3) at least fourteen (14) years of age and does not require child care; is not a child described under subsection (a)." Three numbers there matter to you. Eight unrelated children, not six. Four children under twelve months, an independent trigger that has nothing to do with the total.

And more than six hours a day, not four. That text was written by House Enrolled Act 1102 of 2024. The engrossed act shows the amendment on its face at SECTION 1: "IC 12-7-2-28.6, AS AMENDED BY P.L.124-2007, SECTION 1, IS AMENDED TO READ AS FOLLOWS [EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2024]", changing "at least six (6)" to "eight (8)" and "more than four (4)" hours to "six (6)" hours. So since July 1, 2024, a provider caring for up to seven unrelated children, for up to six hours a day, with fewer than four infants, is outside the definition of a child care home and needs no licence. The rule did not follow. 470 IAC 3-1.1-7 still defines "child care home" as "a residential structure in which at least six (6) children (not including the children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative) at any time receive child care from a provider ... for more than four (4) hours but less than twenty-four (24) hours in each of ten (10) consecutive days per year". And 470 IAC 3-1.1-26 still provides that "Licensing is not required for a child care home if the provider: (1) does not receive regular compensation; (2) cares only for children who are related to the provider; (3) cares for less than six (6) children, not including children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative; or (4) operates to serve migrant children."

Both sections carry only the 2019 readoption. Both are stale on the number and on the hours. This is the classic Indiana trap: the codified regulation is the out-of-date document and the session law is the current one. If you plan to stay unlicensed, plan against IC 12-7-2-28.6, not against 470 IAC 3-1.1-26, and be aware that the four-infant trigger has no counterpart in the rule at all. Four babies under twelve months makes you a child care home even if they are your only four children. The statutory exemption list moved the same way and moved further. House Enrolled Act 1102 of 2024 also amended IC 12-17.2-2-8, the list of programs the division must exempt from licensure. As the Indiana Code reads today, subdivision (8) of that section reads, in its entirety, "A child care home if the provider operates to serve migrant children." The three other exemptions that used to sit there, for a provider who "does not receive regular compensation", who "cares only for children who are related to the provider", and who "cares for less than six (6) children", are gone from the statute. They survive only in 470 IAC 3-1.1-26, which is the rule that has not been amended since 1996. Practically, the compensation and relatives exemptions are now baked into the definition in IC 12-7-2-28.6 instead, which excludes relatives and children in the provider's custody from the count and requires "regular compensation" as an element.

The result is the same for most providers, but the citation you rely on has changed, and an applicant who writes "exempt under 470 IAC 3-1.1-26(3), fewer than six children" on a form is citing a number the legislature abandoned two years ago. A related correction, because it is the version of House Enrolled Act 1102 that got the press coverage. As introduced on January 8, 2024, HB 1102 was a deregulation bill whose SECTION 1 would have added a new IC 12-17.2-5-1(d) allowing a person to "operate a class I child care home ... without obtaining a license issued under this article by registering the class I child care home with the division." That did not become law. IC 12-17.2-5-1 today reads: "(a) A person may not operate a child care home without a license issued under this article. (b) The state or a political subdivision of the state may not operate a child care home without a license issued under this article. (c) A person may not operate a child care home if: (1) the number of children maintained on the premises at any one (1) time is greater than the number authorized by the license; and (2) the children are maintained in a building or place not designated by the license."

There is no subsection (d) and there is no registration alternative for a Class I home. If you meet the definition in IC 12-7-2-28.6, you need a licence, full stop. The only registration regime Indiana operates on the unlicensed side is the child care ministry registration under IC 12-17.2-6, referenced in the exemption list at IC 12-17.2-2-8(7) as "A child care ministry registered under IC 12-17.2-6", and that route requires a church or religious ministry that is a 501(c) religious organization, per IC 12-7-2-28.8; it is not available to a secular home provider who would simply prefer not to be licensed. Qualifying for the higher class. IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 sets out nine numbered requirements for a Class II licence and, as the Indiana Code reads today, nothing else: first-story service unless the Indiana building code exceptions are met; a smoke detection system "hard wired to the building's electrical system" and "wired in a manner that activates all of the detector devices in the building when one (1) detector device is activated"; "a fire extinguisher in each room that is used to provide child care services"; the "exit requirements for an E-3 building occupancy classification under the Indiana building code", plus the illumination requirements of section 6.3(b)(3); "a minimum of thirty-five (35) square feet for each child"; fire drills under article 37 of the Indiana fire prevention code; application "before July 1, 1996, or after June 30, 2001"; compliance with the division's Class II rules; and completion of the division's safe sleeping practices training.

Note what is no longer there. FSSA's February 2016 Interpretative Guide still reproduces an old subsection (b) requiring that, before applying, a person "must have: (1) a class I child care home license; or (2) at least one (1) year of experience as a caregiver in a child care home or child care center." That prerequisite is not in the statute as it reads today; House Enrolled Act 1102 of 2024 amended IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 effective July 1, 2024. If you were told you must run a Class I home for a year before you may apply for Class II, check the current statute rather than the Guide, and get the answer in writing from your licensing consultant before you spend a year you do not have to spend. Square footage is the physical ceiling that overrides your arithmetic. Thirty-five square feet per child is statutory for Class II under IC 12-17.2-5-6.5(5) and for the three extra school-age children in a Class I home under IC 12-17.2-5-6.3(b)(1). The general environment rule, 470 IAC 3-1.1-45(b), states the standard in qualitative form for Class I: "The licensee shall identify areas in the home that will be used for child care.

The child care areas shall contain adequate space for child play and rest for the number of children in care." Measure the rooms you will actually designate, not the whole house. Sixteen children at thirty-five square feet is 560 square feet of designated child care space before you count kitchens, bathrooms, hallways or the furniture you cannot remove. Homes are refused at the Class II step for floor area far more often than for staffing. Your licence sets your number, and your number is not the statutory maximum. 470 IAC 3-1.1-29.5 provides that "A child care home license is valid for two (2) years unless revoked, suspended by the CDFC, or voluntarily surrendered", that "The number of children cared for at any one (1) time shall not exceed the licensed capacity", and that "The license is valid only for the name and location on the license and is not transferable" and "shall be publicly displayed in the home. (IC 12-17.2-5-12(c))". Your licensed capacity is what the consultant wrote on the certificate after inspecting your space and your exits. If your certificate says ten, twelve is a violation even though IC 12-7-2-33.7 permits twelve, because IC 12-17.2-5-1(c) forbids operating with "the number of children maintained on the premises at any one (1) time ... greater than the number authorized by the license".

Raising your licensed capacity is a request to the office, not a decision you make. If you intend to run more than one home under one roof, 470 IAC 3-1.1-29.5 sets conditions most applicants never see coming. Subsection (e) requires, for multiple licences in the same structure, "a signed statement from a design professional must be submitted certifying that each child care home to be licensed meets the state building code requirements for the proposed use which apply to fire and safety issues", including "any modifications required to comply with the state building code requirements for the multiple occupancies requested". Subsection (f) requires that "If two (2) or more licensed child care homes are contiguously located within the same residential structure, each licensed facility must be separated by a two (2) hour fire resistive wall between each licensee." Subsection (g) requires that "each home must meet the requirements of licensure as independent homes", and subsection (h) adds that homes sharing a private well "will also be subject to the water testing requirements of 327 IAC 8 whenever twenty-five (25) or more people are present."

Subsection (i) grandfathers only licensees who held a regular or provisional licence on the effective date of the rule. And 470 IAC 3-1.1-33(a) limits you personally: "The licensee may be the caregiver for no more than one (1) child care home. If a licensee operates more than one (1) child care home, the licensee shall maintain or employ a caregiver in each additional child care home." Two licences under one roof is a two-hour-rated wall, a design professional's certification, and a second full caregiver payroll. It is not a way to reach thirty-two children cheaply. The price of exceeding your number is set out with unusual precision, and it is layered. IC 12-17.2-5-7.5(a) provides that "The license issued to a person for the operation of a child care home under section 7 of this chapter shall indicate whether the child care home is licensed as a class I child care home or a class II child care home." Subsection (b) provides that a Class I licensee who "at any time serves a number of children greater than the number allowed under IC 12-7-2-33.7" is "subject to sanctions under section 33 of this chapter, a civil penalty under section 34 of this chapter, and the criminal penalty set forth in section 35 of this chapter."

Subsection (c) applies the same three-layer exposure to a Class II licensee who exceeds IC 12-7-2-33.8 or fails the section 6.5 requirements. IC 12-17.2-5-34(a) provides that "the division may impose a civil penalty of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) for the violation of this article", deposited under subsection (b) in the division of family resources child care fund. IC 12-17.2-5-35 provides that "A person who knowingly or intentionally violates this chapter commits a Class B misdemeanor." The words "at any time" mean the overlap at pick-up counts; there is no daily average and no grace window. Operating over the line without a licence at all is priced separately and by the day. IC 12-17.2-5-29(b)(3) authorises the attorney general or the county attorney to "Seek in a civil action a civil penalty not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) a day for each day a child care home is operating without a license required under this article", alongside injunctive relief to stop the operation and a search warrant to assist the investigation, and IC 12-17.2-5-29(f) makes clear that "Section 34 of this chapter does not apply to the civil penalties imposed under this section" — the thousand-dollar cap does not limit the daily penalty.

Subsection (c) provides that "The division may provide for the removal of children from child care homes described in subsection (b)." A provider who quietly grows from seven children to nine and waits to be noticed is accruing a hundred dollars a day against a definition that changed in her favour in 2024 and that she probably still thinks says six. Local government cannot squeeze your number, and since 2024 the statute says so more clearly. IC 36-7-4-1108, as amended by House Enrolled Act 1102 of 2024, provides that a zoning ordinance may not "Exclude a child care home from a residential area solely because the child care home is a business", may not "Impose limits on the number of children that may be served by a child care home at any one (1) time that vary from the limits set forth in IC 12-7-2-33.7 and IC 12-7-2-33.8", and may not "Impose requirements or restrictions upon child care homes that vary from the requirements and restrictions imposed upon child care homes by rules adopted by the division of family resources or the fire prevention and building safety commission", while providing that a child care home "may be required to meet the same: (1) zoning requirements; (2) developmental standards; and (3) building codes; that apply to other residential structures in the same residential district or classification".

If a planning department tells you that your municipality caps home day cares at six children, that cap is preempted as to the number. Building codes and setbacks are not. Homeowners associations were the 2026 session's version of the same fight, and this one is still fresh. House Bill 1152 of the 2026 session, whose digest is dated January 12, 2026, provides that a homeowners association "may not: (A) prohibit or restrict; or (B) adopt or enforce a regulation, rule, or other policy that has the effect or prohibiting or restricting; a person from operating a child care home or from providing child care that is not subject to the application of the statutes concerning child care regulation on a single family residence", with an effective date of July 1, 2026. The bill amends IC 32-25.5 and does not touch any capacity number in IC 12-7-2 or IC 12-17.2. If you are buying into a covenanted subdivision, confirm the enactment status of that bill with the General Assembly before relying on it, because the version examined here is a committee print and not an enrolled act. Two more boundaries applicants routinely trip over.

First, a "child care home" is by definition residential. IC 12-7-2-28.4 defines a "child care center" as "a nonresidential building where at least one (1) child receives child care from a provider" for regular compensation for more than four hours in each of ten consecutive days per year. The moment you move out of a residential structure, you are a centre, the home rules stop applying, and your capacity is set by an entirely different rule, 470 IAC 3-4.7. Second, the micro facility pilot that circulates as a way to get to thirty children in a house does not reach homes. IC 12-17.2-7.6-1 defines "micro facility" as "an entity licensed under this article that provides child care for not less than three (3) children and not more than thirty (30) children for at least four (4) hours per day", but IC 12-17.2-7.6-3(c)(1) opens the pilot only to "a licensee under IC 12-7-2-28.4 or IC 12-7-2-28.8" — a child care centre or a child care ministry. IC 12-7-2-28.6, the child care home, is not on that list. The pilot's waivers cannot lift a Class I or Class II ceiling. Relief from a capacity-adjacent rule, where it exists, runs through 470 IAC 3-1.1-49. A variance requires that you "documents that an alternative method of compliance approved by the CDFC will not be adverse to the health, safety, or welfare of any child receiving services". A waiver requires four separate showings, including that "compliance with the rule specified in the application for the waiver will create an undue hardship on the applicant" and that "noncompliance with the rule specified in the application for a waiver will not be adverse to the health, safety, or welfare of any child receiving services".

The CDFC "shall issue a decision on a variance or waiver within sixty (60) days", and "Violation of a condition of a variance or a waiver granted under this section may be grounds for denial or revocation of the variance or waiver." Note that the statutory ceilings in IC 12-7-2-33.7 and IC 12-7-2-33.8 are not rules of the department and are therefore not waivable under this section; twelve-plus-three and sixteen are legislative numbers. IC 12-17.2-5-8 governs eligibility for waivers and variances at the statutory level and should be read alongside the rule. Finally, two dates and one warning about verification. The child care home rule is under active rewrite: FSSA's rulemaking docket LSA Document 26-158, "Child Care Homes", states that it "Amends rules at 470 IAC 3-1 concerning licensed child care homes", that the first comment period and proposed rule were published June 3, 2026, that the public hearing was July 6, 2026, that the final rule was adopted July 13, 2026, that it was submitted to the Attorney General July 13, 2026 and to the Governor's office August 27, 2026, that filing with the Indiana Register is anticipated September 11, 2026, and that the anticipated effective date is October 11, 2026. Until that rule is filed and effective, every number above is the operative number, and any capacity figure quoted to you from the proposed rule has no legal force yet.

And on August 26, 2026 the state's own administrative rules site, iar.iga.in.gov, returned an unrendered application shell of a few hundred bytes for every path, including the 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 470 IAC 3-1.3 links published on FSSA's laws-and-rules page, while FSSA's own statute copy at in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/IC-12-17.2-5-reg-of-child-care-homes.pdf returned 404. Keep a dated printout of IC 12-7-2-28.6, IC 12-7-2-33.7, IC 12-7-2-33.8 and 470 IAC 3-1.1-24 in your licensing binder. When the state's own index cannot serve you the number you are being held to, the printout is the only thing standing between you and a consultant's recollection.

Adult-to-child ratios

Indiana does not publish a single ratio chart for family child care. It publishes one ratio rule, 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5, written for the Class I child care home, and then pulls the Class II home into that same rule by cross-reference. Everything you will be cited on during an unannounced licensing visit comes out of that one section, out of the definitions that sit in front of it in 470 IAC 3-1.1, and out of a statutory counting rule in IC 12-7-2-33.7 that is not printed in the rule at all. Read the rule first and read it whole, because the ratio table is the part applicants photograph and the four subsections above the table are the part that actually costs them the license. The operative text of 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5 reads, subsection by subsection: "(a) The maximum capacity in a Class I child care home shall be twelve (12) children at any one (1) time plus three (3) children during the school year who are enrolled in at least Grade 1. The addition of three (3) school age children may not occur during a break in the school year that exceeds four (4) weeks. (b) Children shall not be left unattended and shall be supervised at all times. (c) Only direct child care providers shall be counted in determining the child to staff ratio. (d) The ratio shall include all unrelated children present in the home. (e) The following child to staff ratios apply:" and then the table, which has exactly three rows.

Row one, "Infant/Toddler Mixed (Birth-24 months)", ratio "6:1*", with the asterisk reading "Two (2) of the six (6) children must be at least sixteen (16) months of age and walking. Otherwise the ratio is 4:1." Row two, "Mixed Age Groups (Birth-6 years)", ratio "10:1*", with the asterisk reading "No more than three (3) of the ten (10) children may be under sixteen (16) months of age and must be walking." Row three, "3 years and older (3-10 years)", ratio "12:1", with no asterisk and no qualifier. The section carries the citation history "filed Jul 3, 1996, 5:00 p.m.: 19 IR 3066; errata filed Aug 7, 1996, 11:10 a.m.: 19 IR 3472" and four readoptions, the most recent being "Readopted filed 11/13/2019, 11:56 a.m.: 20191211-IR-470190490RFA". Nothing has amended the ratio table since 1996. If a consultant, a trainer, or a competitor tells you Indiana loosened home ratios recently, they are describing a statute that does not apply to you, and that confusion is dealt with below. The first trap is the one that costs the most money and it is hidden in the difference between the three table rows.

Applicants read "12:1" and plan a home for twelve children with themselves as the only adult. That plan is legal only if every single child in the home is three years old or older, because the 12:1 row is captioned "3 years and older (3-10 years)". The moment one two-year-old is present, your group is no longer a "3 years and older" group; it is a "Mixed Age Groups (Birth-6 years)" group, and your one-adult ceiling drops from twelve to ten. FSSA's own Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules, effective February 2016, states the threshold of compliance for the third row in exactly those terms: "The ratio for a group of children age three years and older is 12 children to one caregiver. No children under 3 years are present." One toddler on your roster costs you two paid slots for every hour that toddler is in the building. Applicants who build a twelve-child business plan around a mixed-age enrollment are budgeting revenue the rule will never let them earn. The second trap sits one row higher. The "Mixed Age Groups (Birth-6 years)" row is 10:1, but the asterisk is a hard sub-limit on infants, not advice: "No more than three (3) of the ten (10) children may be under sixteen (16) months of age and must be walking."

Read that literally, because licensing does. In a ten-child mixed-age group with one adult, you may have at most three children under sixteen months, and the rule as written requires those children to be walking. The Interpretative Guide restates it as "The ratio for a group of children from birth through six years is 10 children to one caregiver provided that no more than three of the 10 are under 16 months of age and walking." The practical consequence is that a solo Class I provider cannot build an infant-heavy program. Four non-walking babies plus six preschoolers is not a 10:1 group; it is over ratio the instant the fourth infant arrives, and it is over ratio even if your total is only ten children. The third trap is the infant/toddler row, which is the only row where the ratio changes according to the children's development rather than their calendar age. "Infant/Toddler Mixed (Birth-24 months) 6:1*" with "Two (2) of the six (6) children must be at least sixteen (16) months of age and walking. Otherwise the ratio is 4:1." So a group made up entirely of children under twenty-four months is 4:1 by default.

It becomes 6:1 only when at least two of those six are both at least sixteen months old and walking. The Interpretative Guide is blunt about which is the baseline: "The ratio for children younger than 24 months is 4 children to one caregiver. Two additional children maybe included if they are both 16 months old and walking." A sixteen-month-old who is not yet walking does not buy you the sixth slot. Neither does a fifteen-month-old who walks. The rule requires both conditions in the same child, and it requires two such children, not one. If you plan to specialise in infants, plan on 4:1 and hire accordingly. The age brackets themselves are defined terms and they do not mean what ordinary speech means. 470 IAC 3-1.1-10 provides that "'infant' means a child from birth to twelve (12) months of age" and 470 IAC 3-1.1-21 provides that "'toddler' means a child from twelve (12) months of age through twenty-four (24) months of age". The ratio table's own brackets are broader than either definition, running "Birth-24 months", "Birth-6 years" and "3-10 years", and they overlap: a four-year-old sits in both the mixed-age row and the three-and-older row.

That overlap is not a loophole. Licensing applies the row that covers every child actually present, which is always the row with the youngest child in it. Build your ratio from the youngest head in the room, never from the average. Now the counting question, which is the single most-searched question about Indiana family child care and the one where the rule text and the statute pull in different directions. 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5(d) says "The ratio shall include all unrelated children present in the home." Read alone, that sentence appears to say your own children never count toward ratio. That reading is wrong, and it is wrong in a way that gets homes cited. The controlling exclusion is in IC 12-7-2-33.7(b), which excludes from the count only "A child: (1) for whom a provider of care in the child care home is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative and who is at least seven (7) years of age; or (2) who is at least fourteen (14) years of age and does not require child care". The exclusion for your own child is conditional on age seven. Your own child under seven counts. 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.2(b) repeats the same conditional exclusion inside the rule itself, for "a child (1) for whom a provider of care is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative; and (2) who is at least seven (7) years of age".

FSSA's Interpretative Guide spells out the operational version at subsection (d): "The only exception are the licensee's own or related children's seven years or older. All unrelated children 14 years of age and older are not counted unless they require child care", and its threshold of compliance reads "Children over seven years but less than 14 years must be counted unless the child is the licensee's child, step-child, grandchild, niece or nephew, brother, sister, foster child, or first cousin. Children over 14 that require child care should be counted. All the children of the other child care staff are counted just as all other unrelated children." That last sentence is the sleeper. Your assistant's four-year-old is an unrelated child in your home. She occupies a paying slot and she occupies a ratio slot, and homes that let staff bring their own preschoolers "for free" routinely discover at inspection that they have been over ratio for months. "Relative" is itself a defined term and it is wider than most applicants assume. 470 IAC 3-1.1-15 provides that "'relatives' means a relationship to an individual who is less than eighteen (18) years of age by marriage, blood, or adoption, including parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, stepparents, stepgrandparents, stepsisters, stepbrothers, uncles, aunts, and first cousins." A grandchild, a niece, a nephew and a first cousin all fall inside it, so a grandmother running a Class I home does not count her seven-year-old grandson toward ratio.

She does count her six-year-old grandson. The line is the seventh birthday, not the relationship. Note also the asymmetry that catches experienced providers. Being excluded from the ratio is not the same as being excluded from the home's maximum capacity. 470 IAC 3-1.1-24 states that "A maximum of fifteen (15) children who are less than eleven (11) years of age may be present in the Class I child care home at any one (1) time during any part of the day. This number includes the caregiver's own children, related children, unrelated children, and any part-time child care children present." That fifteen-child ceiling counts your own children with no age-seven carve-out written into it, and it counts part-timers who are only present for an hour. So a related eight-year-old is outside the ratio under IC 12-7-2-33.7(b) and outside the twelve-plus-three licensed capacity, and still inside the fifteen-under-eleven headcount in 470 IAC 3-1.1-24. Homes with several school-age children of their own hit the fifteen-child wall before they hit the ratio wall, usually between three and six in the afternoon when the school bus arrives.

Who may be counted as the "staff" side of the ratio is the other half of the rule, and it is narrower than the word suggests. 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.1 defines the term of art: "'child to staff ratio' means the maximum number of children permitted per direct child care provider." 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5(c) then provides that "Only direct child care providers shall be counted in determining the child to staff ratio." And 470 IAC 3-1.1-8 defines who that is: "'direct child care provider' means any individual who provides child care services to children. This term includes the following: (1) Licensee, when acting as caregiver. (2) Caregiver, assistant caregivers, and student assistants. (3) A volunteer." A spouse who is in the house but not providing care is not a direct child care provider. A cook is not. A cleaner is not. The Interpretative Guide draws the line for inspectors: "The caregiver(s) may be engaged in activities such as meal preparation or cleaning up after children's activities. A caregiver should not be engaged with activities unrelated to the care of the children such as mowing the grass or scrubbing the floor. A caregiver engaged in those types of activities may not be counted in the child to staff ratio. A caregiver outside the home while the children are inside the home may not be counted in child/staff ratios."

It adds the rule that ends the naptime shortcut in homes: "Providers may not sleep during the time they are counted in child/staff ratios." Indiana grants licensed homes no reduced naptime ratio at all. The fifty per cent naptime relaxation that circulates in Indiana provider groups comes from the CCDF Provider Eligibility Standards and, by its own terms in FSSA's guidance, applies to unlicensed CCDF providers with more than sixteen children enrolled. It is not available to you as a licensed Class I or Class II home. The ages of the people you may count are set by the definitions. 470 IAC 3-1.1-4 provides that "'caregiver' means a person eighteen (18) years of age or older who is responsible for the direct care, protection, and supervision of children in a child care home. The caregiver supervises assistant, student assistant, and volunteer caregivers." 470 IAC 3-1.1-2 provides that "'assistant caregiver' means a person eighteen (18) years of age or older who works in a child care home under the direct supervision of the caregiver." 470 IAC 3-1.1-20 provides that "'student assistant' means an individual fourteen (14) years of age through seventeen (17) years of age who works in a child care home under the direct supervision of the caregiver." 470 IAC 3-1.1-22.5 provides that "'volunteer' means a direct child care provider who is not paid.

If the volunteer is counted in the child to staff ratio, he or she must be fourteen (14) years of age or older and must meet the same requirements as paid personnel." The last sentence is the expensive one: an unpaid teenager you count in ratio must clear the same background checks, medical requirements and training as a paid employee. Counting a volunteer you have not fully processed is a paperwork violation and a ratio violation at the same time. A newer definition was added to the same rule in 2025. 470 IAC 3-1.1-20.5 provides that "'substitute educator' means a person who meets all the requirements for an employee providing care to children, and supports a child care home for a temporary or an extended period when the usual caregiver is unavailable", and its note reads "Filed 5/7/2025, 2:20 p.m.: 20250604-IR-470240388FRA". That is the only 2025 amendment touching the staffing vocabulary of the child care home rule, it was filed under LSA Document 24-388, and it does not change any number in the ratio table. Its practical effect is that the person who covers your absence must already meet every employee requirement before she covers it; there is no lighter standard for a substitute.

What an additional caregiver actually buys you is arithmetic, and the arithmetic has a hard ceiling that no amount of staffing removes. Because 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5(a) fixes the Class I maximum at "twelve (12) children at any one (1) time plus three (3) children during the school year who are enrolled in at least Grade 1", a second adult in a Class I home never raises your total above twelve, plus the conditional three school-age children. What the second adult does is unlock age mixes the ratio table otherwise forbids. One adult with a birth-to-six group is capped at ten with at most three under sixteen months. Two adults in the same age band are capped at twelve by subsection (a), not at twenty by the table, and the infant sub-limit applies per direct child care provider, so two providers can carry six children under sixteen months within a twelve-child mixed group. One adult with children all under twenty-four months is capped at four, or six if two of the six are at least sixteen months and walking. Two adults in an all-under-twenty-four-months home reach eight, or twelve if the sixteen-months-and-walking condition is satisfied twice over.

Hiring in a Class I home is therefore never a route to more children; it is a route to younger children. Applicants who hire an assistant expecting to serve sixteen have bought payroll they cannot monetise, because sixteen requires a different licence class, not a different roster. That different class is the Class II child care home, and its ratio law is a cross-reference, not a chart. The whole of Rule 1.3 is one section. 470 IAC 3-1.3-1 provides in full: "A Class II child care home serves more than twelve (12) children but not more than sixteen (16) full-time and part-time children at any one (1) time. A licensee who provides Class II child care shall meet all the requirements of 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 470 IAC 3-1.2 as well as the requirements of this rule. If there is any difference in requirements, the specific information contained in IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 shall prevail." There is no Class II ratio table anywhere in the Indiana Administrative Code. Your ratios as a Class II home are the same 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5 ratios, applied to a home that may hold up to sixteen children. Run the numbers before you apply: sixteen children who are all three or older is 12:1, so it needs two direct child care providers with four slots to spare; sixteen children in a birth-to-six mix is 10:1, so it needs two providers and leaves you six infant-or-under-sixteen-months slots at most; sixteen children all under twenty-four months is 4:1 or 6:1, so it needs four providers, or three if every group satisfies the sixteen-months-and-walking condition. A Class II licence is a staffing commitment, and the homes that fail are the ones that treated it as a capacity upgrade.

There is a genuine textual tension inside Class II that you should resolve conservatively rather than argue about at an inspection. 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5(a) is written as a Class I ceiling and 470 IAC 3-1.1-24 is written as a Class I ceiling, yet 470 IAC 3-1.3-1 imports "all the requirements of 470 IAC 3-1.1" into the Class II home while resolving conflicts in favour of IC 12-17.2-5-6.5, a statute that sets building, fire and square-footage conditions and states no headcount. Read together, the safest operating assumption for a Class II home is sixteen children maximum from IC 12-7-2-33.8, the 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5(e) ratios per direct child care provider, and the fifteen-children-under-eleven headcount of 470 IAC 3-1.1-24 as a practical constraint on your under-eleven population. Assume the more restrictive number is the one your consultant will enforce, because the conflict clause in 470 IAC 3-1.3-1 does not point to any provision that gives you the looser one. Supervision is a separate obligation that runs alongside ratio, and it is enforced separately. IC 12-17.2-5-17.5 provides that "A licensee shall ensure that a child in the licensee's care is continually supervised by a caregiver", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5(b) provides that "Children shall not be left unattended and shall be supervised at all times."

Being in ratio and being in supervision are not the same finding. FSSA's Interpretative Guide sets the thresholds it inspects against: "Sound monitors alone are not acceptable a means of supervision"; "Children must be on the same floor of the home as the caregiver(s)"; "During mealtimes, children shall remain in the caregiver's line of sight"; "With written parental permission, a child in grade one or older may participate in activities outside the direct supervision of a caregiver if the child is on the premise and the caregiver physically checks on the child every 15 minutes"; "Children may sleep outside of the caregiver's direct line of vision providing that the doors to the rooms where the children are sleeping remain open and the caregiver visually monitors and checks the children's breathing periodically; children younger than 15 months must be checked every 15 minutes", with the note that "'Open' means the door is completely open not ajar, not 1/2 way open, etc." and that the provider "must be able to see the rise and fall of the child's chest." The Guide also permits that "The licensee's own children may sleep in their own bedrooms outside the observation of the caregiver."

Treat the Guide for what it is: an agency manual dated February 2016, not law, and stale in several places noted below. Where it conflicts with the rule or the statute, the rule and the statute win. Who may be left in charge is a rule, not a preference. 470 IAC 3-1.1-33 provides: "(a) The licensee may be the caregiver for no more than one (1) child care home. If a licensee operates more than one (1) child care home, the licensee shall maintain or employ a caregiver in each additional child care home. (b) The assistant caregiver shall work under the direct supervision of the caregiver. If an assistant caregiver under twenty-one (21) years of age is left in charge of a child care home, the parent must be notified in writing. (c) Student assistants and volunteers shall work under the direct supervision of a caregiver and shall not be left in charge of a child care home." So a fourteen-to-seventeen-year-old student assistant can be counted in your ratio but can never be the person in charge, and an eighteen-to-twenty-year-old assistant left in charge triggers a written parent notification you must be able to produce.

Homes that use a nineteen-year-old for the closing hour and never sent that letter are cited on documentation, not on ratio. Now the correction that matters most in 2026, because Indiana genuinely did change ratio law in 2025 and it did not change yours. Senate Enrolled Act 463 of 2025 added IC 12-17.2-4-14.5, a mechanism that pegs Indiana ratios to the neighbours. Its own text defines "bordering state" as "(1) Illinois. (2) Kentucky. (3) Michigan. (4) Ohio.", defines "child care facility" as "(1) a child care center in Indiana; or (2) a facility comparable to a child care center in a bordering state", and then provides that "A licensed child care center must maintain a staff to child ratio for each age range set forth in subsection (g) that is equal to the lowest comparator staff to child ratio for that age range, unless the lowest comparator staff to child ratio for the age range is higher than the staff to child ratio in effect for the age range under this section", with the office of the secretary required to publish the resulting ratios "Not later than December 1 of each year".

Every operative sentence says "licensed child care center". The section was added to IC 12-17.2-4, the chapter regulating child care centers, and nothing in Senate Enrolled Act 463 amends IC 12-17.2-5, IC 12-7-2-33.7, IC 12-7-2-33.8 or 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5. FSSA says so itself on its Early Child Care and Education Legislative Changes page, which describes the new mixed-age classroom allowance for infants and toddlers as centers-only, states that the updated ratio chart takes effect December 1, 2025, and states that the changes apply to child care centers and to legally licensed exempt providers accepting CCDF vouchers and do not apply to exempt or licensed child care home programs. If you are applying for a Class I or Class II home licence, the December 2025 ratio chart is not your chart. Applicants who staffed to the new center numbers were out of ratio on day one under a table last amended in 1996. A second false lead runs the other way. If you are running an unlicensed home and taking CCDF vouchers, you are not free of ratios. FSSA's provider letter on the Provider Eligibility Standards under IC 12-17.2-3.5 states that "If you enroll 16 or fewer children you will follow the same staff to child ratios and group size requirements as a licensed child care home under IC 12-17.2-5", that legally licensed exempt homes "may care for no more than five (5) unrelated children", and that for those providers "The provider's own children and relatives are counted in ratios if the children are under the age of seven (7) years old.

Once a provider's child(ren) or relatives are seven (7) years and older they are no longer counted in ratios." That is the same age-seven line as IC 12-7-2-33.7(b), applied through the voucher contract rather than the licence. Taking vouchers imports the licensed home's ratio table whether or not you hold a licence. The price of getting the count wrong is set by statute and it compounds. IC 12-17.2-5-7.5(b) provides that a person who "holds a license to operate a class I child care home" and "at any time serves a number of children greater than the number allowed under IC 12-7-2-33.7" is "subject to sanctions under section 33 of this chapter, a civil penalty under section 34 of this chapter, and the criminal penalty set forth in section 35 of this chapter", with the parallel provision at subsection (c) for Class II homes exceeding IC 12-7-2-33.8. IC 12-17.2-5-34(a) provides that "the division may impose a civil penalty of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) for the violation of this article". IC 12-17.2-5-35 provides that "A person who knowingly or intentionally violates this chapter commits a Class B misdemeanor."

Note the words "at any time" in section 7.5: the violation is instantaneous, not averaged over a day, so the twenty minutes when a parent arrives early and overlaps the next family is a violation on its own. The Interpretative Guide states the enforcement posture plainly: "Over capacity and non-compliance with child/staff ratios are always cited. Repeat citations may result in probation or revocation of a license." Ratio is not a warning-first standard in Indiana. If a ratio requirement is genuinely impossible in your home, the relief is a variance or a waiver, and the standards are different. 470 IAC 3-1.1-49 provides that a variance requires that the applicant "documents that an alternative method of compliance approved by the CDFC will not be adverse to the health, safety, or welfare of any child receiving services", while a waiver requires all four of a written request, documentation "that compliance with the rule specified in the application for the waiver will create an undue hardship on the applicant", documentation of substantial compliance after the waiver, and documentation "that noncompliance with the rule specified in the application for a waiver will not be adverse to the health, safety, or welfare of any child receiving services".

Subsection (c) provides that "The CDFC shall issue a decision on a variance or waiver within sixty (60) days", and subsection (d) that "Violation of a condition of a variance or a waiver granted under this section may be grounds for denial or revocation of the variance or waiver." Sixty days is the statutory outer limit on the decision, not on your opening date. Do not sign a lease or accept enrolments on the assumption a ratio variance will arrive. Two dates should govern how you plan the next twelve months. First, the ratio rule you must comply with today is the 1996 table readopted in 2019, and it has not been amended by any 2024, 2025 or 2026 act. Second, it is under active rewrite. FSSA's rulemaking docket LSA Document 26-158, "Child Care Homes", states that it "Amends rules at 470 IAC 3-1 concerning licensed child care homes", that comments closed at the public hearing on July 6, 2026, that the final rule was adopted July 13, 2026, that it was submitted to the Governor's office August 27, 2026, that it is to be filed with the Indiana Register September 11, 2026, and that the anticipated effective date is October 11, 2026. Until that rule is filed and takes effect, the table above is the law, and anyone quoting you the proposed numbers is quoting a document that has no legal force yet.

Check the effective date before you build a room around a ratio. One practical warning about verification. On August 26, 2026 the State of Indiana's own administrative rules website, iar.iga.in.gov, was not serving rule text at all: every path on that host, including the rule pages that FSSA's laws-and-rules page links to for 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 470 IAC 3-1.3, returned an unrendered application shell of a few hundred bytes rather than the code. FSSA's own statute link for the child care home chapter, in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/IC-12-17.2-5-reg-of-child-care-homes.pdf, returned 404 the same day. If you cannot open the rule on the state's site, that is the state's outage and not your error, and it is a reason to keep a dated printout of 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5 in your licensing binder rather than a bookmark.

Training you must complete before licensure

Indiana does not give you a pre-service clock-hour number, and the first money most family child care applicants waste in this state is spent chasing one. There is no "40 hours before you open" in Indiana law for a family child care home. What exists instead is a scattered checklist held in three different places at once — a statute (IC 12-17.2-5, Regulation of Child Care Homes), an administrative rule (470 IAC 3-1.1, Child Care Homes, plus 470 IAC 3-1.3 for Class II), and a federal condition of the Child Care and Development Block Grant that Indiana implements through an online module set rather than through its licensing rule — and each of those three has its own deadline clock. Miss the clock, not the hour count, and your license stalls. Understand at the outset which document controls which requirement and you will not pay twice for the same class. Start with a correction that matters, because the state's own reference material is arranged in a way that misleads. It is commonly written, including in briefing material handed to researchers, that 470 IAC 3-1.1 covers "Class I and Class II family child care homes."

It does not. Read the rule as the index serves it: 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.2 defines only "Class I child care home," and there is no companion definition of a Class II home anywhere in Rule 1.1. Class II homes live in a separate, one-section rule. 470 IAC 3-1.3-1 reads in full: "A Class II child care home serves more than twelve (12) children but not more than sixteen (16) full-time and part-time children at any one (1) time. A licensee who provides Class II child care shall meet all the requirements of 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 470 IAC 3-1.2 as well as the requirements of this rule. If there is any difference in requirements, the specific information contained in IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 shall prevail." So a Class II applicant is governed by Rule 1.1 by incorporation, by Rule 1.2 (infant and toddler services) by incorporation, by Rule 1.3 itself, and — where those conflict — by the statute. If you are applying for a Class II license and someone tells you the training answer is "in 470 IAC 3-1.1," they have told you a partial truth that leaves out the provision that actually prevails over the rule. The capacity numbers that decide which track you are on are these. 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.2(a): a Class I child care home "serves any combination of full-time and part-time children, not to exceed at any one (1) time twelve (12) children plus three (3) children during the school year only who are enrolled in at least grade one (1). The addition of three (3) school aged children may not occur during a break in the school year that exceeds four (4) weeks." 470 IAC 3-1.1-24 then imposes a hard ceiling on bodies in the house: "A maximum of fifteen (15) children who are less than eleven (11) years of age may be present in the Class I child care home at any one (1) time during any part of the day.

This number includes the caregiver's own children, related children, unrelated children, and any part-time child care children present." Your own children count. Licensure is not required at all, under 470 IAC 3-1.1-26, if the provider "does not receive regular compensation," "cares only for children who are related to the provider," "cares for less than six (6) children, not including children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative," or "operates to serve migrant children." Below six unrelated children you are not licensed, and none of the pre-service training below is imposed on you by the home rule — a different and much less demanding set attaches if you want a Child Care and Development Fund voucher. The first thing you actually do, before any application, is training, and it is training the rule commands rather than suggests. 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a) opens: "An applicant for a child care home license shall do the following: (1) Attend an orientation training arranged or approved by the CDFC." CDFC is the state agency; the function today sits with the Family and Social Services Administration, Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning.

In practice OECOSL discharges that provision through two sequenced courses. The agency's own instruction to a would-be home provider reads: "Complete Orientation 1: Training for childcare providers (start-up process and information). This training can be found within Indiana Learning Paths located at I-LEAD. Complete Orientation 2: Training for child care home providers (preparation for licensure). This training can be found within Indiana Learning Paths located at I-LEAD. Submit your application online at I-LEAD. Pass onsite inspection from the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning." Orientation 1 is generic to all provider types; Orientation 2 is program-specific, and there are separate Orientation 2 courses for centers, homes and unlicensed registered ministries. Taking the wrong Orientation 2 — the ministry version, most often, because a church-affiliated applicant is steered to it — does not satisfy 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a)(1), and you will be told to retake it after you have already paid for a fire inspection and a water test. I-LEAD is the state's provider portal and Indiana Learning Paths is the training catalogue inside it; together they function as Indiana's professional development registry.

Everything downstream is documented there, which is why creating the I-LEAD account is the true first step rather than a clerical afterthought. The application itself is submitted through I-LEAD; the health and safety orientation modules described below are recorded through I-LEAD; and OECOSL states plainly that documentation "must be completed and recorded through the I-LEAD provider portal in Indiana Learning Paths." Alongside the portal, Indiana maintains the Indiana Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning Career Pathways, which "recognizes the hours of formal education, formal training and credentials of early childhood educators, school age and youth workers," and the Indiana Core Knowledge and Competencies for Early Childhood, School Age and Youth Professionals, second edition, "adopted by the Indiana Professional Development Network on April 6, 2016." Neither the Career Pathways nor the Core Knowledge and Competencies is a licensing requirement. They are the framework that approved trainers write to, and the reason a certificate that names a competency area is accepted where a bare attendance slip is not.

Now the statutory pre-license qualifications, which are the ones that most often stop an application dead. IC 12-17.2-5-6.3(a) states: "To qualify for a license to operate a class I child care home under this chapter, a person must do the following: (1) Provide documentation to the division that the licensee has received a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate as described in IC 12-14-5-2. (2) Provide documentation to the division that the licensee: (A) has completed; (B) is enrolled in; or (C) agrees to complete within the next three (3) years; a child development associate credential program or a similar program approved by the division. (3) Complete the training course taught or approved by the division concerning safe sleeping practices for a child within the person's care as described in IC 12-17.2-2-1(10). The division may grant a waiver or variance of the requirement under subdivision (2)." Read subdivision (2) slowly, because it is worth real money. You do not need a Child Development Associate credential in hand to be licensed as a Class I home. You need documentation that you have completed one, that you are enrolled in one, or that you agree to complete one within three years.

An applicant who believes the CDA is a precondition typically delays the application by a year and pays for the assessment before there is any income to pay it from. Worse, the statute's closing sentence — "The division may grant a waiver or variance of the requirement under subdivision (2)" — means the credential requirement itself is waivable, and OECOSL funds the path anyway: the office publicly states that it funds an "Indiana non-formal CDA project" and "Scholarship opportunities for CDA and more." Paying full retail for a CDA before asking your assigned licensing consultant about the waiver and the scholarship is a self-inflicted expense. Note also the asymmetry between the two license classes, because nothing in Indiana's public-facing material announces it. The parallel provision for Class II, IC 12-17.2-5-6.5, lists nine qualifying conditions — first-story child care, hard-wired interconnected smoke detection, a fire extinguisher in each room used for care, E-3 exit requirements, thirty-five square feet per child, article 37 fire drills, the application-window condition ("Apply for a license before July 1, 1996, or after June 30, 2001"), compliance with the division's Class II rules, and, at subdivision (9), "Complete the training course taught or approved by the division concerning safe sleeping practices for a child within the person's care as described in IC 12-17.2-2-1(10)." The diploma and CDA conditions of section 6.3 are stated as conditions for a class I license and are not repeated in section 6.5. Because 470 IAC 3-1.3-1 makes the statute prevail over the rule where the two differ, do not assume your consultant and you will read that gap the same way.

Ask, in writing, before you enrol in anything. The safe sleep course is the one training item Indiana enforces with money rather than with paperwork. IC 12-17.2-5-3.7(a) requires that a licensee caring for children under twelve months "complete the training course provided or approved by the division under IC 12-17.2-2-1(10) concerning safe sleeping practices as required by section 6.3(a)(3) or 6.5(9) of this chapter, whichever is applicable" and "ensure that all caregivers of children who are less than twelve (12) months of age follow safe sleeping practices." The penalty ladder in subsection (b) is explicit and escalates within a single licensure period: a formal warning letter on the first inspection with a violation; "a civil penalty of fifty dollars ($50) for each violation" on the second; "seventy-five dollars ($75) for each violation" on the third; on the fourth, the division may "place the child care home's license on probation for not more than six (6) months" and impose "one hundred dollars ($100) for each violation." Per violation, not per visit. A room with three cribs and three blankets is three violations.

There is a documented grandfather practice around these pre-license qualifications, and you should treat it as a policy you must confirm rather than a right you can rely on. OECOSL's letter to child care home providers dated 28 June 2023 states that "the licensee of a child care home that was licensed before July 1, 2001 does not have to provide documentation that they received a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate. They do not have to provide documentation to the division that they completed, are enrolled in, or agree to complete within the next three (3) years a child development associate credential program, and they do not have to complete the training course taught or approved by the division concerning safe sleep practices," adding the caveat that "although the licensee is not required to complete the safe sleep training in this situation, they are still required to follow safe sleep practices and will be held accountable for them." The same letter closes the loophole for anyone who leaves and returns: "if a licensee of a child care home that was licensed before July 1, 2001 closes their child care home and wants to re-open at a later date or wants to open a new child care home they must provide documentation of a high school diploma or equivalent, provide documentation related to a child development associate credential program, and must complete the safe sleep training course as required in IC 12-17.2-5-6.3." Read the codified text of IC 12-17.2-5-6.3 as it stands and you will not find that grandfather clause in it; the exemption is administered by OECOSL under a policy letter.

If you are relying on it, get your consultant to confirm it in writing for your specific licence number, because a policy letter is not a statute and a new licence number resets the clock. The rule's own training section is 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5, "Staff orientation, training, and development," and it was amended in 2025 — the first substantive change to it since 1996. As the index serves it today, section 33.5 reads: "(a) Direct child care providers, including volunteers, shall receive training in fire prevention and safety procedures within one (1) week after starting employment or volunteer work. (b) Direct child care providers, including volunteers, shall receive training in the following within thirty (30) days after starting employment or volunteer work: (1) The child care home inspection checklist. (2) Confidential treatment of personal information about children in care and their families. (3) Procedures for preventing, detecting, and reporting suspected child abuse and neglect. (4) Universal precautions. (c) Direct child care providers shall complete a first aid course every three (3) years that includes training for the emergency treatment of poisoning, seizures, hemorrhaging, and choking.

The course must also include training in artificial respiration. Training shall be completed within ninety (90) days after starting employment or volunteer work. (d) At least one (1) direct child care provider shall maintain current certification in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation and be on the premises at all times." That last subsection is new wording and it is the single most expensive detail on this page. The prior text of 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(d), in force from 1996 until 2025, read: "At least one (1) direct child care provider shall be trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation training annually and shall be on the premises at all times." The amendment, filed 7 May 2025 at 2:20 p.m. and published in the Indiana Register as 20250604-IR-470240388FRA (LSA Document #24-388), deleted the word "annually" and replaced an annual training obligation with a "maintain current certification" obligation. The same rulemaking made the identical substitution at 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5(c)(5), which had required verification of "Certification of current first aid training and annual CPR certification for direct child care providers" and now requires "Certification of current first aid training and current cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification for direct child care providers," and at the parallel CCDF rule 470 IAC 3-18-7(c), which had required "at least one (1) individual is present at all times who maintains annual certification in CPR for all age groups of children receiving care.

The CPR certification must meet Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) standards" and now reads "at least one (1) individual is present at all times who maintains current certification in CPR for all age groups of children receiving care. The CPR certification must meet the standards aligned with those of the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross." The same 2025 rulemaking also added a new definition at 470 IAC 3-1.1-20.5: "As used in this rule, 'substitute educator' means a person who meets all the requirements for an employee providing care to children, and supports a child care home for a temporary or an extended period when the usual caregiver is unavailable." A substitute is not a loophole; a substitute must already meet the caregiver requirements, including the training in section 33.5. Here is the trap that survives the amendment, and it costs applicants a citation at the very first annual visit. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(5) was not conformed. It still requires the licensee to keep in the home, for the licensing consultant's review, "Documentation of certification of a current first aid course, training in 'Universal Precautions', and annual CPR certification by direct child care providers."

So one section of the same rule demands "annual CPR certification" while the training section and the annual-inspection section, both amended in the same 2025 filing, demand only current certification. Two-year American Heart Association or Red Cross pediatric CPR cards satisfy sections 33.5(d) and 28.5(c)(5) on their face and read as non-compliant against section 32(a)(5) on its face. The safe course is to hold a current card and to be able to point your consultant at the 2025 amendment by its Register citation. Do not argue the point from memory; print 20250604-IR-470240388FRA. The statute layered over the rule is IC 12-17.2-5-18.2, and it is stricter in one respect than the rule and looser in another. It provides: "(a) At least one (1) adult individual who maintains current certification in a course of pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation applicable to all age groups of children cared for by the child care home shall be present at all times when a child is in the care of a child care home. Certifications accepted under this subsection must include a live return demonstration of skills. (b) An individual who is employed or volunteers as a caregiver at a child care home: (1) must, not more than ninety (90) days after the individual begins employment or volunteer duties, be trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation applicable to all age groups of children cared for by the child care home; and (2) shall maintain current certification in pediatric first aid applicable to all age groups of children cared for by the child care home."

Three things follow. The certified individual must be an adult and the certification must be pediatric and must cover every age group you actually serve; an adult-only CPR card bought at a community centre does not qualify, and neither does an infant-only card if you take a five-year-old. The certification must include "a live return demonstration of skills," which rules out the fully online, watch-and-click CPR certificate sold cheaply on the internet — this is the most common wasted purchase in Indiana family child care, because the certificate looks real and is rejected at inspection. And the statute distinguishes training from certification: OECOSL states the distinction directly, that "Pediatric CPR training is not a formal designation and may be completed through a variety of methods, including an online training or the H&S Safety Module #3," while "Pediatric CPR certification is a formal certification in which the certified individual has completed a live return demonstration of skills." Every caregiver must be trained within ninety days; at least one adult must be certified and present at all times; every caregiver must maintain current pediatric first aid certification.

The federally driven layer is the health and safety orientation training required of every provider eligible for CCDF, and it applies to licensed homes explicitly. OECOSL states: "As part of the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014, states must require health and safety pre-service or orientation training for child care providers," and that the requirement covers "All licensed centers; All licensed homes; All unlicensed registered ministries certified for CCDF; All legally licensed exempt providers." The operative sentence for a home provider is this: "The documentation of Health and Safety Modules 1-4 orientation training is required for all caregivers including teachers, directors in child care centers, child care homes licensees, volunteer caregivers and anyone else included in the child-staff ratio through the I-Lead provider portal in Indiana Learning Paths." Anyone counted in your ratio must have the modules, including an unpaid volunteer — and 470 IAC 3-1.1-22.5 defines "volunteer" as "a direct child care provider who is not paid. If the volunteer is counted in the child to staff ratio, he or she must be fourteen (14) years of age or older and must meet the same requirements as paid personnel."

The ten mandated topic areas, as OECOSL states them, are: "Prevention and control of infectious disease (including immunizations); Administration of medication consistent with standards for parental consent; Prevention and response to emergencies due to food and allergic reactions; Building and physical premises safety including identification of and protection from hazards, bodies of water and vehicular traffic; Emergency preparedness and response planning for emergencies resulting from a natural disaster, or a man-caused event (such as violence at a child care facility) within the meaning of those terms under section 602(a)(1) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act; Handling and storage of hazardous materials and appropriate disposal of bio-contaminants; Appropriate precautions in transporting children (if applicable); Prevention of sudden infant death syndrome and use of safe sleeping practices (if applicable); Recognition and reporting of child abuse and neglect; prevention of shaken baby syndrome and abusive head trauma; First aid and CPR overview."

An eleventh area, "Major domains of child development," is described by the agency as highly recommended rather than required. Note where medication administration, food and allergic reaction response, emergency preparedness and transportation actually live: they are module topics under the CCDBG orientation, not free-standing training mandates in 470 IAC 3-1.1. If you go looking for a medication administration training requirement in the home rule you will not find one. What the home rule contains is a practice requirement, 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(f): "Child care providers shall give or apply medication only with prior written permission from a parent or legal guardian, and only with clear, written instructions as to the dosage, time, and reason medication is to be given. Medication must be labeled with the child's name, physician's name, and pharmacy. Over-the-counter medication must also be labeled with the child's name. The caregiver shall keep a record of the date, time, and dosage of medication given." Likewise there is no certified food handler requirement in the home rule; food service sanitation for homes runs through the Indiana Department of Health's retail food rules, 410 IAC 7-24, which OECOSL links from its laws and rules page.

Universal precautions and bloodborne pathogens are handled in one line of the rule — 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(b)(4), "Universal precautions," due within thirty days of starting work — and expanded only in the agency's interpretive material. The Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules, the only interpretive guide OECOSL publishes for homes and effective February 2016, explains the intent as ensuring "staff must be trained in safely containing and cleaning up body fluids to reduce the likelihood of the spread of disease," and sets this threshold of compliance: "OSHA requires that all staff and volunteers working with children complete Universal Precautions training annually. Training must be conducted by someone with current Universal Precautions training and approved by the agency." Two practical consequences: the trainer, not just the training, must be approved, so a downloaded certificate from an unvetted vendor is a citation waiting to happen; and universal precautions is treated by the inspector as an annual item even though the rule text sets only a thirty-day initial deadline.

Treat that same guide with care in all other respects. It is ten years old, it quotes 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(d) in its pre-2025 form — "At least one (1) direct child care provider shall be trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation training annually" — and it quotes 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5(c)(5) in its pre-2025 form as well. The guide is the agency's manual; it is not the law, and on CPR it is describing a rule that no longer exists. Mandated reporting is required training under 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(b)(3), "Procedures for preventing, detecting, and reporting suspected child abuse and neglect," within thirty days. The rule's own reporting section, 470 IAC 3-1.1-35(a), instructs that "The caregiver shall report immediately suspected physical abuse, sexual abuse, child neglect, or child exploitation as required by IC 31-6-11-3 to child protection services (CPS) or local law enforcement" — and IC 31-6 was repealed by P.L. 268-1995, effective 1 July 1995. The rule has cited a dead statute for three decades. Your live duty is under IC 31-33-5. The same defect appears twice more in the rule: 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(4), 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b)(2) and 470 IAC 3-1.1-29(b)(2) all direct a check of the sex offender registry under "IC 5-2-12," which was repealed by P.L. 173-2006, section 55, effective 1 July 2006. Do not let a consultant's citation of a repealed section persuade you the underlying obligation has lapsed.

It has not; only the cross-reference is dead. Transportation training is not a separate Indiana course for homes. 470 IAC 3-1.1-40 imposes practice requirements — written parental permission before taking a child off site, a driver at least eighteen with a valid licence in a "properly licensed and insured vehicle in safe condition," and "Direct child care providers shall not leave children unattended in a vehicle" — while the CCDBG module set carries the training topic, "Appropriate precautions in transporting children (if applicable)." Emergency preparedness is split the same way: the modules carry the Stafford Act topic, the rule requires the artefacts. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(13) requires a "Record of dates of quarterly fire drills which shall be maintained for at least two (2) years," (a)(14) requires a "Written plan of evacuation for the child care home in case of emergency," and 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(a) puts fire prevention and safety training on a one-week clock, the tightest deadline in the rule. Two pre-license items are not training but sit on the same thirty-day clock and sink more applications than any course does. 470 IAC 3-1.1-34(a) requires that direct child care providers who work in the home more than three times a month, "and all members of the household having direct contact with children receiving care," have "an initial physical examination by a physician or certified nurse practitioner indicating that they are free from communicable disease, have no physical or other condition which would endanger the health or welfare of children in care, and have an annual Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray," with subsection (c) fixing the deadline: "The above requirements shall be met within thirty (30) days of application."

And 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a)(5) requires the applicant to submit within thirty days "a written medical statement, including proof of a Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray, signed by a physician or a certified nurse practitioner." The tuberculin requirement is in a live state of contradiction. Senate Enrolled Act 486 of 2025 removed TB testing for unlicensed registered ministries and legally licensed exempt providers, and OECOSL states that "For licensed centers and homes, TB testing requirements remain in effect under current administrative rules. However, OECOSL is in the process of updating these rules. In the interim, providers in these categories must submit a single variance per site to omit TB testing." That is the operative instruction for a licensed home today: the rule still requires it, the agency will grant a site variance, and the variance is one form rather than a repeated annual expense for every household member. Ask for it at application, not at your second renewal. Finally, the reason to date everything you read about Indiana home training and to re-check it before you rely on it.

The Family and Social Services Administration has a pending rulemaking, LSA Document 26-158, "Child Care Homes," whose stated subject matter is "Amends rules at 470 IAC 3-1 concerning licensed child care homes." Its notice of first comment period and proposed rule were published 3 June 2026; the public hearing was held 6 July 2026 at 10:00 a.m. in Conference Center Room 17, Harrison Hall, Indiana Government Center South; the final rule was adopted 13 July 2026 and submitted to the Attorney General the same day; submission to the Governor's office is scheduled for 27 August 2026; filing with the Indiana Register is scheduled for 11 September 2026; and the anticipated effective date is 11 October 2026. The docket carries the standard caveat that "These dates are anticipated dates for the actions listed above." The training text quoted above is the text in force now. If you are reading this after October 2026, assume 470 IAC 3-1 has moved and check the Indiana Register for the final rule under LSA 26-158 before you buy a single class. The parallel centers rewrite, LSA 26-159, is separate and does not govern homes; do not let a consultant or a vendor apply centre rules to your house.

The short version an applicant can act on. Open the I-LEAD account first, then Orientation 1 and the home version of Orientation 2 inside Indiana Learning Paths. Complete the division's safe sleep course before you take a child under twelve months. Have diploma or equivalency documentation ready, and ask about the CDA waiver and the state-funded non-formal CDA before paying for a credential you may merely enrol in. Book pediatric CPR and pediatric first aid covering every age group you serve, with a live in-person return demonstration — never an online-only certificate. Fire prevention and safety training in week one; inspection checklist, confidentiality, child abuse detection and reporting, and universal precautions within thirty days. Health and Safety Modules 1 through 4 in I-LEAD for yourself and everyone counted in your ratio, volunteers aged fourteen and over included. Physical and Mantoux within thirty days of application, and ask for the TB variance in the same breath. Keep every certificate: at the first annual visit the consultant asks for paper, not recollection.

Ongoing (annual) training

Read the rule that governs your licence and you will find something that almost no Indiana child care guide will tell you: 470 IAC 3-1.1 imposes no annual continuing-education hour count on a licensed family child care home at all. Not twelve hours, not twenty, not any number. The training section of the home rule, 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5, is titled "Staff orientation, training, and development" and contains four subsections, every one of which is a start-of-employment deadline or a certification-currency obligation. There is no clock-hour requirement anywhere in it, and there is none anywhere else in Rule 1.1, in 470 IAC 3-1.2, or in 470 IAC 3-1.3. If someone quotes you "twelve hours a year" as an Indiana licensed home requirement, they are quoting a different statute, written for a different kind of provider, and they may be quoting it at you at a moment when it costs you money to believe them.

Here is section 33.5 as the index serves it today, in full, so you can see for yourself that it contains no hours. "(a) Direct child care providers, including volunteers, shall receive training in fire prevention and safety procedures within one (1) week after starting employment or volunteer work. (b) Direct child care providers, including volunteers, shall receive training in the following within thirty (30) days after starting employment or volunteer work: (1) The child care home inspection checklist. (2) Confidential treatment of personal information about children in care and their families. (3) Procedures for preventing, detecting, and reporting suspected child abuse and neglect. (4) Universal precautions. (c) Direct child care providers shall complete a first aid course every three (3) years that includes training for the emergency treatment of poisoning, seizures, hemorrhaging, and choking. The course must also include training in artificial respiration. Training shall be completed within ninety (90) days after starting employment or volunteer work. (d) At least one (1) direct child care provider shall maintain current certification in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation and be on the premises at all times."

So the only recurring training obligations that Indiana's home rule places on you are a first aid course "every three (3) years" and a pediatric CPR certification that must be current. Everything else in section 33.5 is a one-time onboarding deadline that runs from a person's start date, not from a calendar year and not from your licence anniversary. That distinction — whether an obligation runs on the calendar, on the licence, or on the individual's hire date — is where Indiana applicants get caught, and it is worth taking apart carefully. The twelve-hour figure is real, it is Indiana law, and it does not apply to you if you are licensed. It sits at IC 12-17.2-3.5-8(b)(4), inside the chapter titled "Eligibility of Child Care Provider to Receive Reimbursement Through Vouchers," and it reads: "Beginning July 1, 2015, unless the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative to each child in the care of the provider, the individual annually must receive at least twelve (12) hours of continuing education approved by the division and related to the age appropriate educational development, care, and safety of children.

The hours of continuing education required by this subdivision may include the training described in this chapter concerning child abuse detection and prevention, first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and safe sleeping practices." Now read the chapter's own applicability provision, IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a): "This chapter applies to all child care providers regardless of whether a provider is required to be licensed or registered under this article. However, except as provided in section 4(b) of this chapter, a child care provider that is licensed under IC 12-17.2-4 or IC 12-17.2-5 is considered to be in compliance with this chapter." A licensed Class I or Class II child care home is licensed under IC 12-17.2-5. The statute therefore deems it in compliance with the whole of chapter 3.5, including the twelve-hour continuing education standard at section 8(b)(4). The single carve-out, section 4(b), is not a training provision at all: it makes a provider whose "license under IC 12-17.2-4 or IC 12-17.2-5" or whose "compliance with this chapter" is "subject to an enforcement action" ineligible for voucher payment "until the outcome of any proceeding under IC 4-21.5 reflects a final determination that the provider's license or eligibility is in good standing."

In other words, the deeming clause fails you only when you are already in enforcement — and at that point a training log is not your problem. Who does the twelve hours actually bind, then? Providers who take Child Care and Development Fund voucher money without holding a home or centre licence: unlicensed registered ministries certified for CCDF, and legally licensed exempt providers. OECOSL said so itself when the standard was introduced, in an information sheet it still publishes: "Effective July 1, 2015, the new Provider Eligibility Standards under IC12-17.2-3.5 require that all unlicensed providers that receive CCDF funds, including registered ministries that receive CCDF funds, participate in twelve (12) hours of training annually on topics related to the age(s) of children in care." That is the population. If you hold a licence for a Class I or Class II home, the twelve-hour rule is not the instrument that binds you. Be candid about the counter-evidence, because you may be shown it. OECOSL publishes a one-page comparison sheet, the Matrix for Indiana Child Care Programs, which sets out a block headed ANNUAL TRAINING REQUIRED listing "1. Pediatric and Basic CPR - annually (law)", "2. 12 hours of approved trainings" and "3. Child Abuse and Neglect Training - annually" across the program-type columns.

The Matrix is a summary chart, not a rule; the first of those three lines describes CPR as annual by law, and the 2025 rulemaking discussed below removed the word "annually" from every CPR provision that governs a licensed home. Treat the Matrix as a conversation-starter with your consultant rather than as the source of your obligation, and ask which column the twelve-hour line is checked in for your specific licence type. What binds you is the rule and the statute; the numbered lines in a chart are neither. Now the per-year versus per-cycle question, which is the specific place Indiana applicants lose money, because Indiana runs three different clocks at once and they do not line up. Your licence runs two years. 470 IAC 3-1.1-29.5(a): "A child care home license is valid for two (2) years unless revoked, suspended by the CDFC, or voluntarily surrendered." Your application runs two years. 470 IAC 3-1.1-27: "Application for a license to operate a child care home must be submitted by the applicant every two (2) years to the COFC on forms provided for that purpose by the CDFC." But your inspection runs every year. 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5(b): "The COFC shall make an annual visit to the home during normal business hours and complete a limited inspection checklist."

An applicant who reasons "my licence is a two-year licence, so my training paperwork is a two-year exercise" will be visited in year one with an incomplete file. There is no renewal-cycle grace on the annual inspection; the annual visit exists precisely to catch the things that lapse between renewals. What the annual visit verifies is set out at 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5(c): "The caregiver shall maintain and make available verification of the following: (1) An annual Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray for direct child care providers and each family member over eighteen (18) years of age. (2) Criminal history checks conducted for direct child care providers and family members, and others over eighteen (18) years of age, living in the home. (3) A check of the applicant, the applicant's spouse, and any others living in the home conducted to determine whether their name appears on the sex offender registry. (4) Notification of the local fire department. (5) Certification of current first aid training and current cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification for direct child care providers. (6) A water quality test required by section 47(b) of this rule."

Notice what item (5) does and does not say. It asks for currency of certification, not for a count of hours, and it asks for it at an annual visit even though the licence itself is biennial. That is Indiana's real answer to "per year or per cycle": there is no hour count on either clock, and the currency check is annual. Item (5) is also the clearest evidence of what changed in 2025. Until last year, 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5(c)(5) required verification of "Certification of current first aid training and annual CPR certification for direct child care providers." The word "annual" is gone. The change was made by a final rule filed 7 May 2025 at 2:20 p.m. and published in the Indiana Register as 20250604-IR-470240388FRA, under LSA Document #24-388. The same filing rewrote 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(d), which had read "At least one (1) direct child care provider shall be trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation training annually and shall be on the premises at all times," into its present form, "At least one (1) direct child care provider shall maintain current certification in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation and be on the premises at all times."

And it rewrote the parallel CCDF rule at 470 IAC 3-18-7(c), which had required that "at least one (1) individual is present at all times who maintains annual certification in CPR for all age groups of children receiving care. The CPR certification must meet Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) standards," into "The provider shall ensure that at least one (1) individual is present at all times who maintains current certification in CPR for all age groups of children receiving care. The CPR certification must meet the standards aligned with those of the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross." Three provisions, one filing, one deletion repeated three times: annual CPR is no longer the standard for licensed Indiana homes. Currency is. In practical money terms, that is the difference between buying a CPR class every twelve months and buying one every two years, which is the standard American Heart Association and American Red Cross card length. And here is the trap that survived that filing intact, because the 2025 rulemaking did not conform every section that mentions CPR. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32, "Documentation requirements," still reads at subsection (a)(5) that the licensee shall maintain in the home for review "Documentation of certification of a current first aid course, training in 'Universal Precautions', and annual CPR certification by direct child care providers."

One rule, amended in part, now says "current" in its training section and its inspection section and "annual" in its recordkeeping section. A consultant working from section 32 will ask why your card is more than a year old. A consultant working from sections 33.5 and 28.5 will not. Carry the Register citation — 20250604-IR-470240388FRA — and be ready to show that the two sections that describe the obligation itself were amended and the recordkeeping list was not. Do not argue this from memory in your own kitchen; print it. The statute over the top of the rule is IC 12-17.2-5-18.2, and it is what actually governs how often each person in your home must hold what. "(a) At least one (1) adult individual who maintains current certification in a course of pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation applicable to all age groups of children cared for by the child care home shall be present at all times when a child is in the care of a child care home. Certifications accepted under this subsection must include a live return demonstration of skills. (b) An individual who is employed or volunteers as a caregiver at a child care home: (1) must, not more than ninety (90) days after the individual begins employment or volunteer duties, be trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation applicable to all age groups of children cared for by the child care home; and (2) shall maintain current certification in pediatric first aid applicable to all age groups of children cared for by the child care home."

Again: no hours, no annual count, a ninety-day clock that runs from each individual's own start date, and a currency obligation with no stated interval. The interval is whatever your certifying body sets. If your card is a two-year American Heart Association card, two years is your interval. That brings you to the difference between what the licensee owes and what every other caregiver owes, which Indiana states asymmetrically across four documents and never in one place. Only one person needs the pediatric CPR certification — "At least one (1) direct child care provider" under the rule, "At least one (1) adult individual" under the statute — but that person must be present at all times when a child is in care, which in a one-adult home means it must be you, and in a home with a co-caregiver means you must plan coverage around whose card is current. Every direct child care provider, by contrast, owes the first aid course: 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(c) says "Direct child care providers shall complete a first aid course every three (3) years," with no "at least one." IC 12-17.2-5-18.2(b)(2) goes further and requires every employed or volunteering caregiver to "maintain current certification in pediatric first aid."

And "direct child care provider" is broad: 470 IAC 3-1.1-22.5 defines a volunteer as "a direct child care provider who is not paid. If the volunteer is counted in the child to staff ratio, he or she must be fourteen (14) years of age or older and must meet the same requirements as paid personnel." Your fifteen-year-old niece who counts in ratio on Saturdays owes first aid, the thirty-day onboarding topics, and the ninety-day CPR training on her own clock. The 2025 rulemaking also added 470 IAC 3-1.1-20.5: "As used in this rule, 'substitute educator' means a person who meets all the requirements for an employee providing care to children, and supports a child care home for a temporary or an extended period when the usual caregiver is unavailable." A substitute does not carry a reduced training burden; the definition exists to say the opposite. The one recurring item that is genuinely annual for a licensed home is not in the rule text at all — it is in the agency's interpretation. The Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules, the only interpretive guide OECOSL publishes for homes, effective February 2016, sets this threshold of compliance against 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5: "OSHA requires that all staff and volunteers working with children complete Universal Precautions training annually.

Training must be conducted by someone with current Universal Precautions training and approved by the agency." Against 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(5) the same guide states: "First aid certification is valid for 3 years. CPR and Universal Precautions certification is valid for one year." So the inspector's working assumption, as published, is a three-year first aid card, an annual CPR card and annual universal precautions. Two of those three are now out of step with the amended rule, and the guide is what your consultant was trained on. Treat the universal precautions annual refresher as real, because the rule requires the topic and the guide sets the interval and nothing in the 2025 filing touched it. Treat the annual CPR line as superseded and be able to prove it. And understand what the guide is: an agency manual, ten years old, reproducing 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(d) and 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5(c)(5) in the exact wording that was replaced in May 2025. An agency manual is not the law in Indiana any more than anywhere else. Documentation is where an hourless requirement becomes an enforceable one, and Indiana is specific about the paper. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a) requires the licensee to "maintain the following documentation in the child care home for review by the COFC," with (a)(5) covering the first aid, universal precautions and CPR certificates, and subsection (b) adding that "Licensee shall keep records regarding each child as required by this rule.

Upon request of the COFC, the licensee shall make these records available for review: (1) to determine compliance with these rules; and (2) when information is needed in a child protection investigation." For the federally driven health and safety orientation modules, OECOSL states the certificate contents explicitly: "Documentation of health and safety orientation training must be in the form of training certificate(s). Training certificates must include, at a minimum, the following information: Date of training; Name and credentials of the trainer/or the training organization; Content/subject of the training; Type of training (face-to-face, webinar, etc.); Number of clock hours of training in topic/content area," and "The documentation should be placed in the individual's professional development file and be available for review." That is the only place Indiana asks a home provider to record clock hours — on the certificate, as a description of the training taken, not as a running total against a quota. The state's continuing-education guidance for CCDF providers, which OECOSL still publishes and which your consultant may hand you even though you are licensed, sets out the same documentary discipline in more detail and is worth adopting voluntarily: "Training is to be documented by Training Certificates-these certificates must include the title and date of the training, the number of clock hours of the training, the trainer's name, organization and qualifications and the content area of the training"; "Trainings may be taken online or through a video.

Trainings received in this way must also be documented with a training certificate that includes the information above"; "the same training will not be counted more than once within one year. A duplicate training will not be counted in subsequent years unless the training is designed as a refresher or has been required or recommended by an OECOSL consultant to address observed non-compliances"; and "Training certificates must be maintained in each staff person's file. These files must be kept onsite and be made available to the State on request." Note the anti-double-counting rule and the exception for refreshers: if you are keeping a voluntary log, repeating the same safe sleep course two years running does not build a record, but a course explicitly designed as a refresher does. The registry side of verification is Indiana Learning Paths inside the I-LEAD provider portal. OECOSL requires that the Health and Safety Modules 1 through 4 be documented "through the I-Lead provider portal in Indiana Learning Paths" for "all caregivers including teachers, directors in child care centers, child care homes licensees, volunteer caregivers and anyone else included in the child-staff ratio," and it states how that is checked: "Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning staff will check for staff compliance with the Health and Safety training requirements during renewal inspection in conjunction with the program's licensure, registration or certification period.

If a non-compliance is cited, the provider will need to submit a written plan to their OECOSL consultant on how the provider will correct the non-compliance and come into compliance with the training requirement. If a provider is not in compliance, it may affect the status of their license, registration or CCDF eligibility." That sentence tells you the real cycle for the module set: it is checked at renewal inspection, in conjunction with your licensure period, which for a home is the two-year cycle. The certificates and the currency checks are annual; the module compliance sweep rides the renewal. Both are true at once, and confusing them is exactly the error that produces a plan of correction. The consequence of getting it wrong is not usually revocation; it is a probationary licence, which costs you your existing one. 470 IAC 3-1.1-12.5 defines a probationary licence as "a document issued to a child care home licensee who is temporarily unable to comply with this rule," available where "the noncompliance does not present an immediate threat to the health and well-being of the children," the licensee "files a plan with the COFC to correct the areas of noncompliance within the probationary period," and the office approves the plan; it "is valid for not more than six (6) months," may be extended once for a further six, and — the line that matters — "An existing license is invalidated when a probationary license is issued." A missing CPR card does not shut you down.

It converts a two-year licence into a six-month one, with a written plan of correction attached, and every renewal and voucher conversation afterwards starts from that record. Beyond the licensing rule, the only training-linked obligation Indiana enforces on a licensed home with cash penalties is safe sleep, and it runs per violation within a licensure period rather than per year. IC 12-17.2-5-3.7(b) provides that, on the first inspection during a licensure period at which a violation is found, the division may "issue a formal warning letter"; on the second, "impose a civil penalty of fifty dollars ($50) for each violation determined during the inspection"; on the third, "seventy-five dollars ($75) for each violation"; and on the fourth, "place the child care home's license on probation for not more than six (6) months" and impose "one hundred dollars ($100) for each violation." Because it is per violation and per licensure period, the arithmetic on a bad morning is worse than it looks, and the ladder does not reset at the calendar year. It resets when your two-year licence resets.

One last thing to check before you rely on any of this. The Family and Social Services Administration has a rulemaking in flight, LSA Document 26-158, "Child Care Homes," whose stated subject matter is "Amends rules at 470 IAC 3-1 concerning licensed child care homes." The notice of first comment period and the proposed rule were published 3 June 2026; comments closed at the close of business on the date of the public hearing, 6 July 2026; the final rule was adopted 13 July 2026 and submitted to the Attorney General the same day; submission to the Governor's office is scheduled for 27 August 2026; filing with the Indiana Register is scheduled for 11 September 2026; and the anticipated effective date is 11 October 2026, with the docket's own caveat that "These dates are anticipated dates for the actions listed above. These dates may change during the rulemaking process." The absence of an annual hour count described here is the state of 470 IAC 3-1.1 as it stands. It is being rewritten. Before you buy a training package that a vendor prices against "twelve hours a year," check the Indiana Register for the final rule under LSA 26-158 and read what section 33.5 says on the day you are reading it — and do not accept the separate centres rewrite, LSA 26-159, which amends 470 IAC 3-4.7 and 470 IAC 3-4.8, as authority for anything that happens in your home.

To put it as plainly as the documents allow: as a licensed Indiana Class I or Class II family child care home you owe no annual continuing-education hour total under 470 IAC 3-1.1, and the twelve-hour figure at IC 12-17.2-3.5-8(b)(4) does not reach you because IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a) deems a provider licensed under IC 12-17.2-5 to be in compliance with that chapter. What you owe on a repeating basis is a first aid course every three years for every direct child care provider, a current pediatric first aid certification for every caregiver under IC 12-17.2-5-18.2(b)(2), one adult with a current pediatric CPR certification including a live return demonstration of skills on the premises at all times, universal precautions annually as the Interpretative Guide reads the rule, health and safety module compliance checked at renewal inspection, and certificates in a professional development file that an unannounced annual visit can read. The number to remember is not an hour count. It is two clocks — a two-year licence and an annual inspection — and the fact that your paperwork is checked on the shorter one.

Background checks

Start by throwing away the chapter number you were probably given. Indiana licenses a family child care home under IC 12-17.2-5, "Regulation of Child Care Homes," and the minimum standards live at 470 IAC 3-1.1, "Child Care Homes." IC 12-17.2-3.5 is a different chapter with a different job — the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning's own index page names it "Chapter 3.5. Eligibility of Child Care Provider to Receive Reimbursement Through Voucher Program," and IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a) says outright that "except as provided in section 4(b) of this chapter, a child care provider that is licensed under IC 12-17.2-4 or IC 12-17.2-5 is considered to be in compliance with this chapter." If you read chapter 3.5 as your licensing law you will screen the wrong people to the wrong standard and still be out of compliance with chapter 5. Chapter 3.5 matters to you only in two situations: you are not licensed and want CCDF voucher money, or you are licensed and your license is under an enforcement action, in which case IC 12-17.2-3.5-4(b) makes you voucher-ineligible "until the outcome of any proceeding under IC 4-21.5 reflects a final determination that the provider's license or eligibility is in good standing."

The screening obligation that actually decides whether you get a license is in one subsection, IC 12-17.2-5-3, and it is worth reading word for word because every dollar you will spend on this flows from it. Subsection (d): "An applicant must submit: (1) the necessary information, forms, or consents; and (2) the fingerprints of the applicant and the applicant's spouse; for a national criminal history background check by the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Subsection (e): "Subject to section 3.3 of this chapter, an applicant shall require: (1) an employee or volunteer of the applicant who may be present on the premises of the child care home during operating hours of the child care home; and (2) the applicant's household members who are: (A) at least eighteen (18) years of age; or (B) less than eighteen (18) years of age but have previously been waived from juvenile court to adult court; to submit fingerprints for a national criminal history background check by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. An applicant shall require an individual described in subdivision (1) to apply for a national criminal history background check before the individual is employed or allowed to volunteer and every three (3) years thereafter that the individual is continuously employed or allowed to volunteer."

Subsection (f) adds a continuing duty most applicants never notice: "an applicant must report to the division any: (1) police investigations; (2) arrests; and (3) criminal convictions; of which the applicant is aware regarding the applicant, the applicant's spouse, or a person described in subsection (e)." Parse the four categories, because the boundaries are where applications die. Category one is you. Category two is your spouse — not "your spouse if she helps with the children," just your spouse, unconditionally, printed and run through the FBI. Category three is anyone employed or volunteering who "may be present on the premises ... during operating hours." That phrase is deliberately wider than "cares for children." The teenager who does homework at the kitchen table during care hours is not caught by it because she is a household member, not an employee or volunteer — but the neighbour who comes in unpaid two afternoons a week to help with snack is a volunteer who "may be present," and she is caught, with no age floor written into the statute. Category four is household members: everyone eighteen or older who lives in the home, plus anyone under eighteen who has been waived from juvenile court to adult court.

Your adult son who moved back in and never goes near the playroom is in category four. Your mother who lives in the finished basement is in category four. The single most expensive mistake in Indiana family child care is filing an application that lists you and your spouse and omits the adult child, the adult parent, or the adult roommate — the file sits, the sixty-day clock in 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(c) runs on an application the division will not act on, and you pay a second set of fingerprint fees months later. Now the part that will confuse you if you read the administrative rule as though it were current law, and it is the trap that costs Indiana applicants the most time. Rule 470 IAC 3-1.1 has not been rewritten to match the statute. 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b) still reads: "The COFC shall do the following: (1) Conduct a criminal history check on the applicant and the applicant's spouse. (2) Conduct a check of the applicant, the applicant's spouse, and any others living in the home to determine whether their name appears on the sex offender registry, IC 5-2-12 et seq." The relicensure section, 470 IAC 3-1.1-29(b), repeats the same two sentences verbatim.

Three things in that text are dead. "COFC" is defined at 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.3 as "the county office of family and children in the county in which the child care home is located" — county offices of family and children no longer exist as licensing authorities; the Family and Social Services Administration's Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning runs child care licensing today, and the FSSA index of laws and rules says so. "CDFC," used throughout the same rule, is the county director of family and children, equally gone. And IC 5-2-12, the sex offender registry chapter the rule points you to, was repealed by P.L.173-2006, SECTION 55, effective July 1, 2006 — the Legal Information Institute's current text of both sections carries that repeal note inline. So the rule as codified today directs you to a nonexistent office to run a check under a statute that has been dead for twenty years. The rule is not the law you must satisfy. IC 12-17.2-5-3(d)-(f) is, and it is fingerprint-based and national, not a name check at the county office. Contradicting the rule here is not a judgment call; the codified rule text on this point is simply stale.

What Indiana's licensing office actually runs, as its Background Check Requirements page serves it today, is four components. Quoted from that page: "Federal fingerprint-based criminal history check"; "Indiana fingerprint-based criminal history check, including applicable juvenile criminal history"; "Indiana Child Protection Index (child abuse and neglect)"; "Indiana Sex Offender Registry." The same page adds that "Additional out-of-state checks may be required for individuals who have lived outside Indiana during the applicable review period," and states plainly who the requirements reach: "A child care staff member includes prospective employees, current employees, contract employees, self-employed individuals, volunteers, and any individual whose responsibilities include caring for or supervising children or who has unsupervised access to children. For licensed family child care homes, background check requirements also apply to the caregiver and all household members age 18 or older." Note "including applicable juvenile criminal history" — if a student assistant aged fourteen to seventeen works in your home under 470 IAC 3-1.1-20, OECOSL's Provider Fingerprinting Services page says "Staff and volunteers under the age of 18 must get a juvenile criminal history check," and there is a separate instruction set for it.

Do not send a seventeen-year-old through the adult process and assume it counts. The Indiana Child Protection Index is the piece applicants underestimate. It is the Department of Child Services' record of substantiated child abuse and neglect, and it bites independently of any criminal conviction. IC 12-17.2-5-4(a)(1) makes "A determination by the department of child services established by IC 31-25-1-1 of child abuse or neglect (as defined in IC 31-9-2-14)" by "(A) the applicant; (B) a member of the applicant's household; (C) an employee of the applicant who may be present on the premises of the child care home during operating hours of the child care home; or (D) a volunteer of the applicant who may be present on the premises" a sufficient ground to deny the licence. A substantiation is an administrative finding, not a criminal one. There was no trial, there may have been no lawyer, it may be fifteen years old, and it can still end your application. If you have ever been the subject of a DCS assessment that ended in substantiation — including one you believe you successfully argued at the time — find out what the record says before you file, not after.

The published challenge route is to the county: OECOSL's own Background Check Challenge Process document says "If the challenge is with the Department of Child Services, the disqualified staff member needs to contact the county where the substantiation was initiated in order to challenge the accuracy or completeness of the record." On the checks outside Indiana, the record is genuinely split and you need to know both halves. Indiana's FFY 2025–2027 CCDF State Plan, the ACF-118 the state files with the federal government, marks "Yes" to every interstate box: interstate criminal history checks, interstate Sex Offender Registry checks, and interstate child abuse and neglect registry checks, for staff and prospective staff who "resided in other state(s) in the past 5 years," and separately "for all individuals age 18 or older who reside in a family child care home" who lived elsewhere in that window. The same plan marks "Yes" to the National Crime Information Center National Sex Offender Registry name-based check for licensed providers, for license-exempt providers, and for "all individuals age 18 or older who reside in a family child care home."

That is the federal comprehensive standard the plan recites: "A comprehensive background check must include: three in-state checks, two national checks, and three interstate checks if the individual resided in another State or Territory in the preceding 5 years." But Indiana also publishes, on its own carefinder site, an "Appendix A: Background Check Waiver Request" in which the state asked the federal government for relief from exactly those components — NCIC NSOR for new and existing staff, and the interstate criminal registry, interstate sex offender registry, and interstate child abuse and neglect registry checks — on the stated ground that "If Indiana is not granted this waiver we fear we will have a reduction in the childcare workforce," and certifying that "The Lead Agency is completing all required checks with the exception of NSOR for staff that live in Indiana and checking other states that a caregiver may have lived in." The waiver document carries "Date Submitted: null." The public Background Check Requirements page, meanwhile, lists only the four in-state and federal components and never names NSOR or the five-year interstate rule at all.

Practical instruction: assume the five-year interstate checks apply to you and to every adult in your household who has lived out of state since 2021, build the delay into your timeline, and gather the prior addresses before you sit down with the consent form. If OECOSL does not end up running them, you have lost nothing; if it does and you have not disclosed a prior state of residence, you have made a materially false statement, which is its own disqualifier. The consent paperwork is a single form and it has a number worth writing down. The Background Check Requirements page states: "All child care staff members must complete and submit State Form 53323 – Consent to Release Information," and lists licensed child care homes among the settings it covers. Fingerprinting itself is not done by the licensing office. The Provider Fingerprinting Services page states that "As of June 1, 2013, all child care providers (including all applicants, staff, and volunteers) are required to get national criminal history checks. Providers are required to go through IdentoGO by MorphoTrust to obtain these checks," and that "The state of Indiana has contracted with IdentoGO by MorphoTrust to provide fingerprinting services statewide effective May 8, 2009." You pre-register, you scan electronically, and you get a receipt at the time of printing as proof — keep that receipt, it is the only thing that shows you started the clock on the date you say you did.

Every individual is a separate appointment and a separate fee. A family child care home with a spouse, one adult child living at home, and two part-time assistants is five appointments, five fees, and five sets of results that must all land before the file is complete. Renewal cadence is the second place where the sources disagree and where an applicant loses money by trusting the wrong one. The statute, IC 12-17.2-5-3(e), sets the employee and volunteer fingerprint cycle at "every three (3) years thereafter that the individual is continuously employed or allowed to volunteer." OECOSL's Background Check Requirements page repeats the three-year fingerprint cycle and then adds two things the statute does not say: "A new fingerprint-based background check is also required if an individual has not been employed by an Indiana child care provider for more than 180 consecutive days," and, for the registries, "The following checks must be completed annually: Indiana Child Protection Index (CPI); Indiana Sex Offender Registry (SOR)." The CCDF State Plan, for its part, answers "Yes" to whether the Lead Agency "conduct[s] the background check at least every 5 years for all components," which is the federal floor and not the Indiana practice.

Follow the strictest of the three: fingerprints every three years, CPI and SOR every year, and a fresh fingerprint check for anyone returning after a break longer than 180 consecutive days. The 180-day rule is the one that ambushes seasonal or intermittent assistants — the summer helper who worked for you last June and comes back in January has been out for more than 180 days and needs printing again. The annual licensing visit is where the documentation gets tested, and the rule that governs it, 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5, was amended in 2025 (filed 5 May 2025, published as 20250604-IR-470240388FRA) and now requires the caregiver to "maintain and make available verification of the following: ... (2) Criminal history checks conducted for direct child care providers and family members, and others over eighteen (18) years of age, living in the home. (3) A check of the applicant, the applicant's spouse, and any others living in the home conducted to determine whether their name appears on the sex offender registry." The parallel documentation rule, 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a), tells you what has to be in the file at all times: "(3) Documentation of criminal history checks on employees, volunteers, and all household members who are at least eighteen (18) years of age. (4) Conduct a check of the applicant, the applicant's spouse, and any others living in the home to determine whether their name appears on the sex offender registry."

Keep the OECOSL eligibility determination letter for every person, not just the IdentoGO receipt. The determination letter is the document that proves a qualifying result; the receipt only proves you were printed. Now the disqualifying list, which is statutory and identical in shape wherever it appears — IC 12-17.2-5-3(c) for your own attestation, IC 12-17.2-5-4(a)(2) for the denial ground, IC 12-17.2-3.5-4(a)(1) for voucher eligibility, and the OECOSL "Disqualifying Crimes" handout for the operational version. A child care staff member is disqualified for conviction of "(A) A felony: (i) related to the health or safety of a child; (ii) that is a sex offense (as defined in IC 11-8-8-5.2); (iii) that is a dangerous felony; or (iv) that is not a felony otherwise described in items (i) through (iii), and less than ten (10) years have elapsed from the date the person was discharged from probation, imprisonment, or parole, whichever discharge date is latest. (B) A misdemeanor related to the health or safety of a child. (C) A misdemeanor for operating a child care center without a license under IC 12-17.2-4-35 ... (D) A misdemeanor for operating a child care home without a license under section 35 of this chapter," with the out-of-state equivalent captured by the phrase "or a substantially similar offense committed in another jurisdiction if the offense is directly or indirectly related to jeopardizing the health or safety of a child."

The voucher version at IC 12-17.2-3.5-4(a)(1)(B) also catches a "misdemeanor related to ... welfare fraud," and the OECOSL handout carries that welfare-fraud misdemeanor into its operational list. Read subparagraph (iv) slowly, because it is the sleeper. Any felony at all — a decade-old drug possession, a theft, a forgery — disqualifies you if "less than ten (10) years have elapsed from the date the person was discharged from probation, imprisonment, or parole, whichever discharge date is latest." The ten years do not run from the offence, from the arrest, or from the conviction. They run from the day supervision ended, and where the sentence carried both a term and probation the statute picks whichever discharge is latest. Applicants routinely compute this from the conviction date, conclude they are clear, and are denied.

Pull the chronological case summary and find the actual discharge date before you file. "Dangerous felony" is not a vague category; it is defined for all of IC 12-17.2 at IC 12-7-2-53.2, and the OECOSL handout reproduces it in full: murder; attempted murder; voluntary manslaughter; involuntary manslaughter; reckless homicide; aggravated battery; kidnapping; rape; criminal deviate conduct (before its repeal); child molesting; sexual misconduct with a minor at the specified felony levels; robbery at the specified levels; burglary at the specified levels; battery as a felony; domestic battery; strangulation; criminal confinement; sexual battery; "A felony committed in another jurisdiction that is substantially similar to a felony in this section"; and "An attempt to commit or a conspiracy to commit an offense listed in subdivisions (1) through (19)." Two entries on that list disqualify people who never imagined they were affected: domestic battery under IC 35-42-2-1.3 and battery as a felony under IC 35-42-2-1. A felony domestic battery in your household's past is a permanent bar for that person — there is no ten-year clock on a dangerous felony, because subparagraph (iv)'s clock applies only to felonies "not otherwise described in items (i) through (iii)."

There is no rehabilitation waiver, no good-moral-character exception, and no discretionary review of the underlying offence. Do not confuse the variance and waiver machinery with relief from a disqualification. IC 12-17.2-5-8 says "A child care home may be eligible to receive a waiver or variance from the requirements of this chapter by complying with IC 12-17.2-2-10," and IC 12-17.2-2-10 lets the division waive "a rule" on documented undue hardship, with the applicant still "in substantial compliance with the rules." 470 IAC 3-1.1-49 sets out the same machinery at rule level and gives the division sixty days to decide. A rule is not a statute. No variance under IC 12-17.2-2-10 or 470 IAC 3-1.1-49 can excuse the FBI fingerprint requirement in IC 12-17.2-5-3(d) or override the denial grounds in IC 12-17.2-5-4(a)(2), and asking for one wastes the sixty days. What does exist is a cure by removal, and it is narrow. IC 12-17.2-5-4(b): "Notwithstanding subsection (a)(2), if: (1) a license application is denied due to a criminal conviction of: (A) an employee or a volunteer of the applicant; or (B) a member of the applicant's household; and (2) the division determines that the: (A) employee or volunteer has been dismissed by the applicant; or (B) member of the applicant's household is no longer a member of the applicant's household; the criminal conviction of the former employee, former volunteer, or former member does not require denial of a license application."

Read the carve-out: it covers employees, volunteers, and household members. It does not cover the applicant. If the disqualifying conviction is yours, there is nothing to dismiss and no one to move out, and the application is over. The parallel voucher provision at IC 12-17.2-3.5-12(d) says the ineligibility runs "until the individual is dismissed from employment or volunteer service at the facility where the provider operates a child care program or no longer resides with the provider" — same logic, same limit. And "no longer a member of the applicant's household" means genuinely moved out, with the division satisfied of it; a promise to keep someone away from the children is not the cure the statute wrote. Two distinct appeal routes exist and applicants file the wrong one. The first is the background check challenge, and it challenges only accuracy and completeness of a record — not the fairness of the disqualification. OECOSL's Background Check Challenge Process states that the office "must notify the disqualified child care staff member that they may challenge the completeness or accuracy of the record," and warns that "a disqualified child care staff member is not eligible to work at the child care during the challenge process."

Step one: "Within ten (10) calendar days of notice of the child care staff member being determined to be disqualified, the staff member must send a written request of appeal to the Child Care Manager at the Office of Early Childhood and Out of School Learning," including a copy of the disqualification letter and a description of the specific information challenged; "The OECOSL has thirty (30) calendar days to review the request, do additional research and respond in writing." Step two, if the answer is unsatisfactory, is ten days from receipt of that letter to write to the OECOSL Director, who "has thirty (30) days to review the decision of the Child Care Manager and respond in writing. The decision of the Director is FINAL." Ten calendar days is short and it starts at notice, not at the day you open the envelope. Separately, if the record itself is wrong you must go to the source: the same document directs criminal history and sex offender registry corrections to "Indiana State Police, Attention: Records Division, 100 North Senate Avenue, IGCN, Indianapolis, IN 46204," FBI record corrections to "FBI, Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, ATTN: SCU, Mod. D-2, 1000 Custer Hollow Road, Clarksburg, WV 26306," and DCS substantiations to the county of origin.

The second route is the licence denial appeal, and it is a real administrative proceeding. IC 12-17.2-5-9(b) requires the division to send written notice of denial by electronic mail to the address you gave in the application, with the reasons, and to follow with certified mail or personal service if you do not confirm receipt by e-mail within three working days. Subsection (c): "An administrative hearing concerning the denial of a license shall be provided upon written request by the applicant. The request must be made within thirty (30) calendar days" after you confirm receipt or after the division mails or personally serves the notice. Subsection (d): the hearing is held "within sixty (60) calendar days after receiving the written request." Subsection (e): it proceeds "in accordance with IC 4-21.5-3." Subsection (f): "The division shall issue a decision within sixty (60) calendar days after the conclusion of the hearing." Because the notice goes to the e-mail address on your application, IC 12-17.2-5-3(b)(3) requires "A current and valid electronic mail address for the applicant" and IC 12-17.2-5-3.1 requires you to "maintain the electronic mail address provided ... for the duration of the person's licensure."

An abandoned e-mail address is how applicants discover a thirty-day appeal window after it closed. There is a second screen that has nothing to do with criminal records and that most applicants do not budget for at all: Indiana drug-tests family child care homes by statute. IC 12-17.2-5-3.5(a): "A child care home shall, at no expense to the state, maintain and make available to the division upon request a copy of drug testing results for: (1) the provider; (2) an individual who resides with the provider and who is at least eighteen (18) years of age; and (3) an individual who: (A) is employed; or (B) volunteers; as a caregiver at the child care home. The drug testing results for an individual described in subdivision (3) must be obtained before the individual is employed or allowed to volunteer as a caregiver." Subsection (c) is absolute: if results show a prohibited substance "or (2) an individual refuses to submit to a drug test; the child care home shall immediately suspend or terminate the individual's employment or volunteer service." Subsection (f): non-compliance is grounds for "(1) denial of an application for a license; or (2) suspension or revocation of a license."

The technical specification the state uses appears at 470 IAC 3-18-15(d): a "Urine panel that tests for amphetamines, cocaine, opiates, phencyclidine, and THC metabolites"; collection "consistent with chain of custody guidelines established by the DOT"; processing "by a laboratory certified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)"; evaluation "by a certified medical review officer using positive cutoffs established by the DOT"; and completion "no more than sixty (60) days prior to receipt of initial application by the verifying agency or employee hire date." That sixty-day window is a money trap in both directions: a test taken too early is void and has to be repeated, and a test taken before you have assembled the rest of the file expires while you are chasing a fire inspection. Same for your adult household members, who must also be tested. Budget for it and sequence it last. Two more codified provisions in this area are stale and will mislead you if you find them first. 470 IAC 3-18-14(a), the CCDF rule, still requires "a statewide criminal history dated within sixty (60) days prior to receipt of initial application" — a name-based Indiana State Police limited criminal history, which is the pre-2013 regime that IC 12-17.2-3.5-12 and IC 12-17.2-5-3 replaced with FBI fingerprinting; IC 12-17.2-5-3.3 gave everyone licensed on 1 July 2013 until 1 July 2014 to convert, and that conversion is long finished.

And 470 IAC 3-18-16(a) requires evidence that individuals "have not been named in the state central registry identified at IC 31-33-17-6(7)" — a citation the current text flags as repealed by P.L.138-2007, SECTION 93, effective July 1, 2007. The live substitute is the Indiana Child Protection Index run by OECOSL. Do not go looking for a "state central registry" clearance under a 2007-repealed statute; it does not exist to be obtained. Finally, three things about the attestation and the licence cycle that turn a paperwork slip into a criminal exposure. IC 12-17.2-5-3(c) requires you to submit "a statement attesting that the applicant has not been ... convicted of" the listed offences and has not been "charged with: (A) a felony; (B) a misdemeanor relating to the health or safety of children" and the two unlicensed-operation misdemeanors "during the pendency of the application." A charge filed while your file is open must be reported, even without a conviction. IC 12-17.2-5-4(a)(3) and (a)(4) make "A determination by the division that the applicant made false statements in the applicant's application for licensure" and false statements "in the records required by the division" independent, standalone grounds for denial, and IC 12-17.2-5-35 makes a knowing or intentional violation of the chapter "a Class B misdemeanor," with IC 12-17.2-5-34 allowing "a civil penalty of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) for the violation of this article."

IC 12-17.2-5-12(a) sets the licence term: "A license for a child care home expires two (2) years after the date of issuance, unless revoked, modified to a probationary or suspended status, or voluntarily returned," and 470 IAC 3-1.1-27 says "Application for a license to operate a child care home must be submitted by the applicant every two (2) years." So the whole screening file — new attestation, current fingerprint results, current-year CPI and SOR, current drug tests — has to be reassembled on a two-year cycle, on top of the annual CPI and SOR refresh and the annual visit under 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5. IC 12-17.2-5-12(d) is the one mercy in the timetable: "When a licensee submits a timely application for renewal, the current license shall remain in effect until the division issues a license or denies the application." Timely is the operative word. File late and you are unlicensed the day the two years run out, which is itself the misdemeanor at IC 12-17.2-5-35 and a permanent disqualifier under IC 12-17.2-5-4(a)(2)(D).

The application, step by step

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

1. STEP ZERO, PROVE YOU ACTUALLY NEED THE LICENSE. Indiana does not license you because you are paid to watch children; it licenses you when you cross a headcount. 470 IAC 3-1.1-7 defines a "child care home" as a residential structure in which at least six (6) children, "not including the children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative," receive care from a provider while unattended by a parent, legal guardian or custodian, for regular compensation, and for more than four (4) hours but less than twenty-four (24) hours in each of ten (10) consecutive days per year. 470 IAC 3-1.1-26 states the flip side as an exemption: licensing is not required if the provider "does not receive regular compensation," "cares only for children who are related to the provider," "cares for less than six (6) children, not including children for whom the provider is a parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian, or other relative," or "operates to serve migrant children." Every clause there is a trap in one direction or the other. The counting rule excludes only YOUR OWN and related children — not the neighbour's, not a friend's, not one you take for free as a favour if you are otherwise regularly compensated. The Orientation 2 manual used by Indiana's child care resource and referral agencies states the operating consequence plainly: "Before enrolling a sixth non-relative child, that provider must obtain a child care license." That means the sixth enrolment is the licensing event, and it is the enrolment, not the average daily attendance, that the state counts. Operating over the line without a licence is not a paperwork problem: IC 12-17.2-5-1 says "A person may not operate a child care home without a license issued under this article," and IC 12-17.2-5-4(a)(5) makes prior operation of an unlicensed child care home or centre a stand-alone, sufficient ground for the division to DENY your later application. The trap that costs the most is the sequence: providers commonly grow to six or seven children first, then apply, and discover that the growth itself is now a denial ground and that a misdemeanour "relating to operating a child care center or child care home without a license" under IC 12-17.2-5-4(a)(2) sits in the same denial list as felonies against children. Below six unrelated children you are a legally licensed-exempt provider in Indiana, a different and much lighter regime; at six you are in 470 IAC 3-1.1 with everything that follows in these steps. Decide which side of six you intend to live on before you spend a dollar, because the licensed track costs money and months and the exempt track costs almost nothing.
2. ORIENTATION IS THE ENTRY DOOR, AND THERE ARE TWO OF THEM. The regulation itself is terse: 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a)(1) requires that an applicant for a child care home license "attend an orientation training arranged or approved by the CDFC." What that single sentence means in practice, as the FSSA Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning describes its own process on its "Become a Child Care Provider" page, is two separate courses taken in order inside Indiana Learning Paths on the I-LEAD portal: "Complete Orientation 1: Training for childcare providers (start-up process and information)," then "Complete Orientation 2: Training for child care home providers (preparation for licensure)." Only after those two does the agency's own list say "Submit your application online at I-LEAD" and then "Pass onsite inspection from the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning." Orientation 2 is the one that matters commercially, because it is where the packet contents are enumerated and where the certificate is issued; the CCR&R training manual instructs applicants to "Retain the certificate you receive after this session and have a copy to submit with your application," and proof of orientation attendance is listed in FSSA's own Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules among the documents the licensing worker reviews before or at the initial visit. The trap here is ordering, and it costs weeks rather than dollars. Applicants routinely gather medical statements, drug screens and criminal history results first, then take orientation last, and discover that several of those documents carry short validity windows measured backwards from the date the application is RECEIVED — the physical no more than thirty days prior, the national criminal history check and the drug screen no more than sixty days prior, the water test good for sixty days prior. Orientation 2 is the training that tells you those windows exist. Taking it after you have already paid for the tests means paying for some of them twice. A second, smaller trap: the naming is not stable across Indiana's own channels — at least one FSSA-adjacent description of Orientation 2 frames it as preparation for registration of an unlicensed registered child care ministry rather than for home licensure. Enrol from the link on the licensed-home path of the carefinder site, not from a search result, and check that the certificate you receive names child care homes. FSSA also runs an Emerging Provider Support team for exactly this stage, reachable at oecoslemergingprovidersupport@fssa.in.gov, and the OECOSL support line is 1-800-299-1627; using them is free and is the cheapest correction available at any point in this process.
3. CLASS I VERSUS CLASS II IS NOT A CHOICE ON YOUR FIRST APPLICATION. Indiana licenses child care homes in two classes and the difference is a building code difference dressed up as a capacity difference. IC 12-7-2-33.7 defines a class I child care home as one serving "any combination of full-time and part-time children, not to exceed at any one (1) time twelve (12) children plus three (3) children who are enrolled in at least full day kindergarten," excluding from that count children at least seven years old who are related to the provider and children fourteen years or older who do not require child care. IC 12-7-2-33.8 defines a class II child care home as one that "serves more than twelve (12) children but not more than any combination of sixteen (16)" full-time and part-time children at one time, with the same exclusions. 470 IAC 3-1.3-1 repeats the sixteen-child ceiling and adds that a class II licensee must also comply with 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 470 IAC 3-1.2, and that "if there is any difference in requirements, the specific information contained in IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 shall prevail." Read IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 before you daydream about sixteen children, because it is where the money is: a class II home must provide all child care services on the first story of the home unless an exception under the Indiana building code applies, must install a smoke detection system "hard wired to the building's electrical system" and "wired in a manner that activates all of the detector devices" when any one activates, must keep a fire extinguisher in each room used for child care services, must satisfy exit requirements for an E-3 occupancy classification under the Indiana building code plus the illumination requirement carried over from IC 12-17.2-5-6.3(b)(3), and must provide "a minimum of thirty-five (35) square feet for each child." Hard-wired interconnected detection and code-compliant E-3 egress in an existing dwelling is an electrician-and-contractor project, not a form. The state also forecloses the shortcut: the Orientation 2 manual for licensed homes states that "All first-time applicants must submit for Class I status. Upon Class I approval from FSSA/OECOSL, the applicant can then apply for a Class II license." Applying straight to class II as a first-time applicant therefore wastes the cycle. Note also the asymmetry that catches class I holders after licensure: IC 12-17.2-5-7.5(a) requires the licence to state on its face which class it is, and IC 12-17.2-5-7.5(b) exposes a class I holder who at any time serves more children than IC 12-7-2-33.7 permits to sanctions under section 33, civil penalties under section 34 and criminal penalties under section 35 of that chapter. One extra child on one afternoon is a penalty exposure, not a rounding error.
4. FILE THE APPLICATION IN I-LEAD, NOT AT THE COUNTY OFFICE THE RULE STILL NAMES. This is the single clearest place where Indiana's codified rule describes a world that no longer exists, and an applicant who follows the rule literally will mail paper to an office that was abolished. 470 IAC 3-1.1-27 provides that "Application for a license to operate a child care home must be submitted by the applicant every two (2) years to the COFC on forms provided for that purpose by the CDFC," and 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.3 defines COFC as "the county office of family and children in the county in which the child care home is located." County offices of family and children were folded into the Division of Family Resources in the 2000s state reorganisation; the child care licensing function now sits with the FSSA Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning, and the whole of 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b) — criminal history check, sex offender registry check, scheduling the home visit, completing the inspection checklist, writing the licensure recommendation — is performed today by an OECOSL licensing consultant assigned by county, not by a county office. FSSA's own instruction is the operative one: apply online at www.ilead.in.gov. The Orientation 2 manual states the sequence as "1. Complete online application. 2. Gather additional documents. 3. Pass home visit," and directs applicants to the Quick Guide to the Application Process for Family Child Care Homes for step-by-step directions including the online Consent to Release Information form (State Form 53323). Do not treat the portal as a filing cabinet you can fill later: the manual warns that "Prior to submitting your online application, you will want to have required documentation completed, as some ... will be submitted during the online application process." Find your assigned consultant before you submit, from the FSSA facilities-consultants page, which lists licensing consultants county by county across five regions (North West, North East, Central, South West, South East/Central) with Marion County split among several consultants by ZIP code. That name is the person who receives your criminal history results directly, who schedules the visit, and who writes the recommendation that the division approves or denies — and consultants differ in how quickly they schedule. The trap is procedural silence: because the rule text still points at a county office and the real route is a state portal, applicants who ask a county DFR office about child care licensing get told, correctly, that it is not their function, and lose weeks before finding I-LEAD. Register the I-LEAD account, complete the two orientations inside Indiana Learning Paths on the same platform, and start the application from the dashboard.
5. THERE IS NO LICENCE APPLICATION FEE FOR AN INDIANA CHILD CARE HOME, AND THAT IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE MISUNDERSTANDING IN THIS FIELD. Indiana's fee authority is not in the licensing chapter for homes at all; it sits in IC 12-17.2-2-2, the powers-of-the-division section, and it is a closed list. Under IC 12-17.2-2-2 the division may charge "a reasonable processing fee for each license application and renewal for a child care center license" at two dollars ($2) per licensed child capacity; a fee not to exceed five dollars ($5) for a child care CENTER new inquiry application packet; a fee not to exceed five dollars ($5) for a child care HOME new inquiry application packet; and a fee not to exceed twenty-five dollars ($25) for the child care HOME annual inspection. The per-capacity application fee is a CENTER fee. For a child care home there is no application fee and no renewal fee in the statute — only the five dollar inquiry packet and the twenty-five dollar annual inspection charge. Separately, IC 12-17.2-6 authorises a fifty dollar ($50) processing fee for registering a child care ministry, which is a different pathway entirely. Every commercial "Indiana daycare licence costs $50-$75" or "$25-$100" figure circulating on licensing-guide websites is an invention; there is no statute behind it. What actually costs money at this stage is everything the state does not charge for. Fingerprint-based national criminal history checks through the state's vendor, for you, your spouse, every assistant, every volunteer and every household member eighteen or older, repeated every three years under IC 12-17.2-5-3(e). A five-panel drug screen with chain of custody and Medical Review Officer review for each of those same adults. A physician's physical examination and a Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray for each of them, the TB test annually thereafter. A coliform bacteria water test if you are not on a municipal supply. If you hold a high school equivalency rather than a diploma, verification through Indiana's document fulfilment service Diploma Sender carries "a one-time verification cost of $15.00." Then the Child Development Associate credential, which the Council for Professional Recognition awards only after 120 clock hours of professional development, a portfolio and an assessment. Budget the CDA as the largest line by far, and check the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood INDIANA scholarship, which covers partial tuition, books and travel for candidates working at least thirty hours a week in a licensed, registered or legally licensed-exempt Indiana programme. The trap is that applicants budget for a licence fee that does not exist and fail to budget for four to six adult medical-and-screening packages that do.
6. THE EDUCATION GATE IS STATUTORY AND IT HAS A CLIFF EDGE AT THREE YEARS. IC 12-17.2-5-6.3(a) sets out what a person must do to qualify for a class I child care home licence: "(1) Provide documentation to the division that the licensee has received a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate"; (2) provide documentation that the licensee has completed, is enrolled in, or "agrees to complete within the next three (3) years" a child development associate credential program or a similar program approved by the division; and (3) "Complete the training course taught or approved by the division concerning safe sleeping practices for a child within the person's care as described in IC 12-17.2-2-1(10)." The statute adds that "The division may grant a waiver or variance of the requirement under subdivision (2)" — the CDA requirement is waivable, the diploma requirement as written is not. The diploma is due at licensure, not later: the Orientation 2 manual states that "All applicants must have a high school diploma/transcript or a high school equivalency certificate from an accredited high school by the date of licensure," that the diploma, transcript or equivalency certificate must be submitted to the licensing consultant as part of the application, and that an applicant currently enrolled at a college or university may submit a college transcript instead. Holders of an Indiana high school equivalency must order verification through Diploma Sender at a one-time cost of $15.00. The CDA clock is the real hazard. It runs three years "from the date of licensure," not from the date you decided to open, and a CDA itself expires every three years and must be renewed. Credit hours already earned in early childhood education at an accredited college may count toward the credential, and the manual advises that a completed or in-progress higher education degree in early childhood, a related field such as elementary education, or any degree carrying at least twelve credit hours in early childhood, likely satisfies the requirement — have the transcripts physically available at the home visit, because the consultant will look for them there. The grandfather clause is narrow and applicants misread it constantly. OECOSL's licensing director wrote to Indiana child care home providers on 28 June 2023 to clarify that a licensee of a child care home licensed BEFORE 1 July 2001 need not document a diploma, need not document the CDA, and need not take the safe sleep course — but that "although the licensee is not required to complete the safe sleep training in this situation, they are still required to follow safe sleep practices and will be held accountable for them," and, decisively, that if such a licensee "closes their child care home and wants to re-open at a later date or wants to open a new child care home they must" satisfy all three requirements. The grandfather attaches to the continuous operation, not to the person. A voluntary closure of a pre-2001 home destroys it; a closure forced by circumstances outside the licensee's control can support a discretionary waiver request to OECOSL, and nothing more.
7. EVERY ADULT UNDER YOUR ROOF GETS FINGERPRINTED, NOT JUST YOU. IC 12-17.2-5-3(d) requires an applicant to submit "the necessary information, forms, or consents; and the fingerprints of the applicant and the applicant's spouse" for a national, FBI-based criminal history check. IC 12-17.2-5-3(e) extends that obligation outward: the applicant must require employees, volunteers, household members who are at least eighteen years of age, and certain minors, to submit fingerprints for a national criminal history check before employment or volunteering and every three years afterward. IC 12-17.2-2-1 makes it the division's own duty to "ensure that a national criminal history background check" is completed for applicants, employees, volunteers and household members before it issues a licence. At rule level, 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(3) requires the licensee to hold "Documentation of criminal history checks on employees, volunteers, and all household members who are at least eighteen (18) years of age," and 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(4) and 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b)(2) add a sex offender registry check on the applicant, the applicant's spouse "and any others living in the home." IC 12-17.2-5-3(f) then imposes a continuing duty to report to the division any police investigation, arrest or conviction the applicant becomes aware of involving themselves, their spouse, or any person covered by subsection (e). Operationally, FSSA routes fingerprinting through IDENTOGO and requires "Consent to release for background checks submitted to OECOSL for the applicant and all employees and volunteers" plus "Fingerprints conducted through IDENTIGO for the applicant and all employees and volunteers prior to hire and then every three years." The CCR&R manual adds two practical points worth money: the national criminal history check "must be completed no more than 60 days prior to receipt of the initial licensing application," and the results "will be sent directly to your licensing consultant," so you never mail them yourself but you should keep the receipt proving you initiated the check. A student assistant aged fourteen to seventeen needs a separate Juvenile Criminal History Check form, which is mailed to the consultant or presented at the initial home visit. Two traps. First, the sixty-day window points backwards from the date the application is RECEIVED, so an applicant who fingerprints the whole household in January and files in April pays twice. Second, and far more expensive, IC 12-17.2-5-4 makes a conviction of the applicant, an employee, a volunteer OR a household member sufficient grounds for outright denial — felonies related to child health or safety, sex offences as defined in IC 11-8-8-5.2, certain dangerous felonies, any other felony where fewer than ten years have passed since discharge from probation, imprisonment or parole, misdemeanours relating to child health and safety, and misdemeanours for operating an unlicensed child care facility. A Department of Child Services substantiation of abuse or neglect against any of those same people is separately sufficient under IC 12-17.2-5-4(a)(1). IC 12-17.2-5-4(b) is the only relief: a conviction of a FORMER employee, volunteer or household member does not compel denial if the division determines that person has been dismissed or is no longer part of the household. An adult with an old felony living in your basement can end the application; resolve household composition before you file.
8. THE SIXTY-DAY DECISION CLOCK DOES NOT START WHEN YOU HIT SUBMIT. 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(c) is the promise every Indiana applicant quotes back at the state: "The CDFC shall approve or deny the application for child home care licensure within sixty (60) days of the date the application is received by the COFC." FSSA's own Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules states the qualification that empties much of that promise: "The application is considered complete once the application, all of the attachments listed on the front of the application, and the results of the FBI fingerprints are received by the Bureau. The 60 days to process the completed application starts at that time." The clock is therefore gated on the slowest external party in the process — the FBI response on every fingerprinted adult in your household — and not on your own diligence. Plan the fingerprinting first and everything else around it. The incompleteness machinery is harsher still and it has a hard deadline that ends applications outright. IC 12-17.2-5-5 provides that "The division may not act on an incomplete application. The division shall return an incomplete application with a notation as to omissions. The return of an incomplete application shall be without prejudice," and 470 IAC 3-1.1-31 repeats it at rule level, with 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b)(5) directing the licensing office to return an incomplete application "with a notation as to omissions and without acting on the application." The interpretative guide supplies the number the rule omits: "If the application is incomplete, written notification shall be made to the applicant of the incomplete or missing materials. Applicants will have 90 days to submit materials. If the materials are not received, the application is considered abandoned. The applicant should be noticed that their application is null and void due to being incomplete." Ninety days sounds generous until you set it against the validity windows on the documents themselves — a physical dated no more than thirty days before receipt of the application, a criminal history check and a drug screen no more than sixty days before receipt, a water test good for sixty days before the initial application date. An applicant who is told in month one that three documents are missing, and who takes eighty days to produce them, can easily find that the documents that were already on file have gone stale in the meantime and that the completed packet is now incomplete again for different reasons. That circular failure is the most common way an Indiana home application dies without a denial ever being issued. Two defences: assemble the whole packet before submitting anything, and treat the licensing consultant's e-mail address as the fastest correction channel there is, because the consultant is the person who assembles the file and writes the recommendation under 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b)(4). Realistically, from first orientation to licence in hand, budget three to six months, not sixty days.
9. THE MEDICAL PACKET IS FOUR SEPARATE DOCUMENTS PER ADULT, WITH FOUR DIFFERENT CLOCKS. 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a)(5) requires the applicant, "within thirty (30) days of application," to "submit a written medical statement, including proof of a Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray, signed by a physician or a certified nurse practitioner." 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(1) requires the licensee to keep on file a "Record of initial physical examination of direct child care providers documenting that they are free of communicable disease," and 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(2) a "Record of annual Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray of direct child care provider which documents that they are free of tuberculosis." At relicensure 470 IAC 3-1.1-29(a)(2) demands written proof of the annual tuberculin test again, and at the annual inspection 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5(c)(1) requires the caregiver to have available verification of "Annual Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray for direct child care providers and all family members over eighteen (18) years of age." That last clause is the one applicants miss: the TB obligation is not limited to staff. It reaches every family member over eighteen living in the home, every year, for as long as you hold the licence. FSSA's own record forms exist for this — Record of Adult Physical Health Examination is State Form 49970, and there is a separate Tuberculosis Questionnaire. The practical windows come from the OECOSL orientation materials for licensed homes and they are tighter than the rule suggests. The applicant and all assistants, volunteers and household members over eighteen must have a physical examination completed by a physician "indicating they are free from communicable disease and have no physical or other condition which would endanger the health or welfare of children in care," dated "no more than 30 days prior to the receipt of the application" — although once accepted, "This physical does not expire." Each of those same people must have a negative Mantoux tuberculin skin test, blood test, or chest x-ray where indicated, repeated every year. And each must produce a negative drug screen "completed no more than 60 days prior to the receipt of the application," which must be "at least a 5-panel test and completed at facilities with urine collection that is consistent with chain of custody guidelines established by the Department of Transportation (DOT), including review by a Medical Review Officer (MRO)." Drug screens are required only at initial application, or at the start of employment for later hires, but OECOSL reserves the right to require random testing afterwards. The traps are two and both cost real money. First, a drug screen from a walk-in clinic without chain-of-custody handling and an MRO signature is worthless to the state and will be rejected — the staff checklist in the orientation materials literally reads "Drug screen test – results must have MRO signature." Second, the thirty-day physical window is the shortest deadline in the entire application, so book the physicals last, after the fingerprints are already in flight and the water test has come back, or you will pay a second round of physician fees.
10. PRE-SERVICE TRAINING IS A STACK OF SIX CERTIFICATES, NOT A COURSE. Indiana does not express its pre-licensure training as a single hour count; it expresses it as a set of named certifications that must be in the file before the licence issues. 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(a) requires that direct child care providers, including volunteers, "receive training in fire prevention and safety procedures within one (1) week after starting employment or volunteer work." 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(b) requires instruction within thirty days on "The child care home inspection checklist," on "Confidential treatment of personal information about children in care and their families," on "Procedures for preventing, detecting, and reporting suspected child abuse and neglect," and on "Universal precautions." 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(c) requires first aid certification covering poisoning, seizures, hemorrhaging, choking and artificial respiration, within ninety days of employment. 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(d) requires that "At least one (1) direct child care provider shall maintain current certification in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation and be on the premises at all times." 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(5) then requires the file to hold "Documentation of certification of a current first aid course, training in 'Universal Precautions', and annual CPR certification by direct child care providers," and FSSA's interpretative guide fixes the renewal periods: "First aid certification is valid for 3 years. CPR and Universal Precautions certification is valid for one year." Safe sleep is statutory rather than regulatory: IC 12-17.2-5-6.3(a)(3) requires the class I applicant to "Complete the training course taught or approved by the division concerning safe sleeping practices for a child within the person's care as described in IC 12-17.2-2-1(10)," and IC 12-17.2-2-1 makes it the division's duty to provide or approve that training. OECOSL also requires before licensure a Child Abuse and Neglect training and a Health and Safety Orientation delivered as four modules on Indiana Learning Paths (Child Development, Health, Safety, School-Age) covering prevention and control of infectious disease including immunisations, administration of medication consistent with standards for parental consent, response to food and allergic reaction emergencies, premises safety including bodies of water and vehicular traffic, emergency preparedness, handling and storage of hazardous materials, and the major domains of child development. Prior degrees, credentials and coursework can be credited against individual topic areas. Then the annual obligation begins: under the provider eligibility standards of IC 12-17.2-3.5, a provider not solely caring for relatives must complete twelve clock hours of continuing education a year. OECOSL guidance notes that first year hours are PRORATED between 1 July and the month of your inspection, that CPR and first aid may count inside the twelve, but that "the same training will not be counted more than once within one year." The trap that costs a licence delay: every one of these certificates must be in the file for EACH assistant and volunteer hired before the initial home licence, not just for you — the state's own staff checklist marks CPR, first aid, universal precautions, safe sleep and child abuse training as due "if hired prior to initial home license," with the ninety-day, thirty-day and one-week grace periods applying only to people hired afterwards.
11. FIRE SAFETY IN AN INDIANA CLASS I HOME IS A NOTIFICATION, NOT A FIRE MARSHAL SIGN-OFF. This is where guides written for other states mislead Indiana applicants most expensively, by sending them to schedule and pay for a fire marshal inspection that the rule does not require. 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(u) states the actual obligation: "The licensee shall notify the local fire department at the time of application or relicensure of the licensed capacity and the hours of operation of the home." FSSA's interpretative guide explains the purpose — "To allow the local fire department to know that the home has vulnerable children" — and tells the worker to establish compliance by interview, adding that at annual inspection "a verbal statement from the licensee is acceptable." That is the whole of the ordinary fire step: a phone call, and a note of the date you called. State Fire Marshal involvement is conditional and discretionary. 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(x) provides that "Licensee shall permit inspection of the child care home by the SFM if requested by the CDFC upon recommendation of the COFC. If such an inspection is requested, approval would be required by the SFM prior to full licensure." So the licensing consultant triggers it, not you — but if the consultant does trigger it, SFM approval becomes a hard precondition to full licensure and your timeline is no longer yours. IC 12-17.2-5-2 confirms the architecture at statute level: "The fire prevention and building safety commission must provide consultation regarding the licensure of child care homes to the division upon request." Consultation upon request. The physical standards you must actually meet before the home visit are all in 470 IAC 3-1.1-46 itself, and they are the items consultants cite. Two remotely located means of egress from the home, and at least two means of escape from every room used for child care, which may be one window and one door. A basement child care area must have at least one direct exit at ground level, and the orientation materials add that "the level area outside the door has to be at least 35 square feet." Exits must be operable from the inside without a key and must not be blocked — including, as the orientation checklist spells out, by safety gates. Operable electrical or battery smoke detectors at the top of stairways and adjacent to all napping areas. A two and one-half pound or greater ABC multiple purpose fire extinguisher on each floor, plus an additional one in the kitchen. No more than five gallons of flammable liquid on the property, in sealed containers inaccessible to children. No accumulation of combustible material. Gas, water and electrical shut-offs accessible and identified. No exposed wiring; extension cords no longer than six feet. An annually inspected wood-burning or gas fireplace if you use one. A written evacuation plan and documented quarterly fire drills under 470 IAC 3-1.1-46 and 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(13), which requires the record of drill dates to be kept at least two years. Note the CCDF overlay: drills are quarterly for a class I home and monthly for a class II home, but if you accept CCDF vouchers you must drill monthly regardless of class — and the consultant may ask you to run a drill live at the home visit. Class II applicants face a different world entirely under IC 12-17.2-5-6.5: hard-wired, interconnected smoke detection, an extinguisher in every room used for care, and E-3 occupancy egress under the Indiana building code.
12. THERE IS NO SEPARATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT INSPECTION FOR AN INDIANA CHILD CARE HOME. Sanitation is inspected by the same OECOSL licensing consultant who does everything else, against 470 IAC 3-1.1-47, and it is a short rule. 470 IAC 3-1.1-47(a): "The licensee shall provide and maintain screens for windows and exterior doors when windows and doors are kept open for ventilation." 470 IAC 3-1.1-47(b): "The licensee shall ensure that the child care home has hot and cold running water and at least one (1) toilet and sink accessible to children on each floor of the home where services are provided. Water from a source other than a regular municipal water supply shall be tested annually for compliance with water quality requirements." 470 IAC 3-1.1-47(c): "Direct child care providers shall wash and sanitize all food preparation areas, serving areas, and utensils daily." 470 IAC 3-1.1-47(d): "Caregiver shall keep garbage in containers with tight-fitting lids and remove it from the premises at least once a week. Waste paper need not be kept in a closed container." That is the entire sanitation chapter for a licensed home. Do not go looking for a county health department permit or a food establishment licence: the food sanitation rules at 410 IAC 7-24 and the retail food requirements at 410 IAC 7-26-3 are listed on FSSA's laws-and-rules page because they govern child care CENTRES and food operations, not because a family child care home must hold a food permit. The kitchen requirement instead comes from 470 IAC 3-1.1-45(f): the licensee must provide a stove and oven or a microwave, a refrigerator, and a sink with hot and cold running water, all in working condition, adequate to the food needs of the children in care. What consultants actually cite in this area is mundane and cheap to fix in advance, and expensive only if it turns up on the day. From the state's own home inspection preparation list: the home is in good repair and maintained clean and sanitary; both indoor and outdoor trash cans have tight-fitting lids, "including small bathroom trash cans"; garbage leaves the premises weekly; trash and flammable or combustible material are not allowed to accumulate; screens are maintained wherever windows and doors are opened; rooms are well lit and ventilated; food preparation areas and utensils are washed and sanitised daily; children's hands are washed before meals and snacks and after using the bathroom. One numeric limit sits inside this cluster and is worth a plumber's visit: water temperature at fixtures accessible to children "cannot exceed 120° F," which is why FSSA publishes an approved list of automatic hot water temperature control valves alongside the home rules. An anti-scald valve fitted before the visit costs a fraction of a licensing delay. Animals belong here too — 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(12) requires "Annual vaccination records for animals subject to rabies," and the preparation list adds that animals must be restricted from food areas during preparation and serving and that litter boxes must not be kept where food is prepared or children play. Pull the rabies certificates for every dog, cat and ferret before the consultant arrives; a missing vaccination record on a family pet is a citation on an otherwise clean visit.
13. IF YOU ARE ON A WELL, START THE WATER TEST FIRST — IT IS THE LONGEST LEAD TIME IN THE PACKET. 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a)(6) makes a water quality test a required attachment to the initial application, and 470 IAC 3-1.1-47(b) supplies the standard: "Water from a source other than a regular municipal water supply shall be tested annually for compliance with water quality requirements." 470 IAC 3-1.1-29(a)(5) repeats it at relicensure and 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5(c)(6) at the annual inspection, so a private well converts an occasional errand into a permanent annual obligation. FSSA's Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules fixes both the substance and the shelf life of the result: the consultant looks for "documented annual water quality tests indicating the water is free of coliform bacteria and any other known contaminant that is above safe drinking water standards (good for 60 days prior to initial application received date)." Sixty days, counted backwards from receipt of the application. The failure path is brutal and worth memorising before you sample: "If a water test is positive, the water system must have 2 water samples taken. The samples shall be between 24 and 48 hours apart and both be negative before being considered a safe water system. A positive water test is grounds for emergency closure." Two negatives, twenty-four to forty-eight hours apart, and a positive result is not merely a delay — it is a closure ground. That is why the state's own orientation manual tells applicants to sample early: contact an approved laboratory, request a collection kit, collect and post the sample back, "You will want to be sure this is one of the first things you do, because this process generally takes a significant amount of time." A second, quieter well trap catches anyone licensing more than one home under one roof. 470 IAC 3-1.1-29.5(h) provides that multiple child care homes under one roof which use a private well are "also subject to the water testing requirements of 327 IAC 8 whenever twenty-five (25) or more people are present" — crossing twenty-five people turns your private well into a regulated public water system under the Indiana environmental rules, with a testing and reporting regime of an entirely different order. Count residents plus children plus staff before you assume you are under the line. On septic, be careful about what the rules actually say. Neither 470 IAC 3-1.1-47 nor 470 IAC 3-1.1-28 imposes a septic inspection, a percolation test, or a sanitary sewage certification as a condition of home licensure; the sewage side of the home is reached only through the general standard of 470 IAC 3-1.1-45(a), that "no conditions exist in the home or on the grounds where child care services are provided that would endanger the health, safety, or welfare of the children," and through the county health department's ordinary jurisdiction over failing on-site systems, which is not part of the child care licence. A visibly failing or surfacing septic field will end a home visit under 470 IAC 3-1.1-45(a); a perfectly ordinary one requires no certificate. Do not pay for a septic inspection because a national daycare-licensing guide told you Indiana requires one — it does not — but do fix a failing field before the consultant walks the yard.
14. THE ON-SITE VISIT IS ONE PERSON WITH ONE CHECKLIST, AND IT DECIDES THE APPLICATION. 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b)(3) requires the licensing office to "Schedule a visit to the home during normal business hours and complete a child care home inspection checklist," and 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b)(4) requires it to "Submit a written recommendation for child care home licensure to the CDFC based upon the home inspection checklist and the documents submitted by the applicant." The checklist is a numbered state document — the Child Care Home Licensing Report, State Form 46739 — and Indiana publishes a separate Inspection Checklist Class II Home, State Form 53959, most recently revised in January 2025. FSSA's interpretative guide sets the order: documents first, then "Following the document review, an on-site compliance visit shall be conducted prior to making a recommendation on the application." IC 12-17.2-5-6 gives the division broad latitude in how it looks: "The investigation shall be conducted any time the home is in operation in announced or unannounced visits. Activities may include onsite inspections, record reading, observation, and interviewing." The initial licensing visit is scheduled; the annual one afterwards is unannounced, and at relicensure the guide specifies an announced visit that "shall be conducted between the first day of the quarter and the last day of the quarter but will not be scheduled on a specific day with the licensee." What actually gets cited is drawn from 470 IAC 3-1.1-45 and 470 IAC 3-1.1-48 and it is physical, not philosophical. 470 IAC 3-1.1-48(a): protective coverings over exposed electrical outlets. 470 IAC 3-1.1-48(b): fans and heaters with safety devices that will not allow a child's fingers to reach the blade or heating element. 470 IAC 3-1.1-48(c): cleaning supplies, detergents, insect sprays and medication kept inaccessible. 470 IAC 3-1.1-48(d): power tools, hand tools and gardening tools stored away from children. 470 IAC 3-1.1-48(e): "When children are present in the child care home, caregiver shall keep all ammunition and firearms in a locked area that is inaccessible to children at all times" — in Indiana this is a routine, expected question, and an unlocked gun cabinet ends the visit. 470 IAC 3-1.1-45(c) requires a working telephone and notice to the licensing office of any change of number; the orientation materials add that providers accepting CCDF vouchers must have a landline or analogue telephone, which is a genuine cash cost for a cell-only household. 470 IAC 3-1.1-45(d) requires "a protected outdoor play area that is safely enclosed by either a fence or natural boundaries," and the state's preparation list puts numbers on it: the fence must be at least four feet high, the fenced area at least thirty-five square feet per child with fifty as best practice, and the fire marshal recommends at least one gate. Ponds, pools and hot tubs must be inaccessible, a pool needs its own additional four-foot fence with a locked gate, and wading pools are prohibited outright. First aid supplies stocked and a first aid manual in the home. Two things buy the most here: walk the property with the checklist in hand a week before the visit, and have every file — staff files, children's files, drill records, rabies certificates, training certificates — physically stacked on the kitchen table, because the guide instructs the worker to check all staff files and all files of children under three at every visit.
15. ZONING WILL NOT STOP YOU IN INDIANA, BUT THE BUSINESS PERMIT PAPER WILL. Indiana is one of the states whose legislature took the zoning question away from local government, and applicants who budget for a special exception hearing are budgeting for something the law forbids. IC 36-7-4-1108(a) applies to any child care home used as the primary residence of the person who operates it, "regardless of whether the child care home meets the definition set forth in IC 12-7-2-28.6." IC 36-7-4-1108(b) then provides that a zoning ordinance may not "(1) Exclude a child care home from a residential area solely because the child care home is a business," may not "(2) Impose limits on the number of children that may be served by a child care home at any one (1) time that vary from the limits set forth in IC 12-7-2-33.7 and IC 12-7-2-33.8," and may not "(3) Impose requirements or restrictions upon child care homes that vary from the requirements and restrictions imposed upon child care homes by rules adopted by the division of family resources or the fire prevention and building safety commission." The reservation in IC 36-7-4-1108(c) is narrow and reasonable: a child care home may still be required to meet the same zoning requirements, developmental standards and building codes "that apply to other residential structures in the same residential district or classification." In plain terms, your town may hold you to the setback and the building code it holds your neighbours to, and may not hold you to anything more because you take children. If a planning department tells you that a family child care home needs a use variance, cite IC 36-7-4-1108(b)(1) at them. What Indiana does require is a piece of paper from the locality, and it is a required attachment, not an optional one. IC 12-17.2-5-3(b) requires the applicant to submit proof of valid business permits or licences if they are required locally, or a statement confirming that they are not needed, along with a current e-mail address; FSSA's I-LEAD application guidance lists for licensed centres and homes alike "business permits or county statements confirming no permit requirement." The orientation manual is explicit about the branch most applicants hit: "In some counties, however, a business permit is not required. If this is the case, then you will need to submit a statement from the county, city or town that a permit or license to operate a child care program is not required," and Indiana publishes a Business Permit form, State Form 56523, to which the local permit or the local letter is attached. The trap costs weeks rather than dollars. Getting a municipal clerk to put "no permit is required for this activity" in writing on letterhead is a request that clerks are unused to receiving, that gets routed and re-routed, and that applicants leave until last because it feels trivial next to fingerprints and a CDA. Ask for it on the day you decide to apply. One more local item sits outside all of the above and is the one genuinely fatal private-law obstacle: a homeowners association covenant. The state's own next-steps list warns applicants to "Check with your Home Owners Association (If applicable). Check to be sure there is not a neighborhood covenant prohibiting you from operating a child care business out of your home." IC 36-7-4-1108 binds zoning ordinances; it does not bind a private restrictive covenant. Read your deed before you spend anything.
16. INDIANA DOES NOT REQUIRE A LICENSED CHILD CARE HOME TO CARRY LIABILITY INSURANCE — AND CARRY IT ANYWAY. Read the whole of 470 IAC 3-1.1 section by section, from 470 IAC 3-1.1-0.5 (minimum standards) through 470 IAC 3-1.1-49 (variances and waivers), and no section imposes a general liability insurance requirement on a child care home, and no section provides the written-notice-to-parents-in-lieu-of-insurance mechanism that several other states use. The only insurance word in the entire rule is in 470 IAC 3-1.1-40(b), on transportation, which requires that a child be transported only by a person at least eighteen years old holding "a valid driver's license" and operating "a properly licensed and insured vehicle in safe condition." That is ordinary auto insurance on whatever vehicle carries children, not a policy on the child care operation. The interpretative guide confirms the assessment method for it: the consultant reviews "the driver's licenses and insurance proof for all individuals that transport children." The only other insurance reference in FSSA's guide sits on outside vendors — contracted recreational or educational enrichment services must be "properly insured in case of accident or injury to a child during participation in the supplemental activity," and the facility "must keep a copy of this insurance on file." So if you bring in a music teacher or a tumbling programme, collect their certificate of insurance; the state will look for it. None of that changes the commercial reality, and this is the step where the cheapest advice is the most valuable. A homeowner's policy will almost always exclude a business conducted on the premises, which means an injury to an enrolled child is very likely uncovered under the policy you already hold — and Indiana's licensing statute gives you no shield: IC 12-17.2-5-1 licenses the operation, it does not cap the operator's tort exposure. The federal Child Care and Development Fund side of the house adds its own pressure, because a home accepting CCDF vouchers is contracting with the state and operating under IC 12-17.2-3.5 provider eligibility standards. Price a child care liability policy before you enrol your first child, tell your homeowner's carrier in writing what you are doing, and expect the carrier either to write a rider or to non-renew — finding that out after a claim is the most expensive possible sequence. Two things to say plainly to yourself. First, no Indiana licensing consultant will ask to see a liability policy at the initial home visit under 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b)(3), so its absence will not delay your licence. Second, exactly because it will not delay your licence, it is the item most often skipped, and it is the only one on this list whose omission can cost more than the business is worth.
17. WRITE THE PARENT PAPERWORK BEFORE THE LICENCE ARRIVES, BECAUSE IT IS DUE BEFORE THE FIRST CHILD. 470 IAC 3-1.1-37 governs admission and it is drafted as a sequence of things that must happen "prior to accepting a child," which means the documents must already exist. The caregiver must have the parent or guardian "complete and sign an enrollment form for the child," "complete and sign a release for emergency medical care," and "sign a copy of the licensee's written discipline policy," and must let the parent "see all areas of the home and property to be used for child care." Within thirty days of admission the file must hold a written statement from a physician or certified nurse practitioner addressing whether the child can participate in the home's activities, whether immunisations are up to date, and any allergies or chronic health conditions — and the caregiver must inform parents of their right to request a written exemption from the medical requirements based on religious beliefs, and that "unscheduled visits by a custodial parent or guardian shall be permitted at any time the child care home is in operation." That open-door sentence is worth printing verbatim in your handbook, because it is the one parents test. The record-keeping mirror of all this is 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a), which requires the licensee to keep in the home, available for review: the enrolment forms with the child's name, date of birth, parent contact information, emergency contacts and authorised pickup persons; the signed emergency medical release for each child; the health statements; written parental permission for off-site activities; the signed discipline policy; "Daily attendance records for children in the child care home which shall be maintained for at least two (2) years"; the annual rabies vaccination records for animals; the record of quarterly fire drill dates, also kept two years; and the emergency evacuation plan. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(b) obliges you to hand records to the licensing office on request for compliance review or child protection investigation, and 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(c) keeps them confidential and in the home except during licensing actions or investigations. Separately from the admission packet, IC 12-17.2-5-12 imposes a public disclosure duty that many licensees discover only when they are cited for it: the current licence must be publicly displayed, and the licensee must publicly display and distribute written material stating changes to the licence status, the division's contact information and website for enquiries about licence status, complaints and violations, and the telephone number of the county's child care resource and referral programme. That is a poster and a handout, not a filing. Two traps. First, the discipline policy must be written and signed before enrolment, not drafted after a parent complains; Indiana forbids "cruel, harsh, threatening, or unusual punishment," including "the withdrawal, or the threat of withdrawal, of scheduled meals or snacks, rest or bathroom opportunities," and a policy that contradicts 470 IAC 3-1.1-41 is worse than none. Second, the CCDF layer adds a suspension and expulsion policy that the licensing consultant monitors, and OECOSL expects a parent handbook and fee agreement with a signed receipt in each child's file. Draft the handbook, the discipline policy, the suspension and expulsion policy and the fee agreement during the waiting period on your fingerprints — it is otherwise dead time.
18. PROVISIONAL, PROBATIONARY AND REGULAR ARE THREE DIFFERENT LICENCES, AND ONLY ONE IS GOOD NEWS. Indiana's home licence, once granted, runs on a two-year cycle: IC 12-17.2-5-12 provides that "A license for a child care home expires two (2) years after the date of issuance, unless revoked, modified to a probationary or suspended status, or voluntarily returned," and 470 IAC 3-1.1-29.5(a) repeats it. The licence is not transferable, applies only to the licensee and the location stated in the application, remains the property of the division, and must be publicly displayed under 470 IAC 3-1.1-29.5(c) and (d) and IC 12-17.2-5-12(c). Where a renewal application is timely filed, IC 12-17.2-5-12 keeps the existing licence in effect until the division issues a new one or denies the application — so file relicensure early and you cannot fall into a gap. A provisional licence is the state's answer to an applicant who is ready on paper but not yet operating. IC 12-17.2-5-13(a): "The division may grant a provisional license to an applicant who is not able to demonstrate compliance with a rule because the child care home is not in full operation," and IC 12-17.2-5-13(b): "The provisional license shall be granted for not more than one (1) year and is subject to review every three (3) months." 470 IAC 3-1.1-14 defines the same instrument at rule level, with a twelve-month maximum and three-month review intervals. Provisional status is not a penalty and it is the normal route for a home that cannot yet show, for instance, ratios in operation. A probationary licence is the penalty, and applicants should understand it now because it is the shape a bad first inspection takes. IC 12-17.2-5-14 permits it only where "the noncompliance does not present an immediate threat to the health and well-being of the children" and where the division approves a corrective plan filed by the licensee; it is valid for not more than six months, extendable once for a further six; it invalidates any licence previously held, which must be returned; at expiry the division must reinstate, reissue or revoke. Then comes the part that touches the business rather than the file: IC 12-17.2-5-14(f) requires the division, within seven days, to "publish notice under IC 5-3-1 and provide written notice to the parent or guardian" of the probationary licence and the reason for it. A newspaper notice and a letter to every enrolled family is a marketing event you do not want. Appeals are short-fused. 470 IAC 3-1.1-30 gives any person whose licence has been denied, revoked or suspended thirty days from receipt of the official notice to file a written request for a hearing; miss the thirty days and the administrative route closes. The realistic Indiana timeline is: Orientation 1 and 2 in I-LEAD, one to three weeks; fingerprints, drug screens, physicals, TB tests and the well water test in parallel, two to eight weeks, dominated by the FBI response; the local business permit letter, one to six weeks; then the sixty-day clock of 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(c), which starts only when the FBI results reach the bureau, with the home visit inside that window. Three to six months is normal. The two levers that shorten it are starting the water test and fingerprints on day one, and never letting the file be incomplete, because incompleteness both stops the clock and starts the ninety-day abandonment countdown.

What you must post on your walls

• THE LICENCE ITSELF, PUBLICLY DISPLAYED IN THE HOME. This is the only item that 470 IAC 3-1.1 — the rule that governs Indiana Class I child care homes — affirmatively orders you to put on a wall. Section 29.5(d) reads, in full, "The license shall be publicly displayed in the home." and carries a parenthetical cross-reference to the statute, IC 12-17.2-5-12(c), whose own words are "A current license shall be publicly displayed." Read the two words that are NOT there: the homes rule never says "conspicuous place", never says "at eye level", never says "regularly viewed by parents". Those phrases belong to the child care CENTER rule, where 470 IAC 3-4.7-3(c) commands that "The center shall post the license in a conspicuous place that parents regularly view", and where 470 IAC 3-4.7-1(16) supplies a hard definition — "'Conspicuous place' means a place that is easily visible and at eye level viewed daily by the parents." No such definition exists anywhere in 470 IAC 3-1.1; the homes rule's twenty-three definitional sections, 470 IAC 3-1.1-1 through 470 IAC 3-1.1-23, do not include one. In practice FSSA's own Interpretative Guide for child care home rules closes the gap by assessment method rather than by text, instructing the consultant to "Observe to determine if the license is prominently displayed in the home in order that parents can review it." Treat that as the operative standard, because your consultant does: an entryway, a hallway by the sign-in sheet, or the wall where parents collect their child. Three companion provisions decide whether the certificate on your wall is the right one. Section 29.5(a) makes a home licence valid for two years unless revoked, suspended by the CDFC or voluntarily surrendered; 29.5(c) makes it "valid only for the name and location on the license" and non-transferable; and IC 12-17.2-5-12(b)(3) makes it "the property of the division", which is why 470 IAC 3-1.1-29 relicensure and IC 12-17.2-5-14(e) both contemplate you handing the paper back. The same logic governs a licence whose status has changed. IC 12-17.2-5-14(c) provides that "An existing license is invalidated when a probationary license is issued" and 14(e) that "Upon receipt of a probationary license, the licensee shall return to the division the previously issued license", so from that day the probationary certificate is the current licence and the one that hangs; FSSA's Interpretative Guide for child care center rules states the parallel expectation for centres in terms — the original goes back within ten calendar days and "The probationary license shall be posted in a prominent place regularly viewed by parents." A provisional licence under IC 12-17.2-5-13, defined at 470 IAC 3-1.1-14, capped at one year and reviewed every three months, works the same way. The recurring citation on Indiana home inspections is not an absent licence but a superseded one — the prior term's certificate still framed on the wall after renewal, or a photocopy displayed while the original sits in a filing cabinet. Display the current original, at the address printed on it, and take the old one down the day the new one arrives.
• CHANGES IN LICENCE STATUS, THE DIVISION'S COMPLAINT NUMBER AND WEBSITE, AND YOUR COUNTY CCR&R NUMBER — POSTED AND ALSO HANDED OUT. This is the posting requirement Indiana home providers miss most often, because it lives nowhere in 470 IAC 3-1.1: it is pure statute. IC 12-17.2-5-12(e) provides that "A licensee shall publicly display and make available, as a handout, written documentation of: (1) any changes in the status of the licensee's license; and (2) a telephone number and an Internet site where information may be obtained from the division regarding: (A) the current status of the licensee's license; (B) any complaints filed with the division concerning the licensee; and (C) violations of this article by the licensee; and (3) a telephone number of the office of the Indiana child care resource and referral program of the county in which the child care home is located." Note the double duty — "publicly display AND make available, as a handout". A poster alone does not satisfy it and a line in the parent handbook alone does not satisfy it; the Indiana General Assembly required both a wall version and a take-away version. An identically worded provision sits in the centres chapter, IC 12-17.2-4, differing only in that it says "child care center" — which is why consultant checklists written for centres carry this duty and checklists written for homes frequently do not. The figures you must display are verifiable and were confirmed on the agency's own contact page as served on 26 August 2026: the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning takes complaints and concerns at 877-511-1144, offers an online complaint form, and accepts anonymous complaints; licence status, inspection reports and cited violations for every Indiana programme are published at in.gov/fssa/childcarefinder, the site FSSA labels "View Inspection Reports". The same 877-511-1144 number is hard-coded into the centre rule at 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(c)(8) as "The child care information line", which is useful corroboration that it is the number the division itself expects to see posted. The county resource and referral office is the third element and the one most often left blank; Indiana routes CCR&R through the regional network reachable from brighterfuturesindiana.org, and you must name YOUR county's office, not a statewide number. Get all three on one sheet, pin it beside the licence, and keep a stack of the same sheet where parents sign in.
• EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NUMBERS — KEPT BY THE TELEPHONE, NOT POSTED IN A CONSPICUOUS PLACE. The homes rule is precise and narrow. 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(e) says: "The caregiver shall keep the phone numbers of the ambulance, police, fire department, poison control center, and nearest hospital by the telephone." Five numbers, one location, and the operative verb is KEEP BY, not POST IN A CONSPICUOUS PLACE. The distinction is not academic. For centres, 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(c) says "Staff shall post by the telephone the name and address of the child care center and a list of emergency telephone numbers as follows: (1) Fire department. (2) Police department. (3) Ambulance. (4) Nearest hospital. (5) Poison control. (6) The county child protective services number, 1-800-800-5556. (7) The institutional abuse hotline number, 1-800-562-2407. (8) The child care information line, 1-877-511-1144." Eight items for a centre, five for a home; a centre must also post its own name and street address by the phone, a home need not. If you run a licensed home and you copy the centre list off the internet you will have posted three numbers the rule does not require of you — harmless — but if you copy a home checklist that has been "modernised" by dropping the nearest hospital you will have dropped one the rule does require. Two practical points. First, 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(e) does not specify WHICH poison control number, so the consultant will accept the national Poison Help line that serves Indiana; what she will not accept is a blank line or a number that rings nowhere, and she will test it. Second, 470 IAC 3-1.1-45(c) obliges you to "maintain a working telephone in the child care home" and to "inform the COFC of any change in telephone number", so the wall card and the working line are inspected together: an unreachable landline with a beautiful laminated card beside it is still a citation under 45(c). The child abuse and neglect hotline is NOT on the homes list — 800-800-5556, confirmed as the Department of Child Services reporting number on FSSA's own contact page as served on 26 August 2026 — but every Indiana adult is a mandated reporter and 470 IAC 3-1.1-35(a) requires you to report immediately, so post it anyway. Posting it is prudence, not compliance; the five in 44(e) are compliance.
• THE WRITTEN EVACUATION PLAN IS KEPT ON FILE, NOT POSTED, AND INDIANA NEVER ASKS A HOME FOR A FLOOR DIAGRAM. Two provisions of 470 IAC 3-1.1 carry the entire obligation and neither one contains the word "post". 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(r) says "The caregiver shall have a written plan for evacuating in case of fire or other emergencies." 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a) then lists what "The licensee shall maintain ... in the child care home for review by the COFC", and item (14) of that list is "Written plan of evacuation for the child care home in case of emergency." Maintained in the home, for review by the county office of family and children consultant — that is a records duty, discharged by a plan in your licensing binder that the consultant can be handed on request. There is no requirement to display it, no requirement to put a copy in each room used for child care, and no requirement anywhere in 470 IAC 3-1.1, 470 IAC 3-1.2 or 470 IAC 3-1.3 to draw an evacuation floor diagram, mark exit routes on a plan, or post a "you are here" map. If a consultant, a template vendor or a training packet tells you otherwise, they have imported the centre rule. Read what the centre rule actually says, because the contrast is stark: 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(b)(5) requires a centre to post "Fire and emergency disaster routes in each child care room" and 19(b)(6) requires "Disaster and shelter procedures in each child care room", while 470 IAC 3-4.7-92(b) requires a centre to "post written disaster, evacuation, and shelter procedures for an internal and an external disaster" in "(1) All areas used by children. (2) Kitchen. (3) Offices. (4) Hallways." Four categories of location, room by room. None of it reaches a Class I or Class II child care home. What a home is separately obliged to do about egress is physical, not documentary: 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(a) demands two remotely located means of egress, 46(c) two means of escape from every room used for child care, 46(d) exit doors "operable from the inside without the use of a key or any special knowledge", and 46(g) "Exits shall not be blocked in the child care home." Those are the items an inspector walks. Write the plan, file it, rehearse it — and do not spend money on posted diagrams Indiana does not ask a home to produce.
• THERE IS NO TORNADO SHELTER PLAN AND NO TORNADO DRILL IN THE INDIANA HOMES RULE — SAY IT PLAINLY BEFORE YOU PRINT ONE. Search 470 IAC 3-1.1 end to end and the word tornado appears nowhere. 470 IAC 3-1.1-46 is titled "Fire prevention" and its drill provision, 46(s), is one sentence: "The caregiver shall conduct and document quarterly fire drills." Fire drills. Quarterly. Nothing about severe weather, nothing about a designated shelter area, nothing about a shelter-in-place procedure and therefore nothing to post about any of them. Tornado enters Indiana child care regulation in exactly one place relevant to a home, and it is not a posting: 470 IAC 3-4.8-1(a)(1)(C) lists building damage due to "a tornado" among the conditions that pose an immediate threat to life and may subject "a child care center, child care home, or child care ministry" to an emergency or temporary closure order — a rule about the division shutting you down, amended by final rule filed 8 November 2024 (20241204-IR-470240251FRA) and touched again by provisional rule LSA #25-278 (20250521-IR-470250278ERA). Centres are treated differently and that is where the tornado material consultants quote comes from: 470 IAC 3-4.7-92(b) makes a centre post "written disaster, evacuation, and shelter procedures for an internal and an external disaster" in all areas used by children, the kitchen, offices and hallways, and 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(b)(6) makes it post "Disaster and shelter procedures in each child care room". A licensed home owes none of that. The closest the homes rule comes to a severe-weather duty is 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(q): "The licensee shall identify the location and operation of the gas, electric, and water shut-offs and keep accessible the gas, electric, and water shut-offs in case of emergency." Identify and keep accessible — the rule does not say label them, does not say post a diagram of them, and does not say tag the panel. A consultant may reasonably ask you to point to each shut-off and describe how to operate it; that is an interview, not a placard. Designating a basement or interior room as your storm shelter and writing it into your 46(r) evacuation plan is sensible practice and it is what a prudent Indiana home does. It is not, on the text served today, a posted requirement, and it should never be sold to you as one.
• THE FIRE DRILL LOG AND EVERY OTHER RECORD IN SECTION 32 ARE KEPT FOR THE CONSULTANT, NOT DISPLAYED FOR PARENTS. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a) opens with the controlling verb: "The licensee shall maintain the following documentation in the child care home for review by the COFC". Fourteen numbered items follow, and not one of them is a posting. The drill log is item (13), "Record of dates of quarterly fire drills which shall be maintained for at least two (2) years", and it pairs with 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(s), "The caregiver shall conduct and document quarterly fire drills." Read the cadence carefully, because it is where money is lost: QUARTERLY, meaning four drills a licence year, not the monthly cycle many multi-state templates impose, and the retention is TWO YEARS, which is longer than the two-year licence term under 470 IAC 3-1.1-29.5(a) and therefore spans your relicensure inspection. Record the date of each drill; the rule specifies dates and nothing more, so a dated line per drill is compliant, while an elaborate form with evacuation times you never fill in is a self-inflicted citation. The same "maintain, do not post" logic governs the rest of section 32: attendance records under 32(a)(11), "Daily attendance records for children in the child care home which shall be maintained for at least two (2) years at the child care home site"; criminal history documentation under 32(a)(3); the sex offender registry check on the applicant, the applicant's spouse and others living in the home under 32(a)(4); first aid, universal precautions and annual CPR documentation under 32(a)(5); enrolment forms under 32(a)(6); emergency medical releases under 32(a)(7); the thirty-day health statement under 32(a)(8); away-from-home permission slips under 32(a)(9); the signed discipline policy under 32(a)(10); rabies vaccination records for animals under 32(a)(12); and the written evacuation plan under 32(a)(14). Section 46(j) adds one more record outside the section 32 list — for any fireplace used while children are present, "Licensee shall retain a written record of the inspections and cleanings". Section 32(b) then sets the access rule: "Upon request of the COFC, the licensee shall make these records available for review". Upon request. That phrase is the whole architecture of Indiana home licensing paperwork, and it is the reason a binder beats a bulletin board here.
• THE DISCIPLINE POLICY IS HANDED TO THE PARENT AND SIGNED BY THE PARENT — IT IS NOT POSTED. Three provisions of 470 IAC 3-1.1 act together and every one of them describes a transaction with an individual parent rather than a display. 470 IAC 3-1.1-41(a): "The licensee shall provide the parent or legal guardian with a written copy of the discipline policy of the child care home." 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(a), which governs what must happen "Prior to acceptance of children", requires the caregiver to have the parent or legal guardian "(3) sign a copy of the licensee's written discipline policy". 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(10) then makes the signed artefact a record you maintain in the home for the consultant: "Written statement of the licensee's discipline policy signed by the child's parent or legal guardian." Provide, sign, retain. Nowhere post. A home that frames its discipline policy in the hallway but cannot produce a signed copy for each enrolled child has satisfied nothing and failed 37(a)(3) and 32(a)(10) at once — and the signature is per child, so a new enrolment mid-year needs a new signature before the child is accepted, not afterwards. What the policy must contain is set negatively by 470 IAC 3-1.1-41(b): "The following behavior shall be prohibited by all direct child care providers: (1) Cruel, harsh, or unusual punishment. (2) Withdrawal or the threat of withdrawal of scheduled meals or snacks, rest, or bathroom opportunities." "Discipline" is itself a defined term at 470 IAC 3-1.1-9. Section 37(a) carries two further pre-acceptance duties that are likewise transactional and are frequently mistaken for postings: 37(a)(4) requires the caregiver to have the parent "see all areas of the home and property to be used for child care" — a walk-through, not a floor plan on the wall — and 37(f) requires that "Caregiver shall inform the parent or legal guardian that unscheduled visits by a custodial parent or guardian shall be permitted at any time the child care home is in operation." Informing is the duty; an "OPEN DOOR POLICY" sign is a courtesy. Indiana also runs a separate suspension and expulsion policy expectation through CCDF, for which OECOSL publishes guidance and a prevention checklist, but that reaches you through your voucher agreement, not through 470 IAC 3-1.1, and it too is a written-policy duty rather than a posted one.
• THE SMOKE-FREE AIR SIGNS ARE THE ONE REAL SIGN A LICENSED INDIANA HOME MUST HANG THAT DOES NOT COME FROM 470 IAC 3-1.1. The homes rule contains no prohibition-posting requirement at all. That is a genuine gap against the centre rule, where 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(a)(5) requires a centre to prominently post, in a place regularly viewed by parents, the "Prohibitions against: (A) smoking; (B) use of alcohol; (C) use or possession of firearms, unless required as a condition of employment; and (D) use or possession of illegal substances or unauthorized potentially toxic substances; in the child care center", and where FSSA's own threshold of compliance makes failure to post that statement evidence of noncompliance. For a home, 470 IAC 3-1.1 handles the same hazards physically instead: 470 IAC 3-1.1-48(e) provides that "When children are present in the child care home, caregiver shall keep all ammunition and firearms in a locked area that is inaccessible to children at all times", and 48(c) requires poisonous or hazardous materials — cleaning supplies, detergents, insect sprays, medication — to be kept in areas inaccessible to children. Locked and inaccessible, not announced on a placard. The signage that does bind a home comes from outside Title 470 entirely: Indiana's statewide smoke-free air law, in force since July 2012, which FSSA applies to homes, centres and ministries alike. The agency's Interpretative Guide for child care home rules states the operational reading a consultant uses: because a child care facility is intended for use by individuals younger than eighteen, "even if it is your own residence, smoking is banned within 8 feet of the building at all times", there shall never be ashtrays or smoking paraphernalia inside or within eight feet of any public entrance, "At least two (2) signs must be posted inside the residence or facility that states 'Smoking is Prohibited' or other similar language", and signs reading "State Law Prohibits Smoking within 8 feet of this Entrance" or equivalent "must be posted at all public entrances (anywhere that anyone who is not an employee can enter and exit the facility)". Two interior signs, plus one at every public entrance. This is the item most often missing at a first Indiana home inspection, precisely because nobody looking only at 470 IAC 3-1.1 would ever find it.
• THERE IS NO ILLNESS EXCLUSION POLICY AND NO COMMUNICABLE DISEASE NOTICE TO POST IN AN INDIANA LICENSED HOME. What 470 IAC 3-1.1 requires when a child falls sick is three actions, not a document and not a display. 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(d): "If a child is ill, direct child care providers shall: (1) care for the child in an area separate from the other children; (2) notify the child's parent or legal guardian; and (3) monitor the child until the parent or legal guardian arrives." That is the whole of it. The rule never defines an excludable condition, never sets a fever threshold, never sets a return-to-care interval, and never requires you to write an exclusion policy — still less to post one where parents can read it. Anyone selling an Indiana home provider a laminated "when to keep your child home" chart is selling a good idea, not a regulation. The centre rule again shows what a posted illness duty looks like when Indiana wants one: 470 IAC 3-4.7-14 requires that when more than one child in a centre has been diagnosed with a communicable disease, "The center shall immediately notify all parents of the children and all staff members that have been exposed by posting a notice in a conspicuous place in the child care center or by giving a personal note to each parent and staff member" — and even there the rule offers posting OR a personal note as alternatives, and FSSA's Interpretative Guide for child care center rules reads "immediately" as "the same day". A home has no equivalent provision. Three neighbouring home requirements are commonly confused with an exclusion policy and are worth separating. 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(b) requires a written statement from the parent, signed by a physician or certified nurse practitioner, within thirty days of admission, stating that the child can participate in the home's activities, that immunisations are up to date, and whether the child has allergies or chronic health conditions — a file document under 32(a)(8). 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(f) governs medication, requiring prior written parental permission, written dosage instructions, labelling with the child's name, and a record of date, time and dosage given — again a record. 470 IAC 3-1.1-34 requires the provider's own initial physical and annual Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray. All kept, none posted.
• NO MENU HAS TO BE POSTED WHERE MEALS ARE SERVED IN AN INDIANA LICENSED HOME — THE NUTRITION RULE IS TWO SENTENCES LONG. 470 IAC 3-1.1-42 reads, in its entirety: "(a) Appropriately timed, nutritious meals and snacks shall be made available in such quantity as to meet the needs of each child. (b) Drinking water shall be available at all times." There is no weekly menu, no advance planning period, no posting location, no serving-size disclosure and no requirement to keep menus on file. The menu duty everyone quotes belongs to centres, and it is worth reading in full so you can see precisely how far it is from the homes rule: 470 IAC 3-4.7-76(a) provides that "A current weekly menu shall be planned one (1) week in advance and posted as follows: (1) In a conspicuous place for all parents to review. (2) In the kitchen."; 76(b) that "Menus shall show serving sizes, specific food items, and serving times for all snacks and meals"; 76(c) that food service staff record menu changes as served and keep menus on file for one month; and 76(d) that "A notation of any special dietary exceptions for children shall be posted in the kitchen and where meals and snacks are served." Two posting locations, a one-week planning horizon, a one-month retention, and a separate kitchen posting for dietary exceptions — none of which the Indiana homes rule imposes. The centre chapter adds 470 IAC 3-4.7-82(a), "The center shall post information regarding children's special diets", and 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(a)(4) puts "Weekly menus" on the list of items a centre must prominently post in a place regularly viewed by parents. If you take Child Care and Development Fund vouchers, or you claim meal reimbursement through a food programme sponsor, that agreement may separately require menu records — such an obligation runs through the programme contract and its own monitoring, not through 470 IAC 3-1.1, and a licensing consultant citing you under 42 for an unposted menu is citing a rule that does not say what she thinks it says. Posting a weekly menu is excellent practice, wins parents, and costs nothing. It is not, in a Class I or Class II Indiana child care home, a licensing requirement.
• NO DAILY SCHEDULE MUST BE POSTED, AND NO CHILD-TO-STAFF RATIO CHART EITHER. Both are centre requirements that consultants and template vendors routinely graft onto homes. The homes provision on programme is 470 IAC 3-1.1-38, and it asks for activities, not paperwork: "(a) The caregiver shall provide activities according to the age, developmental needs, interests, and number of children in care while including both active and quiet play which may consist of safe, age-appropriate toys, games, and equipment for both indoor and outdoor play. (b) Opportunity shall be provided for children to play outdoors daily except when: (1) the severity of the weather poses a safety or health hazard; or (2) when there is a health related reason documented by a parent, legal guardian, or physician for a child to remain indoors." There is no written schedule, no outline, no posting. Compare 470 IAC 3-4.7-58, which requires a centre to "provide a written basic schedule of activities designed to meet the developmental needs of the children served" and to "post a general outline" of it, with FSSA's Interpretative Guide for child care center rules directing consultants to check each child care room for the posted schedule. Likewise on ratios: 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(a)(3) puts "A child/staff ratio chart" on the centre's prominent-posting list and 470 IAC 3-4.7-47 requires directors to "prominently post the following child/staff ratio chart in each class" area, with the guide adding that any granted ratio variance must itself be posted in the affected classroom. A home carries the ratios but not the chart. 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5 fixes maximum capacity in a Class I home at twelve children at any one time plus three school-year children enrolled in at least Grade 1, sets the applicable ratios — 6:1 for a birth-to-24-month mix, of whom two of the six must be at least sixteen months and walking, otherwise 4:1; 10:1 for mixed birth-to-six groups with no more than three under sixteen months and walking; 12:1 for three to ten years — and provides at 36.5(d) that "The ratio shall include all unrelated children present in the home". 470 IAC 3-1.3-1 extends the same body of rules to a Class II home serving more than twelve and up to sixteen children. Know the numbers cold; you do not have to hang them on a wall.
• THERE IS NO MANDATED REPORTER NOTICE TO POST — AND THE RULE THAT CREATES THE REPORTING DUTY CITES A STATUTE REPEALED IN 1995. 470 IAC 3-1.1-35(a), as served today, reads: "The caregiver shall report immediately suspected physical abuse, sexual abuse, child neglect, or child exploitation as required by IC 31-6-11-3 to child protection services (CPS) or local law enforcement." IC 31-6 was repealed by P.L.268-1995, section 17, effective 1 July 1995; the codified rule has carried a dead cross-reference for three decades and was readopted with it intact on 13 November 2019 (20191211-IR-470190490RFA). The live duty is Indiana's universal mandatory reporting law at IC 31-33-5, which obliges any individual who has reason to believe a child is a victim of child abuse or neglect to make an immediate oral report. The practical consequence for this field is simple: because the duty is universal and personal, Indiana imposes no posted mandated-reporter notice on a licensed child care home, and none of 470 IAC 3-1.1, 470 IAC 3-1.2 or 470 IAC 3-1.3 requires a reporting poster, a hotline placard or a signed acknowledgement displayed to parents. What is required is training and a consequence. 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(b)(3) requires every direct child care provider, including volunteers, to receive training in "Procedures for preventing, detecting, and reporting suspected child abuse and neglect" within thirty days of starting employment or volunteer work — evidenced in the staff file under 470 IAC 3-1.1-32, not on a wall. 470 IAC 3-1.1-35(b) then sets the stake: "A substantiated case of abuse or neglect in a child care home constitutes full and sufficient grounds for denial or revocation of the child care home license." The number to call is 800-800-5556, confirmed on FSSA's Office of Early Childhood contact page as served on 26 August 2026, which states that "Any person who suspects that child abuse or neglect may have occurred in a child care program has a duty to report to the Department of Child Services at 800-800-5556". That same number is written into the centre rule at 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(c)(6) as an item a centre must post by the telephone. A home is not ordered to post it. Post it anyway, beside the five numbers 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(e) does require.
• "INDIVIDUAL CHILD'S FOOD ALLERGIES SHALL BE POSTED PROMINENTLY" IS NOT A RULE IN INDIANA — IT IS A BEST-PRACTICE LINE THE AGENCY'S OWN GUIDE DISCLAIMS. This sentence appears verbatim in FSSA's Interpretative Guide for child care home rules, and it is quoted back at home providers constantly, usually with the implication that an unposted allergy list is a citation. Read where it sits. The guide is divided, and its own opening page says so: "The final section of the Interpretative Guide is the Best Practice Training Resource section. This section provides information for licensees who wish to exceed the minimum standards set in the rule. The Best Practice section is not intended to be used to determine compliance." The allergy-posting sentence falls inside that Best Practice Training Resources section, in a passage about special care plans, caregiver training on exposure prevention, medication storage and carrying a written allergy plan on field trips. It is aspirational text, expressly excluded from compliance determination by the document that contains it. The binding allergy provision in 470 IAC 3-1.1 is a file document, not a display: 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(b) requires that within thirty days of a child's admission the licensee receive a written statement from the parent or legal guardian, signed by a physician or a certified nurse practitioner, stating that the child can participate in the home's activities, that immunisations are up to date, and "(3) Whether the child has allergies or any chronic health conditions." 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(8) then makes that statement one of the records maintained in the home for review by the COFC. Any medication given for a reaction falls under 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(f), which demands prior written parental permission, written instructions on dosage, time and reason, labelling with the child's name, and a record of what was administered. Centres, once more, do have a display duty — 470 IAC 3-4.7-82(a), "The center shall post information regarding children's special diets", and 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(b)(3) requiring a copy of infant feeding plans in each infant room. Homes do not. Posting a discreet allergy card in the kitchen is sound practice and protects a child; asserting that Indiana law compels it in a licensed home is false, and it is the single most-repeated false posting claim in this state.
• THE INSPECTION REPORT AND THE CONSULTANT'S FINDINGS ARE PUBLISHED BY THE STATE ONLINE — YOU ARE NOT ORDERED TO POST THEM ON YOUR WALL. Neither 470 IAC 3-1.1 nor the child care home chapter of the statute, IC 12-17.2-5, contains any provision requiring a licensed home to display its most recent inspection report, its plan of correction, or a consultant's visit summary. What the rules require is an inspection and a response. 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5 governs the annual inspection; FSSA's published description of the monitoring process states that "Once the inspection is completed, the program will receive a copy of the inspection report and a customer service survey via email", that where the programme is out of compliance "the consultant prepares and sends a Plan of Correction or a Plan of Improvement to the program", that the licensee "has 10 days to respond on the plan with how they have or will correct the non-compliance", and that programmes cited for CCDF non-compliances have twenty-one days. Ten days and twenty-one days are the deadlines that cost money here, not a posting. Publication is the state's job, and it is a federal obligation discharged by the state rather than by you: the same FSSA document states that "Federal law requires states and territories to post the results of child care monitoring and inspection reports online. For Indiana these can be found at Child Care Finder", at in.gov/fssa/carefinder, and the agency's own navigation carries a "View Inspection Reports" entry pointing to in.gov/fssa/childcarefinder. FSSA went further in November 2018, writing to CCDF programmes that "The federal rule requires States to prominently display specific health and safety violations" and that Child Care Finder now shows "a red banner that states 'Critical Health and Safety Violations. Please view the inspections tab for further violations.'" The prominent display is on the state's website, about you, and you cannot take it down. Two consequences follow. First, do not buy a frame for your inspection report; buy the ten-day discipline instead. Second, understand that the display you are obliged to make about compliance is the one in IC 12-17.2-5-12(e) — the division's telephone number and internet site where a parent can look up your licence status, complaints filed against you and violations — which is precisely a pointer to the state's published record.
• THE REGULATIONS THEMSELVES DO NOT HAVE TO BE POSTED, SHOWN TO PARENTS, OR EVEN KEPT ON THE PREMISES — AND ONLY ONE PUBLICATION IS COMPULSORY. Nothing in 470 IAC 3-1.1, 470 IAC 3-1.2, 470 IAC 3-1.3 or the child care home chapter IC 12-17.2-5 requires a licensed Indiana home to hold a copy of the licensing rules, to display them, or to make them available to a parent on request. That is a genuine and slightly surprising gap — several states impose exactly that duty, and Indiana does not. The nearest thing is a training obligation aimed at your staff rather than at parents: 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(b)(1) requires every direct child care provider, including volunteers, to be trained within thirty days of starting employment or volunteer work on "The child care home inspection checklist", the instrument OECOSL consultants score you against and publish as a state form. Train on the checklist; the rule does not ask you to pin it up. The one publication 470 IAC 3-1.1 does compel you to keep is medical: 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(a), "The child care home must keep a Red Cross First Aid Manual or its equivalent in the child care home", with 44(b) requiring a first aid kit "as recommended by the American Red Cross First Aid Manual or its equivalent" — a book on a shelf, inspected by being produced, not displayed. Two related distinctions belong here. First aid DIRECTIONS are a centre posting only: 470 IAC 3-4.7-91(a) makes a centre "post first aid directions for the care of poisoning, seizures, hemorrhaging, artificial respiration, choking, and shock in each room or area occupied by children", and 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(b)(9) repeats it as "Approved first aid directives in each child care area". A home keeps the manual; a centre posts the directions. Second, the parent-facing document Indiana does compel is not the rulebook but the pointer to the regulator: IC 12-17.2-5-12(e) obliges you to publicly display and hand out the division's telephone number and internet site for your licence status, complaints and violations, plus your county resource and referral number. Indiana's design is consistent — parents are directed to the state's public record rather than to the state's rulebook, and the provider is never made the librarian.
• TWO POSTINGS THAT EXIST OUTSIDE THE LICENSED-HOME RULE ENTIRELY: THE CCDF CERTIFICATE, AND THE UNLICENSED REGISTERED MINISTRY NOTICE. Search 470 IAC 3-1.1 for either and you will find nothing, which is exactly why they surprise people. The first binds you if you take vouchers. FSSA's published description of the monitoring process for child care programmes in Indiana states that all programmes must document CCDF provider eligibility, that "Once in compliance, the program may be issued a CCDF certificate to display in their programs", and then, in the sentence that matters, "Providers are required to post the certificate in a place that is visible for parents to see in the home/facility." Visible for parents, in the home. Its source is the Child Care and Development Fund provider agreement and the eligibility standards enforced through it — 470 IAC 3-18 on voucher programme provider eligibility, and IC 12-17.2-3.5 on eligibility to receive reimbursement — not Title 470 licensing, and its enforcement runs on a different clock: a CCDF non-compliance carries a twenty-one day response window against ten days for a licensing non-compliance. A lapsed CCDF certificate left on display is worse than none, because a parent is choosing you on the strength of it. The second binds a different operator altogether, and it is the sharpest posting requirement in Indiana child care law. An unlicensed registered child care ministry, exempt from licensure under IC 12-17.2-6, must display an inspection notice: IC 12-17.2-6-6 provides that upon completion of the required inspections a notice signed by consultants from the division and from the division of fire and building safety "shall be placed in a conspicuous place in the child care ministry", in substantially the prescribed form beginning "THIS UNLICENSED REGISTERED CHILD CARE MINISTRY has been inspected and complies with state rules concerning health and sanitation in child care ministries", with a second block on fire and life safety. FSSA's inspection checklist for ministries scores this as item 1b, "Notice of Inspection/Registration posted in a conspicuous place (IC 12-17.2-6-6)". Note the counterpart that is NOT posted: the acknowledgement at IC 12-17.2-6-7, "I understand that this child care ministry is not licensed under the laws of Indiana", must be signed by each parent at enrolment and "kept on file at the child care ministry until two (2) years after the last day the child attends" — a signed record, never a wall notice. And where a ministry falls out of compliance, agency policy has the Registered Child Care Section Manager issue a "Certificate of NOT IN COMPLIANCE" that replaces the Certificate of Registration and "must be posted in a conspicuous place, visible to the public" for up to ninety days.

Enrollment forms for each child

• CHILD CARE HOME LICENCE APPLICATION — there is no paper State Form for it any more. 470 IAC 3-1.1-27 still reads "The application for a license to operate a child care home shall be submitted by the applicant every two (2) years to the COFC on forms provided for that purpose by the CDFR", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a) still requires the applicant to "(1) Attend an orientation training conducted or approved by the CDFR", "(2) Comply with the application procedures required by this rule" and "(3) Submit to the COFC a completed and signed application for a child care home license, including attachments necessary to demonstrate compliance with this rule". Read that literally and you will look for a county office that no longer takes it: 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.3 defines COFC as "the county office of family and children in the county in which the child care home is located" and 470 IAC 3-1.1-4.5 defines CDFR as "the central office of the Indiana division of family resources" — two bodies that no longer license child care. The function sits today with the Family and Social Services Administration, Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL), and its instruction, on the Become a Child Care Provider page as it serves on 26 August 2026, is four steps and no mailing address: complete Orientation 1 (start-up process and information) in Indiana Learning Paths at I-LEAD, complete Orientation 2 for child care home providers (preparation for licensure) in the same system, "Submit your application online at I-LEAD", then pass the onsite inspection from OECOSL. I-LEAD is the provider portal at secure.in.gov/apps/fssa/childcare/portal/home; the same portal is where the CCDF provider eligibility application is downloaded and where your background check results are read by the consultant. Two traps follow. First, the two orientations are a precondition of the application, not homework you do while it is pending — 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a)(1) puts attendance before submission, and applicants who create the I-LEAD application first sit on an incomplete file. Second, the licence is biennial, not annual: 470 IAC 3-1.1-29.5(a) provides that "a child care home license is valid for two (2) years unless revoked, suspended by the CDFR, or voluntarily cancelled", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-27 makes the renewal application itself a two-year event. Under 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(c) the division must approve or deny within sixty (60) days of receipt, and under 470 IAC 3-1.1-31 "an incomplete application shall be returned to the applicant with a notation of the omissions" — returned without prejudice, but returned, and the sixty-day clock restarts.
• ATTESTATION, STATE FORM 48629 — the sworn criminal-conviction statement that both the initial and the renewal application hang on. 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a)(4) requires the applicant to "Submit a statement attesting that the applicant has not been: (A) convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor relating to the health or safety of a child; and (B) convicted of: (i) a felony; or (ii) a misdemeanor not relating to the health and safety of children during the pendency of this application." 470 IAC 3-1.1-29(a)(4) repeats the identical language for relicensure, so this is not a one-off document you sign at start-up — you sign a fresh one every two years alongside the renewal application. OECOSL publishes it as "Attestation - State Form 48629" on the Licensed homes tab of the OECOSL Forms page as that page serves on 26 August 2026, and the identical State Form 48629 appears on the registered ministry and legally licensed exempt tabs, which is why providers who moved between programme types often believe they already have one on file; the attestation is site- and licence-specific and does not travel. Note what the rule does and does not say. Subparagraph (B)(ii) is an undertaking about the future — it attests that you have not been convicted during the pendency of the application — so a conviction that lands between signature and licensure is a breach of the attestation itself, not merely a new fact for the background check. The attestation does not replace the background check: 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b)(1) and (2) separately oblige the office to "conduct a criminal history check of the applicant and the applicant's spouse" and to check the applicant, the spouse "and any others living in the home" against the sex offender registry under IC 5-2-12 et seq., and 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(3) obliges the licensee to keep "documentation of criminal history checks on employees, volunteers, and all household members who are at least eighteen (18) years of age" in the home. The expensive mistake is treating the attestation as the background-check paperwork and arriving at the pre-licensing visit with a signed Attestation, no fingerprint results, and no State Form 53323 consents for the adults living in the house.
• CONSENT TO RELEASE INFORMATION, STATE FORM 53323 — one per adult, and the household is included. The OECOSL Background Check Requirements page, as it serves on 26 August 2026, states that "All child care staff members must complete and submit State Form 53323 - Consent to Release Information" for licensed child care centers, licensed child care homes, unlicensed registered ministries and CCDF legally licensed exempt providers, and defines a child care staff member as "prospective employees, current employees, contract employees, self-employed individuals, volunteers, and any individual whose responsibilities include caring for or supervising children or who has unsupervised access to children", adding expressly that "For licensed family child care homes, background check requirements also apply to the caregiver and all household members age 18 or older." The full title is exactly "Consent to release information for licensed centers, licensed homes, unlicensed registered ministries and CCDF LLEPs - State Form 53323"; the same number, unchanged, is listed on all four provider tabs of the OECOSL Forms page. The regulatory hook is 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(3) and (a)(4), which make documentation of the criminal history checks and of the sex offender registry check part of the documentation the licensee must maintain in the home for review. Two operational details are where applicants lose weeks. First, the consent is not a one-and-done: the Background Check Requirements page states the fingerprint-based check must be completed every three (3) years, and that the Indiana Child Protection Index (CPI) and the Indiana Sex Offender Registry (SOR) checks "must be completed annually" — so consents and registry re-checks are an annual chore between biennial renewals. Second, the Home Staff File Resource Sheet published by OECOSL and dated 8/10/2026 flags the practical reality: for both staff and household members the entry reads "Consent form (consultant will check this based on info from I-LEAD)", and adds for household members "If under 18 years of age form must be signed by a parent/guardian." In other words the paper you keep in the file is not what the consultant reads; the consultant reads the I-LEAD record, and if the consent was never processed in the portal your on-site copy proves nothing. A separate provisional-status rule applies to new employees who may begin work while components are pending, but only "under direct visual supervision at all times" by someone with a qualified result from the Division within the past three years.
• FINGERPRINT-BASED NATIONAL CRIMINAL HISTORY CHECK — an appointment, not a State Form, and the juvenile version is a separate document. OECOSL's Provider Fingerprinting Services page, as it serves on 26 August 2026, states that "As of June 1, 2013, all child care providers (including all applicants, staff, and volunteers) are required to get national criminal history checks" and that "Providers are required to go through IdentoGO by MorphoTrust to obtain these checks", the state having contracted with that vendor for statewide fingerprinting effective 8 May 2009. There is no Indiana State Form number for the fingerprint submission itself: what OECOSL publishes is a scheduling flyer (IN_Scheduling_Flyer_FSSA.pdf) with the service code and registration instructions, a separate "juvenile criminal history check instructions" document for staff and volunteers under the age of eighteen, and a "Requirements and Record Challenge for National Criminal History Checks" document for obtaining or contesting the result. The Background Check Requirements page lists the four components of a complete check: federal fingerprint-based criminal history check; Indiana fingerprint-based criminal history check, including applicable juvenile criminal history; Indiana Child Protection Index; and Indiana Sex Offender Registry — with "Additional out-of-state checks" for anyone who lived outside Indiana in the applicable review period. Renewal is every three (3) years, and a new fingerprint check is also triggered "if an individual has not been employed by an Indiana child care provider for more than 180 consecutive days". The trap peculiar to a family child care home is who must go. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(3) requires documentation of criminal history checks on "employees, volunteers, and all household members who are at least eighteen (18) years of age", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b)(2) requires the sex offender registry check on the applicant, the spouse "and any others living in the home" under IC 5-2-12 et seq. An adult son who sleeps in the basement and never touches a child is inside this requirement; the eighteenth birthday of a teenager already living in the house creates a new fingerprint obligation mid-licence. One further point matters if you moved from another state: the same OECOSL page states that "Indiana is not a National Fingerprint File (NFF) state and is not a National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact state", so an Indiana result is not portable and another state's result will not be accepted in its place.
• SUBSTANCE ABUSE SCREENING TEST CONSENT FORM — a statutory requirement that is not in 470 IAC 3-1.1 at all, which is exactly why applicants miss it. The form OECOSL publishes for licensed homes, headed "Substance Abuse Screening Test Consent Form" over the 402 W. Washington St., Room W362, MS02, Indianapolis address and bearing the 2025 revision label, recites its own authority on its face: "Indiana Code 12-17.2-3.5-12.1 (Legally Licensed Exempt & Child Care Ministries accepting CCDF), 12-17.2-5-3.5 (Licensed Homes), and 12-17.2-4-3.5 (Licensed Centers) requires each childcare provider to provide drug test results which do not show a presence of illegal controlled substances for themselves, all individuals residing in the home over the age of eighteen (18) and any employee or individual caring for children on their behalf prior to licensing or participation in the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program." The panel is fixed by the same text: "This drug test shall test for Amphetamines, Cocaine, Opiates, PCP and THC." IC 12-17.2-5-3.5 is the licensed-home limb, and because it is statute rather than rule you will not find it by reading 470 IAC 3-1.1 end to end — the rule text was readopted in 2001 and predates the drug-testing law entirely. The consent itself is signed by the person being screened, with a tick box for "Self" or "Employee/ caregiver or Volunteer", and the signer acknowledges that "drug test results must be maintained in the regulated program and available to the Division of Family and Children" and that a positive result obliges the programme to "immediately suspend or terminate the individual's employment or volunteer services", with denial of the licence application as the consequence for a programme that does not comply. The file requirement is spelled out in OECOSL's Home Staff File Resource Sheet dated 8/10/2026: for staff, "Drug test (upon hire or volunteer, all drug screen results must have been reviewed by MRO and a signature is required on any positive results)", and for household members, "Drug test with results (18 years of age or older. Results must be reviewed by MRO and a signature for any positive results)". The recurring failure is a clinic printout with no Medical Review Officer review and no MRO signature on a non-negative — the consultant treats that as no test at all, and the household member who was tested "informally" at a walk-in clinic has to be tested again.
• PHYSICAL FORM FOR ADULT CAREGIVER, STATE FORM 49970 — due within thirty days of application, and it covers people who are not staff. 470 IAC 3-1.1-34(a) provides that "direct child care providers who work in the home more than three (3) times a month and all household members having direct contact with children in care shall have an initial physical examination by a physician or certified nurse practitioner indicating they are free of communicable disease, have no physical illness or other condition that may endanger the health or welfare of children in care, and shall have an annual Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-34(c) fixes the deadline: "The above requirements shall be met within thirty (30) days of application." 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a)(5) makes the same point from the applicant's side — within thirty days of application, submit "a written medical report, including the result of a Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray, signed by a physician or certified nurse practitioner". The corresponding documentation duty lives in 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(1): the licensee shall maintain in the home a "record of initial physical examination of direct child care providers documenting that they are free of communicable disease". OECOSL publishes the instrument as "Physical Form for Adult Caregiver - State Form 49970" on the Licensed homes tab of the OECOSL Forms page as it serves on 26 August 2026, and the Home Staff File Resource Sheet dated 8/10/2026 states the timing precisely for both categories: for staff and volunteers, "Physical (within 30 days of employment / volunteer, dated no earlier than 12 months prior to date of hire / volunteer)"; for household members who are not caregivers, "Physical (within 30 days of application)". Three details cost money. The twelve-month look-back means the physical you had eighteen months ago for another job does not count, however healthy you are. The signature must be a physician or certified nurse practitioner — a chiropractor's or a pharmacy clinic technician's will be refused. And 470 IAC 3-1.1-34(b) creates a religious exemption for direct child care providers who file a signed statement with the office, but it is not free: where an exemption has been filed, "the licensee shall provide written notice to parents or legal guardians enrolling their children in the child care home that a child care provider has filed a religious exemption statement" — a disclosure you have to build into your enrolment packet.
• ANNUAL TUBERCULOSIS DOCUMENTATION AND THE ANNUAL TUBERCULOSIS RISK/SYMPTOM SCREENING QUESTIONNAIRE — still required of licensed homes in August 2026, and the way out is a variance, not the new statute. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(2) obliges the licensee to keep in the home a "record of annual Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray of direct child care provider which documents that they are free of tuberculosis", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-34(a) makes the annual Mantoux or chest x-ray part of the medical clearance for every direct child care provider working in the home more than three times a month and every household member in direct contact with children. 470 IAC 3-1.1-29(a)(2) then makes "written verification of an annual Mantoux tuberculin test or chest x-ray as required" one of the documents the licensee must submit before relicensure. OECOSL publishes an "Annual Tuberculosis Risk/Symptom Screening Questionnaire" on the Licensed homes tab of the OECOSL Forms page; unusually for an OECOSL instrument it carries no State Form number, and its own header states it "is to be used annually when an employee or child has increased risk or a positive result occur from Tuberculosis screening using either skin testing (PPD) or blood sample (QFT-G or IGRA)", capturing the positive PPD or Quantiferon-Gold date, the last chest x-ray date with the note "result must be on file", foreign birth and travel history, and a symptom checklist beginning with chronic cough of more than three weeks. Here is the live trap, and it contradicts every 2025 headline that said Indiana dropped TB testing. OECOSL's Early Child Care and Education Legislative Changes page, as it serves on 26 August 2026, states that Senate Enrolled Act 486 removed TB testing for unlicensed registered ministries and legally licensed exempt providers, then adds: "For licensed centers and homes, TB testing requirements remain in effect under current administrative rules. However, OECOSL is in the process of updating these rules. In the interim, providers in these categories must submit a single variance per site to omit TB testing." Its FAQ repeats the point — "Yes-for now" — and warns that "centers and homes must continue to maintain documentation unless a variance has been approved." So a licensed home in 2026 has exactly two lawful files: annual TB documentation for every direct provider and qualifying household member, or an approved site variance under 470 IAC 3-1.1-49. Assuming the statute did the work for you is a citation waiting to happen.
• PHYSICAL FORM FOR CHILD, STATE FORM 49969, AND THE SECTION 37(b) HEALTH STATEMENT — thirty days after admission, signed by a clinician, not by you. 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(b) provides that "within thirty (30) days after admission of the child, the licensee shall receive a written statement from the child's parent or legal guardian, signed by a physician or certified nurse practitioner, stating the following: (1) That the child may participate in the child care home activities. (2) That the child has received immunizations that are current for the child's age. (3) Whether the child has allergies or any chronic illness." 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(8) turns that into a file duty — the licensee shall maintain the "statement as described in section 37(b) of this rule regarding each child's general health within thirty (30) days of admission". OECOSL publishes the instrument as "Physical Form for Child - State Form 49969" on both the Licensed homes and Licensed centers tabs of the OECOSL Forms page as it serves on 26 August 2026, and its own Home Child File Resource Sheet, last updated 9/13/2023, states the timing more strictly than the rule alone: "Physical (within 30 days of child's enrollment date, no earlier than 12 months prior to enrollment)." That twelve-month look-back is the trap. A four-year-old's well-child visit from two years ago satisfies nobody; a newborn's discharge summary is not a physical; and a form the parent filled in describing the child's health, however detailed, fails on its face because the rule demands a physician or certified nurse practitioner signature. The three statutory contents are conjunctive — a physical that clears the child for activities but is silent on allergies and chronic illness is incomplete, and allergy information is separately load-bearing because it drives the food and emergency response you are expected to have. 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(c) requires you to inform the parent of the right to request in writing an exemption from these medical requirements on religious grounds, and 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(d) exempts a child from subsections (b)(2) and (b)(3) — the immunization and allergy limbs — where the parent has given the licensee a signed religious exemption statement. Note carefully what that leaves standing: (b)(1), the statement that the child may participate, is not exempted. And 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(c) preserves your hand in an emergency, since nothing in the exemption "prevents the child care home from using emergency measures to treat such child by first aid techniques or to isolate the child when necessary to control a contagious disease".
• IMMUNIZATION FORM, STATE FORM 49445 — the same number carries two names, and the deadline is the child's thirtieth day, not the first day. OECOSL lists it as "Immunization Form - State Form 49445" on the Licensed homes, Licensed centers and legally licensed exempt tabs of the OECOSL Forms page as it serves on 26 August 2026, and as "History of immunizations - State Form 49445" on the registered ministries tab; it is the same State Form under two headings, and providers who search the site for the ministry title and find nothing on the homes page routinely conclude a form has been retired when it has not. The requirement it evidences is 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(b)(2), which makes the clinician-signed statement received within thirty days of admission certify "that the child has received immunizations that are current for the child's age", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(8), which makes that statement a document maintained in the home. OECOSL's Home Child File Resource Sheet, updated 9/13/2023, states the standard as "Immunization (within 30 days of enrollment, kept current)" — and "kept current" is the half of the sentence providers forget. Immunization is not a snapshot taken at enrolment and filed for four years; each time the child ages into a new dose in the schedule your record has to follow, and the consultant reads the file against the age of the child on the day of the visit. Indiana does not print its own schedule on this form; the OECOSL forms page links the CDC parent-version schedule for birth through six years for that purpose. Two exemptions run alongside. 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(d) removes the immunization limb where the parent or legal guardian has given the licensee a signed religious exemption statement, and 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(c) obliges the caregiver to tell the parent that this right exists — a duty on you, not merely a right of theirs, so a home with no religious-exemption children still has to be able to say how parents were informed. A medical contraindication is handled through the clinician's own statement rather than through this subsection. The costly error is the reverse of the usual one: accepting a parent's verbal statement that the child is "up to date" and letting the thirty days run, at which point the file is out of compliance on both 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(b)(2) and 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(8) and the child is in your care without either document.
• ENROLMENT FORM, EMERGENCY CONTACT, AUTHORISED PICK-UP LIST AND RELEASE FOR EMERGENCY MEDICAL CARE — no State Form exists for any of them, and all four must be signed before the child's first day. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(6) requires the licensee to maintain in the home an "enrollment form for each child receiving services which shall include the following: (A) Child's name and date of birth. (B) Name, address, home and work telephone numbers of the child's parent or legal guardian. (C) The telephone number of a responsible adult in case of emergency. (D) The names of adults authorized to pick the child up from the home." 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(7) adds a "release for emergency medical care for each child signed by the child's parent or legal guardian". 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(a) fixes the timing and leaves no room to catch up later: "Prior to acceptance of children, the caregiver shall have the parent or legal guardian: (1) complete and sign an enrollment form for the child; (2) complete and sign an emergency medical care authorization form for the child; (3) sign a copy of the licensee's written discipline policy; and (4) view all areas of the home and property that will be used for child care." Indiana publishes no State Form for the enrolment record or the medical release, and this is the single most common source of a citation in a family home: the provider adopts a generic packet bought online or handed down from another provider, and it turns out to carry one telephone number for the parent rather than home and work numbers, or an "emergency contact" who is the same parent, or a pick-up list that names nobody because the family "only ever" collects the child themselves. Each of the four sub-items of subsection (a)(6) is separately checkable. OECOSL's Home Child File Resource Sheet, updated 9/13/2023, restates them as discrete lines to be found on site — "Parent/Guardian's Information (name, address, phone numbers-home/work)", "Emergency phone number of responsible adult in case of an emergency", "Authorized pick up list (name, phone number of person authorized to take child off premises)" and "Release for Emergency Medical Care (signed by parent/legal guardian)" — and adds "Application (upon enrollment, all required forms)" and "Birth Certification (upon enrollment)". The walk-through in 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(a)(4) is part of the same pre-admission bundle and leaves no paper trail unless you create one; prudent providers add a dated line to the enrolment form recording that the parent viewed all areas used for child care, because otherwise the only evidence is memory.
• WRITTEN DISCIPLINE POLICY WITH PARENT SIGNATURE — and the suspension and expulsion policy that now travels with it. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(10) requires the licensee to keep in the home a "written statement of the licensee's discipline policy signed by the child's parent or legal guardian"; 470 IAC 3-1.1-37(a)(3) puts the signature before admission, requiring the caregiver to have the parent "sign a copy of the licensee's written discipline policy" prior to acceptance of the child; and 470 IAC 3-1.1-41(a) obliges the licensee to "provide the parent or legal guardian a written copy of the child care discipline policy" — provide, meaning the parent keeps one, so the signed copy in your file is a second copy, not the only one. 470 IAC 3-1.1-41(b) then tells you what the policy may not permit: "(1) Cruel, severe, or unusual punishments. (2) Withdrawal or the threat of withdrawal of scheduled meals or snacks, rest, or toilet opportunities." A policy that reserves the right to keep a child in from lunch, or to hold a child at the table until they finish, or to withhold a nap as a consequence, is void on its face and a citation whether or not it was ever used. There is no Indiana State Form for the discipline policy: you write it, the parent signs it, and its adequacy is judged against 470 IAC 3-1.1-41(b) and against your observed practice. Separately, OECOSL's Home Child File Resource Sheet dated 9/13/2023 lists in each child's file both "Discipline Policy (signed by parent/legal guardian)" and "Suspension and Expulsion Policy (shared with parent upon enrollment)" — two documents, and only the first requires a signature, which is why the second is the one that goes missing. OECOSL publishes suspension and expulsion guidance and a prevention checklist for programmes under the Laws, Rules and Related Policies page, and the requirement stems from the CCDF changes made to IC 12-17.2-3.5 rather than from 470 IAC 3-1.1 itself; if you accept CCDF vouchers it is not optional. The practical trap is the second-hand policy: a discipline policy inherited from a licensed centre will be written against 470 IAC 3-4.7 and will describe staff, classrooms and directors you do not have, and a consultant reading it in a family home reads a policy the licensee plainly does not operate.
• WRITTEN PARENTAL PERMISSION FOR ACTIVITIES AWAY FROM THE HOME — the transportation and field-trip consent, and the reason Indiana has no swimming permission form. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(9) requires the licensee to maintain in the child care home "written permission from a parent or legal guardian that the child may participate in activities away from the child care home", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-40(a) states the operational rule: "The caregiver shall obtain written parental permission prior to transporting a child away from the child care home for field trips or other activities." OECOSL publishes no State Form for it; the Home Child File Resource Sheet dated 9/13/2023 lists it in each child's file as "Transportation Permission (field trip/activity offsite written permission from parent/legal guardian)". The rest of 470 IAC 3-1.1-40 is the substance that permission does not cure: under (b) children may be transported only by a person eighteen years of age or older holding a valid driver's licence and driving a properly registered and insured vehicle in safe condition; under (c) children "shall be transported in safety restraint equipment which meets state laws"; and under (d) direct child care providers "shall not leave children unattended in a vehicle" — a blanket prohibition with no de minimis exception for running into a shop. Now the point most sources get wrong. Indiana's family child care home rule requires no swimming or water activity permission form. 470 IAC 3-1.1-39 governs swimming entirely by supervision and construction: under (a) "the caregiver shall be physically present at the pool or wading pool to supervise when children in care are swimming or wading"; under (b) at least one direct child care provider must be available to supervise the children who are not swimming or wading, in addition to the staffing required by 470 IAC 3-1.1-36.5; under (c) portable wading pools must be emptied immediately after use; and under (d) all in-ground or above-ground non-portable pools accessible to children must comply with local zoning ordinances and be enclosed by a fence secured with a locked gate to prevent children entering the area unsupervised. There is no signature requirement anywhere in section 39. In practice a swim outing is almost always an activity away from the home, which pulls it back into 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(9) and 470 IAC 3-1.1-40(a) — but a pool in your own garden does not, and a provider who files a "swimming permission slip" and skips the locked gate has papered the wrong requirement.
• MEDICATION PERMISSION, WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS AND THE ADMINISTRATION LOG — three separate documents in one sentence of rule, plus State Form 49968 for over-the-counter orders. 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(f) is the whole of Indiana's medication law for a licensed family child care home, and it is worth reading as the consultant reads it: "Child care providers shall give or apply medicines only with prior written permission of a parent or legal guardian, and only with clear, written instructions on dosage, time, and reason the medication is to be given. Medications shall be labeled with the child's name, the name of the pediatrician, and the pharmacy. Over-the-counter medications shall also be labeled with the child's name. The caregiver shall keep a record of the date, time, and dosage of medication given." Four obligations, each independently citable: prior written parental permission; written instructions covering dosage, time and reason; the labelling requirements, which for prescription medication include the prescribing pediatrician's name and the pharmacy and cannot be satisfied by a pill in a plastic bag; and a contemporaneous log of date, time and dose actually administered. The log is the one that fails inspections, because providers write the permission and never open a running record, or keep the record on a whiteboard that is wiped daily. OECOSL publishes "Over The Counter Medication Order - State Form 49968" on the Licensed centers tab of the OECOSL Forms page as it serves on 26 August 2026; a licensed home may use it and many consultants expect it for non-prescription items, but note that it is listed under centers, not under Licensed homes, so a home provider searching only the homes tab will not find it. There is no State Form for the home medication administration log itself — you build it, and the safe design has one line per administration carrying child, medication, date, time, dose and the initials of the person who gave it. Two related instruments sit nearby on the homes tab and are frequently confused with medication paperwork: the "Child care medical waiver - State Form 57670" (Spanish version listed; State Form 56619 appears on the ministries tab for the English) and the "Safe Sleep Medical Waiver Form", which is a clinician's waiver of safe-sleep positioning, not a medication consent. Using a medical waiver where 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(f) wanted a parental permission and a log is a substitution the rule does not allow.
• DAILY ATTENDANCE RECORDS, BIRTH CERTIFICATE CONSENT STATE FORM 50548 AND THE MONTHLY REPORT OF ENROLLED CHILDREN — the record you must keep for two years, and the enrolment paperwork that has nothing to do with billing. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(11) requires the licensee to maintain "daily attendance records for children in the child care home which shall be maintained for at least two (2) years at the child care home site". Three constraints hide in that line. It is daily, so a weekly sign-in sheet with one signature per week fails. It is two years, so purging at licence renewal destroys the record the consultant is entitled to see. And it is "at the child care home site", so records boxed up at an accountant's office or held only in a billing app on a phone are not where the rule says they must be. OECOSL's Home Child File Resource Sheet dated 9/13/2023 separately expects each child's file to carry the date of enrollment and "Birth Certification (upon enrollment)", and names the instrument that authorises the verification: "Licensed Child Care Home Consent Form State form: 50548". On the OECOSL Forms page as it serves on 26 August 2026 that same number appears under a different heading — "Birth Certificate Consent - State Form 50548" — on both the Licensed homes and Licensed centers tabs, which is a naming mismatch inside OECOSL's own publications rather than a retired form; State Form 50548 is live under both descriptions. Alongside it the homes tab lists "Monthly Reporting of Enrolled Children. Homes & Centers (Birth Certificate)", the monthly return through which enrolment is reported for birth-record verification. This machinery exists because of the missing-children duties in IC 12-17.2-5-18.6, which requires a child care home receiving a report under IC 31-36-1-4 to "thoroughly inspect the report", to notify the Indiana clearinghouse for information on missing children immediately if a listed child is enrolled, to "attach a notice to the child's enrollment records stating that the child has been reported missing", and, where enrolment records of a missing child are requested, to take the requester's name, address, telephone number and reason and notify the clearinghouse — and expressly not to release the records without clearinghouse authorisation or to tell the requester that a notice is attached. Providers who treat the birth certificate consent as a CCDF billing formality miss that it is the front end of a criminal-investigation duty.
• QUARTERLY FIRE DRILL RECORD AND WRITTEN EVACUATION PLAN — and no tornado drill, whatever you have been told. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(13) requires the licensee to maintain a "record of dates of quarterly fire drills which shall be maintained for at least two (2) years", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(14) requires a "written plan of evacuation for the child care home in case of emergency". The operational twins sit in the fire prevention section: 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(r), "the caregiver shall have a written plan for evacuation in case of fire or other emergency", and 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(s), "the caregiver shall conduct and document quarterly fire drills". Four drills a year, dated, kept two years, plus a written plan. There is no Indiana State Form for either; you keep a dated log and a one-page plan. Now the correction that matters, because it is asserted constantly and it is wrong for a licensed family child care home. 470 IAC 3-1.1 contains no tornado drill requirement. The word does not appear anywhere in Rule 1.1 as published by FSSA, the drill obligation in section 46(s) is expressly and only "quarterly fire drills", and 470 IAC 3-1.3-1 — which governs Class II child care homes serving a minimum of twelve and a maximum of sixteen children — adds no drill of its own, providing simply that "a licensee providing Class II child care shall meet all the requirements of 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 470 IAC 3-1.2 as well as the requirements of this rule", with IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 prevailing on any difference. Tornado sheltering is a real Indiana hazard and OECOSL runs an Emergency Response Planning for Child Care Providers page pointing to the Indiana Emergency Response Planning Guide for Child Care Providers and to an online course, "Preparing for Emergency and Disaster in the Child Care Setting", in Indiana Learning Paths; a severe-weather section in your 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(14) evacuation plan is good practice and is what the guide encourages. But do not log tornado drills in place of fire drills and do not assume a severe-weather drill discharges section 46(s). The related notification duties in the same section are the ones providers actually forget: under 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(u) the licensee "shall notify the local fire department at the time of application or renewal of the licensed capacity and hours of operation of the home", and under (v) and (w) the caregiver must notify the fire department immediately on discovering any fire, whether extinguished or not, and on discovering spontaneous or abnormal heating, an uncontrolled gas leak, or a significant spill of hazardous material or flammable liquid.
• INJURY REPORT - CHILD, STATE FORM 54265 — a live form whose authority is not where the rule's own heading points. OECOSL lists "Injury Report Child - State Form 54265" on the Licensed homes, Licensed centers, registered ministries and legally licensed exempt tabs of the OECOSL Forms page as it serves on 26 August 2026 — one number, all four programme types, and it is current. What it is not is the form that 470 IAC 3-1.1-35 requires. Read that section carefully, because its heading and its body disagree. The heading is "Reporting abuse, injury, illness, death, or emergency event". The body is two sentences: "(a) The caregiver shall report immediately suspected physical abuse, sexual abuse, child neglect, or child exploitation as required by IC 31-6-11-3 [IC 31-6 was repealed by P.L.268-1995, SECTION 17, effective July 1, 1995.] to child protection services (CPS) or local law enforcement. (b) A substantiated case of abuse or neglect in a child care home constitutes full and sufficient grounds for denial or revocation of the child care home license." Injury, illness, death and emergency events appear in the title and nowhere in the text, and the statutory cross-reference the rule does give — IC 31-6-11-3 — has been repealed since 1995, with the bracketed note printed inside the official text itself. So the mandatory-reporter duty on abuse is unambiguous and immediate, while the injury-reporting duty that the heading advertises rests on OECOSL policy and on the CCDF provider eligibility standards under IC 12-17.2-3.5 and 470 IAC 3-18 rather than on section 35. Practically, complete State Form 54265 for any injury requiring more than routine first aid, give a copy to the parent, keep a copy in the child's file, and notify your licensing consultant for anything serious — a serious injury or a death in care is what triggers the complaint inspection described in OECOSL's Monitoring Process for Child Care Programs in Indiana. Two things follow for the applicant. First, do not let the repealed citation persuade you the abuse duty is soft; it is a criminal mandatory-reporting obligation under current Indiana law, and 470 IAC 3-1.1-35(b) makes a substantiated case in the home full and sufficient grounds to revoke. Second, do not go looking for a separate "incident report" State Form for a licensed home — there is none; State Form 54265 is the instrument OECOSL publishes, and a home-made incident log alongside it is a supplement, never a substitute.
• CAREGIVER AND HOUSEHOLD PERSONNEL RECORD — the Home Staff File Resource Sheet, dated 8/10/2026, is the checklist your consultant works from. OECOSL publishes a "Home Staff File Resource Sheet" stating that "Staff files will need to have the following records available on site" and listing, for each staff member or volunteer: facility name; staff or volunteer name; date of hire; documentation to the division that the licensee "has completed; is enrolled in; or agrees to complete within the next three years; a child development associate credential program or a similar program approved by the division"; national criminal history check and fingerprints; the consent form; drug test with MRO review; pediatric CPR certification; pediatric first aid certification; universal precautions "within 30 days and annually"; safe sleep training modules 1 and 2 before working if the programme cares for infants; the physical; child abuse and neglect detection and prevention training within thirty days; the four Health and Safety Modules in I-LEAD within ninety days, with module 4 where the programme is licensed for school-age; twelve hours of in-service training annually; fire prevention and safety procedures within one week; and medication administration and record-keeping. A second block covers household members who are not caregivers: name, national criminal history check and fingerprints at eighteen, the consent form, a physical within thirty days of application, and a drug test with results. Cross-read that against 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5, which requires fire prevention and safety training within one (1) week of starting employment or volunteer work and, within thirty (30) days, training in the child care home inspection checklist, confidential treatment of personal information, procedures for preventing, detecting and reporting suspected child abuse and neglect, and universal precautions. Here the paper and the rule have diverged, and the 8/10/2026 sheet is the one to follow. 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(c) still says a first aid course every three years completed within ninety days, and (d) still says at least one direct provider trained in pediatric CPR "annually"; the sheet records instead that "As of July 1, 2023, CPR will be required to be kept current according to the expiration date on the CPR card" and that first aid follows the card expiry, while OECOSL's 2025 legislative changes page requires pediatric CPR and first aid training within ninety days of starting for all provider types with at least one certified individual present at all times. Certification must include "a live return demonstration of skills" — an online-only card is refused.
• INSPECTION CHECKLISTS, STRUCTURE CERTIFICATES AND THE BUSINESS PERMIT PROOF — the application attachments, each with its own State Form number. 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(b)(3) obliges the office to "schedule a home visit during regular hours of operation and complete a child care home inspection checklist", and (b)(4) to submit a written recommendation based on that checklist and on the applicant's documents; 470 IAC 3-1.1-29(b) repeats both for relicensure. The checklists are published, so you can pre-audit yourself: "Licensed Home Inspection Checklist - State Form 46739" and its Spanish counterpart State Form 57680, "Inspection Checklist - Pre-Licensing - State Form 49450" with Spanish State Form 57677, and, for a Class II home serving twelve to sixteen children under 470 IAC 3-1.3-1, "Inspection Checklist Class II Home - State Form 53959" — all live on the OECOSL Forms page as it serves on 26 August 2026. When a visit produces findings you answer on "Provider Response Form to a POI/POC - State Form 53320", the response to a plan of improvement or plan of correction. Structure paperwork is separate and is where multi-unit applicants stall: "Child Care Home Certificate of Residential Structure - State Form 51477" evidences that the dwelling is a residential structure within 470 IAC 3-1.1-16, and "Proposed multiple residences for child care home design professional statement - State Form 51476" is the statement 470 IAC 3-1.1-29.5(e) demands where an applicant seeks multiple licences inside the same structure — "a statement signed by a design professional certifying that each child care home for which licensure is sought meets state building code requirements for the proposed use as they apply to fire and safety issues" — with (f) requiring a two-hour fire-rated wall between contiguous licensed homes and (h) pulling multiple homes on a private well into the water-testing requirements of 327 IAC 8 once twenty-five or more persons are present. Water quality itself is an application attachment under 470 IAC 3-1.1-28(a)(6) and 470 IAC 3-1.1-47(b), annual for any non-municipal supply. Finally, "Proof of local business permit / license to operate a child care program - State Form 56523" (Spanish State Form 57678) discharges House Enrolled Act 1073: OECOSL's own page states that at initial application or at renewal you supply either the business permit or licence, or "a signed statement from the county, city or town stating that a business permit or business license is not required". Waivers and variances run on "Variance or Waiver Application for Homes", under 470 IAC 3-1.1-49.

What's specific about getting licensed in Indiana

Indiana defines a family home license purely by headcount and splits it into two tiers — Class I (up to 12, plus 3 school-agers during the school year) and Class II (13–16) — and the tier you fall into silently changes your staffing: because one caregiver may supervise 12 children ONLY when every child is 3 or older (12:1), any Class II home, and any home taking infants/toddlers, legally needs a second qualified caregiver on premises at all times. The trap most first-time providers miss is the capacity math around their OWN family: the provider's own and related children under age 7 count in the child-to-staff ratios, and ALL children under 11 present — including the provider's own kids — count against a hard cap of 15 children under 11 in a Class I home (470 IAC 3-1.1-24). So a provider with three young children of her own has already spent a big chunk of her license before enrolling a single paying family. The other classic misread is the licensing trigger itself: fewer than six unrelated children is exempt, but the sixth unrelated child makes a license mandatory (470 IAC 3-1.1-26) — there is no gentle on-ramp.

How long it takes and what it costs in Indiana

Timeline: Plan on roughly 3–6 months from orientation to license in hand. The rule promises a decision within 60 days of a COMPLETE application, but that clock only starts once FBI fingerprint results, the medical/TB statement, water test (if on a well), education verification, and the on-site inspection are all done — gathering those and completing the two orientations plus First Aid/CPR typically takes 2–4 months up front. Licenses renew every 2 years, with an annual unannounced inspection in between.

Cost: Indiana does not publish a fixed statewide license application fee for a child care home in the rule (state-administered) — confirm the current fee, if any, with OECOSL. Realistic out-of-pocket costs are for supporting items: fingerprint-based FBI/state background checks (roughly $20–$60 per adult in the household — confirm current vendor pricing with the fingerprint provider), CPR + First Aid certification (~$60–$120), a physician TB test/medical statement, and — for homes on a private well — a coliform water quality test (~$25–$75). Confirm all fees with OECOSL and your county office.

Source: PRIMARY SOURCES ACTUALLY OPENED DURING RESEARCH, FIELD BY FIELD (not summarised from memory). [agency] https://iar.iga.in.gov/code/current/470/3 — Indiana Administrative Code, CURRENT edition of Title 470 Article 3 as the index serves it on 26 Aug 2026 (fetched through r.jina.ai because iar.iga.in.gov is a JavaScript SPA that returns only a 735-byte shell to curl/WebFetch). Establishes: Title 470 is headed "DIVISION OF FAMILY RESOURCES", not FSSA/OECOSL; every section of 470 IAC 3-1.1 is attributed "(Division of Family Resources; ...)" with "Authority: IC 12-13-5-3" and "Affected: IC 12-17.2"; verbatim text of 470 IAC 3-1.1-4.5 (CDFC = central office of the division of family and children), -19 (SFM), -27, -28, -28.5, -29, -29.5, -30 (30-day appeal to CDFC), -32, -33, -33.5, -34, -47(b), -49 (variance/waiver, 60-day decision). https://iar.iga.in.gov/register/20260603-IR-470260159RAA — Indiana Register, 3 June 2026, Regulatory Analysis for LSA Document #26-159 (Child Care Center Rule and Child Care Emergency or Temporary Closure Rule). Establishes verbatim: OECOSL is the proposing office under Title 470 DFR; centers rule readopted November 2019; "The current centers rule and part of the emergency closure rule were set to expire on January 1, 2026. Executive Order 25-68 granted an extension of the expiration of the child care rules until January 1, 2027."; ELAC tasked with reviewing the rules; SEA 463 (P.L.140-2025) non-code directive to amend.

Scope is 470 IAC 3-4.7 and 3-4.8 ONLY — no home rulemaking on the register. https://iar.iga.in.gov/register/20250604-IR-470240388FRA — Final Rule LSA #24-388 "EARLY CHILDHOOD CAREGIVERS", filed 7 May 2025; AG approval 30 Apr 2025, Governor 2 May 2025. Establishes the amendments to 470 IAC 3-1.1-20.5 / -28.5 / -33.5 and 470 IAC 3-18-7 (JAMA to AHA/Red Cross), and the DFR small business regulatory coordinator of record: Tikila Welch, FSSA/DFR, Indiana Government Center South, 402 W. Washington St., Room W362, Indianapolis IN 46204, (317) 550-5824. https://iar.iga.in.gov/register/20241002-IR-470240269IFA — Interim Final Rule LSA #24-269: "Temporarily adds, supersedes, and supplements rules at 470 IAC 3 concerning early childhood caregivers. Effective September 19, 2024. Expires November 18, 2025." Evidence the agency legislates by interim rule. https://iar.iga.in.gov/rule-readopt — IARP "Rule Readopt Report" tool; confirms the automatic expiration regime is IC 4-22-2.6 and that the tool's default effective year is 2027. Interactive form, could not be run headless. https://www.in.gov/gov/newsroom/executive-orders/ — Governor Braun's executive order index as served today; lists EO 25-68 under the title "GRANTING EXTENSION ON EXPIRATION OF FSSA CHILDCARE REGULATIONS", linked at /gov/files/EO-25-68.pdf. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/laws-rules-and-related-policies/ — OECOSL "Laws Rules and Related Policies" index as served today.

Establishes the list of rules the agency itself points to, and the staleness trap: the 470 IAC 3-1.1 link resolves to the 2025 code edition (iar.iga.in.gov/code/2025/470/3) while 470 IAC 3-4.7 resolves to the 2026 edition; the home interpretative guide is dated February 2016; the page's own warning that the State Fire Marshal is "now known as Indiana Department of Homeland Security". https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/become-a-child-care-provider/ — OECOSL application path as served today: Orientation 1 and Orientation 2 in Indiana Learning Paths, "Submit your application online at I-LEAD" (secure.in.gov/apps/fssa/childcare/portal/home), "Pass onsite inspection from the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning"; the Emerging Provider Support team roster by county (Marleta Misch, Annette Jones, Lynn Turman) and oecoslemergingprovidersupport@fssa.in.gov. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/Monitoring-Process-Child-Care-Programs-in-Indiana.pdf — OECOSL monitoring document (PDF read with pdftotext).

Four regulated program types; unannounced monitoring at least annually (bi-annually for ministries); pre-licensing inspection is the announced one; Plan of Correction response in 10 days, 21 days for CCDF non-compliances; inspection reports posted publicly. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/background-check-requirements/ — OECOSL background check program as served today: federal and Indiana fingerprint checks, CPI, SOR; household members 18+ for licensed homes; fingerprints every 3 years and after 180 days out of Indiana child care employment; annual CPI/SOR; State Form 53323; provisional status under direct visual supervision; ineligible individuals may not work while challenging; "Indiana is not a National Fingerprint File (NFF) state";

outofstatechecks@fssa.in.gov. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-1/ — IC 12-17.2-5-1 verbatim, edition "current as of January 01, 2026". https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-35/ — IC 12-17.2-5-35 verbatim (Class B misdemeanor), same edition. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-29/ — IC 12-17.2-5-29 (AG referral, injunction, civil penalty not to exceed $100 a day, removal of children, DFR child care fund), same edition. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-12/ — IC 12-17.2-5-12 (two-year expiration, non-transferability, public display, renewal, required postings), same edition. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-6-5/ — IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 (Class II qualification: first story, hard-wired interconnected smoke detection, extinguisher in each room, E-3 exits, 35 sq ft per child, fire drills, pre-7/1/1996 or post-6/30/2001 application window, safe sleeping training), same edition. https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/12 — Indiana General Assembly, 2026 edition of the Indiana Code, Title 12 navigation (fetched through r.jina.ai with cache bypass).

Establishes the CURRENT chapter structure of IC 12-17.2 and the full section list and headings of Chapter 5 (Regulation of Child Care Homes), including sections 19-22 (notice, hearings, procedure, decisions), 28 (judicial review), 29-35 (unlicensed operation, sanctions, penalties). The IGA site renders section TEXT only in the browser; the text of individual sections could not be pulled headless, which is why verbatim statutory quotations above are cited to FindLaw's 1 January 2026 edition rather than to IGA. BRIEF CONTRADICTED: the Lot 7 brief says the licensing body is "Family and Social Services Administration, Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning". That is right operationally and wrong as a citation. The rules are promulgated, amended and published under TITLE 470 DIVISION OF FAMILY RESOURCES, on the rulemaking authority of IC 12-13-5-3 (DFR director), and every section of 470 IAC 3-1.1 is attributed to the Division of Family Resources. OECOSL is the office inside FSSA that operates the program. Both names have to appear or the entry looks like it never opened the code.

BRIEF CONFIRMED: the function has NOT moved. There is no Indiana department of early childhood, no transfer of child care licensing to the Department of Education, and the FSSA/IDOE joint work published on the OECOSL site is a non-public-school FAQ, not a transfer of authority. UNVERIFIED: the operative text of Executive Order 25-68 itself. /gov/files/EO-25-68.pdf is a two-page scanned image with no text layer; pdftotext returns nothing and no OCR was available in this environment. The extension to January 1, 2027 and its application to "the child care rules" is quoted from FSSA's own filed regulatory analysis (20260603-IR-470260159RAA), and the EO's title is quoted from the Governor's index. Whether the EO names 470 IAC 3-1.1 specifically, as opposed to the centers and emergency-closure rules, could not be read. UNVERIFIED: whether an administrative hearing on a denied or revoked child care home license is now presided over by the Office of Administrative Law Proceedings (IAC Title 41) rather than by FSSA itself. IC 12-17.2-5-20 and -21 provide for administrative hearings and their procedure, but the statutory text could not be opened headless and 470 IAC 3-1.1-30 still names the CDFC.

Do not assert an OALP route. [annual_training_hours] Research date: 2026-08-26. State: Indiana. Field: annual_training_hours. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-33.5 — 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5 in full, current and superseded. Establishes the central negative finding: the home rule's training section contains NO continuing-education hour count. Only recurring items are first aid "every three (3) years" and pediatric CPR certification. Current (d): "shall maintain current certification in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation and be on the premises at all times." Superseded (d): "shall be trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation training annually and shall be on the premises at all times." Credit line: "Filed 5/7/2025, 2:20 p.m.: 20250604-IR-470240388FRA". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-28.5 — annual inspection; current (c)(5) "Certification of current first aid training and current cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification"; superseded (c)(5) "... and annual CPR certification". Same 2025 FRA. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-32 — (a)(5) still reads "annual CPR certification by direct child care providers": the recordkeeping section was NOT conformed by the 2025 amendment.

This is the intra-rule contradiction named as the trap. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-18-7 — CCDF rule, current and superseded: "maintains current certification in CPR ... aligned with those of the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross" replacing "maintains annual certification in CPR ... Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) standards".

Third instance of the same 2025 deletion. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-29.5 — "A child care home license is valid for two (2) years". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-27 — application "every two (2) years". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-12.5 — probationary licence: max six months, one six-month extension, "An existing license is invalidated when a probationary license is issued." https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-22.5 — volunteer counted in ratio must be 14+ and meet the same requirements as paid personnel. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-20.5 — "substitute educator" defined (2025), meeting all employee requirements. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/title-470/article-3/rule-470-IAC-3-1.1 — full section list of Rule 1.1 read to confirm no other section imposes annual hours. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.3-1 and https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/title-470/article-3/rule-470-IAC-3-1.2 — Class II rule and infant/toddler rule read in full;

neither contains an hour count. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-3-5-8/ — IC 12-17.2-3.5-8(b)(4), the twelve-hour annual continuing-education standard, quoted verbatim, including the sentence allowing child abuse detection, first aid, CPR and safe sleep training to count toward it; (b)(6) 90-day pediatric CPR; (b)(5) child abuse training within three months; (d) documentation duty. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-3-5-1/ — IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a), the deeming clause: "except as provided in section 4(b) of this chapter, a child care provider that is licensed under IC 12-17.2-4 or IC 12-17.2-5 is considered to be in compliance with this chapter."

This is the provision that takes the twelve hours off a licensed home. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-3-5-4/ — section 4(b), the single carve-out to the deeming clause: it concerns voucher ineligibility during an enforcement action, not training. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-18-2/ — IC 12-17.2-5-18.2 quoted verbatim; the "live return demonstration of skills" condition; the 90-day per-individual clock; the "maintain current certification in pediatric first aid" duty for every caregiver. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-3-7/ — safe sleep civil penalty ladder, per violation, per licensure period. Full sweep of IC 12-17.2-5 (sections 1, 2, 3, 3.1, 3.3, 3.5, 3.7, 4-37 incl. 6.3, 6.5, 7.5, 17.5, 18.1, 18.2, 18.6, 18.7) at codes.findlaw.com, Current as of January 01, 2026 — read in full to confirm the chapter imposes no annual continuing-education hour count on licensed homes. Full sweep of IC 12-17.2-3.5 (sections 1, 3, 3.5, 4-19 incl. 5.5, 8.5, 11.1, 12.5) at codes.findlaw.com — read in full to confirm section 8(b)(4) is the only hour count in the chapter. https://www.in.gov/dA/cf7eff9e48/Homes_Interpretative_Guide_effective_2-2016.pdf — Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules, effective February 2016. Searched in full for "continuing education", "clock hour", "12 hours", "annual training": ZERO hits.

The agency's own inspection manual for homes contains no continuing-education hour requirement. Source of the threshold of compliance "First aid certification is valid for 3 years. CPR and Universal Precautions certification is valid for one year" and of the OSHA annual universal precautions line. Reproduces 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(d) and 28.5(c)(5) in their pre-2025 wording. https://www.in.gov/dA/e809786e2e/MatrixforIndianaCCProgramJan.pdf — OECOSL Matrix for Indiana Child Care Programs. Contains a block "ANNUAL TRAINING REQUIRED" listing "1. Pediatric and Basic CPR - annually (law)", "2. 12 hours of approved trainings", "3. Child Abuse and Neglect Training - annually", and a row "7. 12 annual training hrs. req'd caregivers" in the staff requirements block. https://www.in.gov/dA/519d39b749/info_and_resources_on_training_requirements_MB.pdf — OECOSL information sheet: "Effective July 1, 2015, the new Provider Eligibility Standards under IC12-17.2-3.5 require that all unlicensed providers that receive CCDF funds, including registered ministries that receive CCDF funds, participate in twelve (12) hours of training annually".

Also the certificate-content rules, the proration rules, and the no-double-counting rule with its refresher exception. https://www.in.gov/dA/7afe9a0462/final_letter_new_PES_laws_on_letterhead_final_3_mb.pdf — the covering OECOSL letter of 28 May 2015 for the same PES package, confirming the audience is CCDF providers. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/new-health-and-safety-orientation-training-requirement/ — certificate content requirements including "Number of clock hours of training in topic/content area"; documentation in the professional development file; "staff will check for staff compliance with the Health and Safety training requirements during renewal inspection in conjunction with the program's licensure, registration or certification period"; the plan-of-correction consequence. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/early-child-care-and-education-legislative-changes/ — the 2025 pediatric CPR/first aid 90-day timeline for all provider types; the training-versus-certification distinction; the live return demonstration requirement; the TB variance instruction for licensed homes. https://www.in.gov/fssa/rulemaking-notices-and-updates/ — LSA 26-158 (homes) and LSA 26-159 (centers) listed as current pending rules. https://www.in.gov/dA/3d16d29c26/LSA-26-158ChildCareHomesDocket.pdf — full anticipated schedule for the homes rewrite: proposed rule published 6/3/2026, hearing 7/6/2026, final rule adopted 7/13/2026, Governor's office 8/27/2026, filed 9/11/2026, effective 10/11/2026, with the docket's caveat that the dates are anticipated.

CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF: the brief frames the Indiana question as the unlicensed registered ministry exemption. The measured answer for annual_training_hours is different and sharper — a licensed Indiana family child care home has NO annual continuing-education hour requirement at all. The twelve-hour figure that every commercial guide attributes to Indiana licensed homes comes from IC 12-17.2-3.5-8(b)(4), and IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a) deems a provider licensed under IC 12-17.2-5 to be in compliance with that entire chapter. The brief did not point here; the text does. DELIBERATE HEDGE, not an omission: the OECOSL Matrix does mark "12 hours of approved trainings" and "12 annual training hrs. req'd caregivers" in some program-type columns. The check-marks in those rows are drawn glyphs that do not survive text extraction, so which columns are ticked could not be resolved from the PDF text layer, and rendering the page to an image for visual reading failed in this session's tooling. The field text therefore reports the Matrix's existence and wording honestly, names it as a summary chart rather than a rule, notes that its "CPR - annually (law)" line is contradicted by the 2025 rulemaking, and tells the reader to ask which column applies to their licence type.

No claim is made that the Matrix ticks the twelve-hour line for licensed homes, and none that it does not. ACCESS NOTE (method rule 1 applied): iar.iga.in.gov and iga.in.gov could not be rendered on 2026-08-26 from this vantage — both single-page applications serve their own index.html for their JavaScript bundles with "x-cache: Error from cloudfront" (CDG54 POP), verified by curl, by headless Chrome over CDP, and by same-origin fetch() from the loaded page; api.iga.in.gov returns 403 "Invalid API key"; law.justia.com is behind a Cloudflare bot challenge. Primary text was read on law.cornell.edu (Indiana Administrative Code, quarterly, which uniquely serves the superseded prior quarter alongside the current text — that is how the 2025 deletion of "annually" was detected in three separate sections) and codes.findlaw.com (Indiana Code, Current as of January 01, 2026), cross-checked against in.gov agency material. The outage may be POP-specific and is not published as a fact about Indiana law. UNVERIFIED: the effective date of 20250604-IR-470240388FRA (filed 7 May 2025, published 4 June 2025). No effective date is asserted in the field text.

UNVERIFIED: the content of the LSA 26-158 proposed rule (20260603-IR-470260158FNA) — whether the rewrite introduces an annual hour count for homes is unknown. The field text states only what the docket PDF states and tells the reader to check the Register. UNVERIFIED: whether OECOSL licensing consultants, as a matter of unpublished practice, ask licensed home providers for twelve annual hours notwithstanding IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a). No claim either way is made in the field text beyond quoting the Matrix.

UNVERIFIED: Paths to QUALITY level standards were not read; any annual training expectation attaching to a voluntary quality rating level is outside what is asserted here. [background_check] https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-3.html — IC 12-17.2-5-3, current as of January 01, 2026. Verbatim (c) attestation, (d) FBI fingerprints for applicant AND spouse, (e) fingerprints for employees/volunteers "who may be present on the premises ... during operating hours" plus household members 18+ or waived to adult court, three-year recheck cycle, (f) duty to report police investigations/arrests/convictions. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-4.html — IC 12-17.2-5-4: denial grounds, including (a)(1) DCS substantiated child abuse/neglect determination, (a)(2) full disqualifying-conviction list, (a)(3)-(4) false statements, and the (b) dismissal/no-longer-resides cure that does NOT cover the applicant. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-3-3.html — IC 12-17.2-5-3.3: 1 July 2013 licensees had until 1 July 2014 to meet section 3(e);

conversion complete, so the pre-2013 name-check regime is spent. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-3-5.html — IC 12-17.2-5-3.5: STATUTORY DRUG TESTING for the provider, all adult household residents, and every employed or volunteer caregiver; results before employment/volunteering; mandatory immediate suspension/termination on a positive or a refusal; non-compliance = denial/suspension/revocation. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-9.html — IC 12-17.2-5-9: e-mail notice of denial, 3-working-day confirmation, 30 calendar days to request an administrative hearing, hearing within 60 days, IC 4-21.5-3 procedure, decision within 60 days. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-12.html — IC 12-17.2-5-12: two-year licence term; timely renewal keeps the current licence alive until decision. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-34.html and .../12-17-2-5-35.html — civil penalty up to $1,000; knowing/intentional violation = Class B misdemeanour. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-3-1.html — IC 12-17.2-5-3.1: duty to maintain the application e-mail address for the duration of licensure (this is the address appeal notices go to). https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-2-10.html — IC 12-17.2-2-10: variance/waiver machinery reaches "a rule" only;

confirms no waiver route around a statutory disqualification. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-3-5-1.html — IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a): a provider licensed under IC 12-17.2-4 or IC 12-17.2-5 "is considered to be in compliance with this chapter" except per section 4(b).

This is the textual basis for saying chapter 3.5 is NOT the licensing screen. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-3-5-12.html — IC 12-17.2-3.5-12: the voucher-side FBI fingerprint regime, three-year cycle, temporary eligibility on a local criminal history, (d) removal cure, (e) written self-reporting policy, (f) ISP fee exemption for church/religious society ministry volunteers, (g) 1 July 2014 conversion deadline. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-3-5-4.html — IC 12-17.2-3.5-4: voucher ineligibility list including welfare-fraud misdemeanour and (b) ineligibility during an enforcement action. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-3-5-14.html — IC 12-17.2-3.5-14: notice under IC 4-21.5-3-6, administrative review under IC 4-21.5-3-7. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-28 — 470 IAC 3-1.1-28 as served today: COFC conducts "a criminal history check on the applicant and the applicant's spouse" and a sex offender registry check "IC 5-2-12 ... et seq.", with the inline note that IC 5-2-12 was repealed by P.L.173-2006, SECTION 55, effective July 1, 2006. STALE TEXT, still codified.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-29 — 470 IAC 3-1.1-29 relicensure: same dead IC 5-2-12 citation, same abolished COFC/CDFC actors, plus the 60-day decision clock. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-32 — 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(3)-(4): documentation of criminal history checks on employees, volunteers and all household members 18+, and the sex offender registry check. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-28.5 — 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5, amended by final rule filed 5/7/2025, published 20250604-IR-470240388FRA: annual visit, and (c)(2)-(3) verification of criminal history checks and sex offender registry checks. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-7.3 — "COFC" defined as "the county office of family and children" — the abolished actor the rule still names. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-49 — variance/waiver at rule level, 60-day decision. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-18-14 — CCDF rule still demanding a name-based "statewide criminal history dated within sixty (60) days" — superseded by the statutory FBI fingerprint regime.

STALE. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-18-16 — "state central registry identified at IC 31-33-17-6(7)" with the inline note that IC 31-33-17 was repealed by P.L.138-2007, SECTION 93, effective July 1, 2007. STALE. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-18-15 — drug-test technical spec: DOT chain of custody, SAMHSA lab, MRO review, five-panel urine, 60-day window before application/hire. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/background-check-requirements/ — OECOSL Background Check Requirements as served 26/08/2026: the four components; who counts as a child care staff member and that home requirements reach "the caregiver and all household members age 18 or older"; provisional status with direct visual supervision by someone with a qualified result within the past three years; fingerprint renewal every three years and after 180 consecutive days out of Indiana child care; annual CPI and SOR; State Form 53323; outofstatechecks@fssa.in.gov, no fee; "Indiana is not a National Fingerprint File (NFF) state and is not a National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact state." https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/provider-resources/provider-fingerprinting-services/ — IdentoGO by MorphoTrust is the sole vendor;

under-18 staff and volunteers need a juvenile criminal history check; receipt issued at time of printing. https://www.in.gov/dA/58c191ea9b/Disqualifying-_Crimes.pdf?language_id=1 — OECOSL "Disqualifying Crimes" handout: operational disqualification list, and the full IC 12-7-2-53.2 "dangerous felony" enumeration including domestic battery, strangulation, battery as a felony, and the out-of-state / attempt / conspiracy catch-alls. https://www.in.gov/dA/d50e25daab/Background_Check_Appeal_Process.pdf?language_id=1 — OECOSL "Background Check Challenge Process": 10 calendar days to the Child Care Manager, 30 days to respond, 10 days to the Director, 30 days, "The decision of the Director is FINAL"; ISP Records Division, FBI CJIS and county-DCS correction addresses; disqualified staff may not work during the challenge. https://www.in.gov/dA/ce627c931e/ACF-118-CCDF-FY2025-2027-IN.pdf?language_id=1 — Indiana FFY 2025–2027 CCDF State Plan: "three in-state checks, two national checks, and three interstate checks if the individual resided in another State or Territory in the preceding 5 years";

"Yes" to in-state fingerprint, FBI fingerprint, NCIC NSOR name-based, in-state SOR, in-state CAN, and all three interstate components, including for all household members 18+ in a family child care home; provisional hiring answers "No" to every component except the two fingerprint checks; 45-day completion; appeals process attributes; "at least every 5 years for all components"; fees not to exceed actual cost. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/Waiver_Request.pdf — Indiana's own "Appendix A: Background Check Waiver Request" seeking federal relief from NCIC NSOR (new and existing staff) and from all three interstate checks, "Date Submitted: null".

Contradicts the State Plan's "Yes" answers; both are on Indiana's own servers. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/laws-rules-and-related-policies/ — OECOSL index of laws and rules in effect (*updated July 2025), naming IC 12-17.2-5 as "Regulation of Child Care Homes" and IC 12-17.2-3.5 as "Eligibility of Child Care Provider to Receive Reimbursement Through Voucher Program", and listing 470 IAC 3-1.1 as the home rule. Used as the index of what is served today rather than any pinned PDF. https://secure.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/Homes_Interpretative_Guide_effective_2-2016.pdf — agency Interpretative Guide (Feb 2016), still linked from the index: quotes an older IC 12-17.2-5-3(e) ("who has direct contact with a child") narrower than the current "may be present on the premises" text, and sets out the drug-testing assessment method (Licensed Home Substance Abuse Screening Test Consent Form, MRO signature, 60-day validity, transferability between LLEP and licensed status). Treated as agency manual, not law. CONTRADICTS THE BRIEF: the brief instructed research on "IC 12-17.2-3.5 and 470 IAC 3-1.1" as the licensing pair.

IC 12-17.2-3.5 is the CCDF VOUCHER eligibility chapter; the licensing statute for a family child care home is IC 12-17.2-5, and IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a) expressly deems a licensed home compliant with chapter 3.5. The field was written on IC 12-17.2-5 with chapter 3.5 as the voucher overlay. CONTRADICTS THE BRIEF: the brief framed the checks as "the Indiana state police check, the child protection index ... the sex offender registry checks (Indiana and national), the out-of-state checks" as settled facts. As served today, the OECOSL public page lists only four components and names NEITHER a national sex offender registry check NOR the five-year interstate checks; the FFY2025-2027 CCDF State Plan says Indiana performs both; and Indiana's own posted waiver request asked to be relieved of both. All three positions are documented in the field. CONTRADICTS THE BRIEF: the brief did not mention drug testing. IC 12-17.2-5-3.5 makes drug testing a statutory licensing condition for the provider, every adult household resident and every employed or volunteer caregiver — likely the single largest unbudgeted screening cost for an Indiana home applicant.

UNVERIFIED: the Indiana Register (iar.iga.in.gov) is a JavaScript application that returns no text to a fetch; the full text of final rule 20250604-IR-470240388FRA and of 2026 document 20260603-IR-470260159RAA could not be read directly. The 2025 rule's effect was reconstructed from the LII current-vs-prior quarterly comparison on 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5, -28.5 and -20.5, which shows both texts side by side with the filing citation. UNVERIFIED: iga.in.gov serves the Indiana Code and bill PDFs only through a JavaScript shell (691-byte responses to direct fetch); statutory text was read from FindLaw's Indiana Code, marked "Current as of January 01, 2026". Session acts passed in the 2026 regular session (which ended after that date) could not be swept act by act. OECOSL's own "Early Child Care and Education Legislative Changes" page, checked 26/08/2026, still describes only the 2025 changes. UNVERIFIED: no published fee schedule for IdentoGO child care fingerprinting was located on an in.gov page; the amount is not asserted in the field. [cpr_first_aid_required] https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-18-2.html — IC 12-17.2-5-18.2 "Certifications required", current as of January 01, 2026. THE controlling text: "(a) At least one (1) adult individual who maintains current certification in a course of pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation applicable to all age groups of children cared for by the child care home shall be present at all times when a child is in the care of a child care home.

Certifications accepted under this subsection must include a live return demonstration of skills. (b) An individual who is employed or volunteers as a caregiver at a child care home: (1) must, not more than ninety (90) days after the individual begins employment or volunteer duties, be trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation applicable to all age groups of children cared for by the child care home; and (2) shall maintain current certification in pediatric first aid applicable to all age groups of children cared for by the child care home." Establishes: pediatric specified; ONE adult certified and present at all times; 90-day training deadline for every caregiver; current pediatric first aid for every caregiver; online-only certification excluded by statute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-33.5 — 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5, current text plus LII's side-by-side comparison with the prior quarterly release. Establishes (a) one-week fire prevention/safety training; (b) 30-day orientation topics; (c) first aid course every three years covering poisoning, seizures, hemorrhaging, choking, plus artificial respiration, completed within 90 days; (d) as amended "shall maintain current certification in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation and be on the premises at all times".

The prior version, shown in the comparison, read "shall be trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation training annually". Filing history on the page: "Filed 5/7/2025, 2:20 p.m.: 20250604-IR-470240388FRA". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-32 — 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(5) as served today STILL reads "Documentation of certification of a current first aid course, training in 'Universal Precautions', and annual CPR certification by direct child care providers." Not touched by the 2025 rule package; this is the live internal contradiction with 33.5(d). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-28.5 — 470 IAC 3-1.1-28.5(c)(5), amended by the same 2025 final rule, now requires "Certification of current first aid training and current cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification for direct child care providers" at the annual visit. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-8 — "direct child care provider" defined: licensee when acting as caregiver, caregiver, assistant caregivers, student assistants, and a volunteer.

Fixes who the three-year first aid duty reaches. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-20 — "student assistant" = 14 through 17 years of age under direct supervision. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-22.5 — "volunteer" = unpaid direct child care provider; if counted in ratio must be 14+ and "must meet the same requirements as paid personnel". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-4 and .../470-IAC-3-1.1-2 — "caregiver" and "assistant caregiver" both 18+. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-20.5 — "substitute educator" definition, added by the same 2025 final rule (20250604-IR-470240388FRA): a person who "meets all the requirements for an employee providing care to children" and covers when the usual caregiver is unavailable — i.e. a substitute carries the same CPR/first aid duties. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-44 — 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(a)-(b): Red Cross First Aid Manual "or its equivalent" required in the home; first aid kit "including, but not limited to, syrup of ipecac with current date".

Unamended and medically obsolete, still codified. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-18-7 — 470 IAC 3-18-7, the ONLY place Indiana's child care rules name certifying bodies: "(a) The provider, employee, and volunteer caregivers shall maintain current certification in first aid procedures provided by a certified trainer or licensed health professional. (b) ... (1) Control of bleeding. (2) Treatment of shock. (3) Artificial respiration. (4) Treatment for poisoning. (5) Procedures for choking. (6) Treatment for seizure. (c) The provider shall ensure that at least one (1) individual is present at all times who maintains current certification in CPR for all age groups of children receiving care. The CPR certification must meet the standards aligned with those of the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross." https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-3-5-8.html — IC 12-17.2-3.5-8: the CCDF/voucher parallel. (a) one adult with pediatric CPR certification present at all times; (b)(1) current pediatric first aid certification; (b)(4) 12 hours of annual continuing education that "may include ... first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation"; (b)(6) 90-day pediatric CPR training deadline; (c) 15-year-old school-corporation student volunteers; (d) documentation kept on site and produced on request. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-3-5-1.html — IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a): a licensed IC 12-17.2-5 home "is considered to be in compliance with this chapter" except per section 4(b).

Basis for treating IC 12-17.2-5-18.2 and 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5, not chapter 3.5, as the operative CPR law for a licensed home. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/early-child-care-and-education-legislative-changes/ — OECOSL, Early Child Care and Education Legislative Changes, read 26/08/2026. The 2025 summary: "All child care providers—including centers, homes, ministries, and LLEPs—must ensure that individuals are trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and pediatric first aid within 90 days of starting employment or volunteer duties. Training must apply to all age groups served by the program. Programs must also ensure that at least one certified individual is present at all times when children are in care. ... All accepted pediatric CPR certifications must include a live return demonstration of skills." FAQ: "Pediatric CPR training is not a formal designation and may be completed through a variety of methods, including an online training or the H&S Safety Module #3. Pediatric CPR certification is a formal certification in which the certified individual has completed a live return demonstration of skills."; "Does every employee need to be certified in pediatric CPR and first aid before starting work? No. All staff and volunteers must be trained within 90 days of starting.

At least one certified adult must always be present when children are in care. All infant and toddler teachers at child care centers must also be certified in pediatric CPR."; "Does this apply to ministries and LLEPs as well? Yes." https://secure.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/Homes_Interpretative_Guide_effective_2-2016.pdf — Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules, effective February 2016, still linked from the OECOSL laws index. Quotes the SUPERSEDED IC 12-17.2-5-18.2(a) ("maintains annual certification", no live-skills sentence) and the superseded 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(d). Threshold of compliance: "First aid certification is valid for 3 years. CPR and Universal Precautions certification is valid for one year." And, for CPR: "Certification can only be completed by demonstration of skills and cannot be done completely on-line." And: "CPR certification is valid for one year regardless of the expiration date listed on the card." Also the assessment methods quoted in the field (review staff files, review staffing schedule) and the OSHA-based annual Universal Precautions position. Treated as agency manual, not law. https://www.in.gov/dA/ce627c931e/ACF-118-CCDF-FY2025-2027-IN.pdf?language_id=1 — Indiana FFY 2025–2027 CCDF State Plan.

Reproduces 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5 in its PRE-2025 form ("shall be trained in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation training annually"), and 470 IAC 3-1.1-44 with the syrup-of-ipecac clause; also lists "CPR certification (one certified caregiver on site at all times)" and "First Aid Certification" among caregiver qualification items, and the 12-hour annual in-service rule. Used to date the sources, not to state current law. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/laws-rules-and-related-policies/ — OECOSL index of laws and rules in effect (*updated July 2025); confirms 470 IAC 3-1.1 (homes), 470 IAC 3-1.2 (infant/toddler in a home), 470 IAC 3-1.3 (Class II homes) and 470 IAC 3-18 (CCDF voucher provider eligibility) are what is served today. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/title-470/article-3/rule-470-IAC-3-1.2 and .../rule-470-IAC-3-1.3 — checked in full: 470 IAC 3-1.2 (sections 1-7, infant and toddler services) and 470 IAC 3-1.3 (section 1, Class II) impose NO additional CPR or first aid duty on a home. Negative result, deliberately recorded so nobody re-searches it. CONTRADICTS THE BRIEF: the brief directed the CPR research to "IC 12-17.2-3.5 and 470 IAC 3-1.1". For a LICENSED family child care home the CPR/first aid statute is IC 12-17.2-5-18.2, and IC 12-17.2-3.5-1(a) deems a licensed home compliant with chapter 3.5. Writing this field from chapter 3.5 would have missed the single most important sentence in Indiana law on this subject — "Certifications accepted under this subsection must include a live return demonstration of skills" — which appears in IC 12-17.2-5-18.2(a) and nowhere in chapter 3.5. CONTRADICTS THE BRIEF (partially): the brief asked "whether online-only certification is accepted".

The answer is not merely a policy position — it is statutory text, and it is reinforced by an official OECOSL FAQ that draws a training/certification line most other states do not. Online training satisfies the individual 90-day CPR TRAINING duty; it can never satisfy the CERTIFICATION duty of the covering adult. NOTED, NOT ASSERTED AS LAW: 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5 was amended (filed 5/7/2025) but 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(5) was not, so the codified rule now says both "current" (33.5(d), 28.5(c)(5)) and "annual" (32(a)(5)) CPR. The field states both and tells the applicant to renew annually or be ready to cite the FRA number. UNVERIFIED: the Indiana Register at iar.iga.in.gov is a JavaScript application that returns no text to a fetch; the full promulgation text of 20250604-IR-470240388FRA could not be read directly. The before/after wording was taken from LII's current-vs-prior quarterly comparison on 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5, which prints both versions and the filing citation. UNVERIFIED: the exact public law that inserted "live return demonstration of skills" into IC 12-17.2-5-18.2 could not be confirmed on an iga.in.gov document (bill PDFs return a 691-byte JavaScript shell).

Secondary sources attribute the 2025 CPR package to SEA 486 / P.L.26-2025 and a related House bill; the field therefore dates the change by OECOSL's own effective-1-July-2025 summary rather than naming an act. UNVERIFIED: no OECOSL statement was found on how licensing consultants are currently handling the syrup-of-ipecac clause in 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(b); the field tells the applicant to ask in writing rather than asserting an answer. UNVERIFIED: statutory text was read from FindLaw's Indiana Code, marked "Current as of January 01, 2026"; acts from the 2026 regular session could not be swept individually. OECOSL's legislative-changes page, checked 26/08/2026, still describes only the 2025 changes. [prelicensing_steps] IN / prelicensing_steps — sources actually opened, 26 August 2026. METHOD NOTE FIRST, BECAUSE IT CHANGES HOW THIS FIELD MUST BE READ. On 26 August 2026 the State of Indiana's two official legal-text websites were BROKEN and served no law at all. https://iar.iga.in.gov/ (Indiana Administrative Code / Indiana Register) and https://iga.in.gov/ (Indiana Code, bills, enrolled acts) are React single-page applications whose own JavaScript bundle 404s: every path on both hosts, including /static/js/main.07ecd1f5.js and /static/js/main.0fd45481.js and every PDF path under /pdf-documents/, returns the same 735-byte (resp. 691-byte) index.html with the CloudFront header "x-cache: Error from cloudfront".

Verified by curl, by WebFetch, and by a headless Chrome render (empty <div id="root">). Consequence: the rule-in-effect index required by method rule 1 COULD NOT BE OPENED TODAY, and the 2026 session-law sweep required by method rule 2 could not be performed at all. Everything below is therefore the best available substitute, and each source's own currency statement is recorded. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/laws-rules-and-related-policies/ — FSSA OECOSL's own index of governing law. Establishes the operative citations for family child care in Indiana: IC 12-17.2-2 (general powers), IC 12-17.2-3.5 (provider eligibility for reimbursement), IC 12-17.2-5 (regulation of child care homes), IC 12-17.2-6 (ministries); 470 IAC 3-1.1 (Child Care Homes), 470 IAC 3-1.2 (Infant/Toddler Services in a Child Care Home), 470 IAC 3-1.3 (Class II Child Care Homes), 470 IAC 3-4.5 (registered ministries), 470 IAC 3-18 (voucher eligibility).

CONFIRMS THE BRIEF'S CITATIONS for Indiana — 470 IAC 3-1.1 and the class I / class II split are correct, unlike NJ and IL in lot 6. Also establishes that FSSA's own links are stale: every law link is marked "updated July 2025" and points at the 2025 code year (iga.in.gov/laws/2025/..., iar.iga.in.gov/code/2025/470/3), except 470 IAC 3-4.7 which points at 2026 — i.e. the agency's index is itself a mix of code years. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/become-a-child-care-provider/ — the agency's four-step process, quoted in element 02: "Complete Orientation 1: Training for childcare providers (start-up process and information)", "Complete Orientation 2: Training for child care home providers (preparation for licensure)", "Submit your application online at I-LEAD", "Pass onsite inspection from the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning". Also the Emerging Provider Support address oecoslemergingprovidersupport@fssa.in.gov. Establishes that the FSSA page states NO fee and NO timeline for homes. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/i-lead-application-information/ — establishes the I-LEAD upload set: "Consent to release for background checks submitted to OECOSL for the applicant and all employees and volunteers"; "Fingerprints conducted through IDENTIGO for the applicant and all employees and volunteers prior to hire and then every three years"; for licensed centers and homes, "business permits or county statements confirming no permit requirement"; W-9 only for CCDF. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/become-a-child-care-provider/facilities-consultants/ — establishes that licensing consultants are assigned by county across five regions (North West, North East, Central, South West, South East/Central), Marion County split by ZIP code.

Used in element 04. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/title-470/article-3/rule-470-IAC-3-1.1 — full section list of 470 IAC 3-1.1 as currently compiled, 62 sections from -0.5 to -49. Page states "State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available." This list is the evidentiary basis for the NEGATIVE finding in element 16 (no liability-insurance section exists anywhere in the rule). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-24 — maximum capacity, 15 children under 11 at any one time in a Class I home, counting the caregiver's own and related children. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-26 — the four exemptions from licensure (element 01). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-27 — application every two years to the COFC on CDFC forms (element 04). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-28 — initial licensure, verbatim (a)(1)-(6), (b)(1)-(5), (c) 60-day decision.

Backbone of elements 04, 07, 08, 09, 13, 14. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-28.5 — annual inspection; note (c)(4) "Notification of the local fire department" and (c)(1) annual TB for direct providers AND all family members over 18. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-29.5 — licence provisions; two-year validity, non-transferable, public display, design professional statement for multiple licences in one structure, two-hour fire-resistive wall, and (h) 327 IAC 8 public-water-system trigger at 25+ people on a shared private well (element 13). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-14 — "provisional license" defined, 12 months maximum, reviewed every 3 months. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-32 — documentation requirements (a)(1)-(14). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-33 — staff requirements; one home per licensee, assistant caregiver supervision, student assistants/volunteers never left in charge. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-33.5 — staff orientation and training;

fire training within one week, 30-day topics, first aid within 90 days, at least one pediatric-CPR-certified provider on premises at all times. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-37 — admission requirements; enrolment form, emergency medical release, signed discipline policy, tour, 30-day health statement, religious exemption, open-door visits. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-40 — transportation; the ONLY insurance requirement in the entire rule, and it is on the vehicle. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-45 — general environment; no square-footage figure in the rule, contrary to common secondary claims. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-46 — fire prevention; (u) local fire department notification at application/relicensure, (v)(w) incident notifications, (x) SFM inspection only "if requested by the CDFC upon recommendation of the COFC", with SFM approval then required prior to full licensure. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-47 — sanitation, verbatim (a)-(d);

(b) annual testing only for non-municipal water; NO septic provision anywhere. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-48 — safety (a)-(e), including the locked-firearms-and-ammunition requirement. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-7.3 — "COFC" means "the county office of family and children in the county in which the child care home is located" — the abolished body still named in the rule (element 04). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/title-470/article-3/rule-470-IAC-3-1.3 and .../470-IAC-3-1.3-1 — Rule 1.3 has exactly ONE section; Class II serves more than 12 and not more than 16, must also comply with 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 3-1.2, and "If there is any difference in requirements, the specific information contained in IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 shall prevail." https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-1/ , -2/ , -3/ , -4/ , -5/ , -6/ , -6-3/ , -6-5/ , -7/ , -7-5/ , -12/ , -13/ , -14/ — IC 12-17.2-5, section by section.

Every page states "Current as of January 01, 2026". Established: licence required and capacity/location limits (-1); fire prevention and building safety commission consults "upon request" only (-2); application contents including local business permit or statement that none is required, and fingerprints for applicant, spouse, employees, volunteers, household members 18+, every three years (-3); denial grounds including DCS substantiation and the household-member conviction rule with the dismissal/no-longer-resident carve-out (-4); no action on an incomplete application, returned without prejudice (-5); investigation by announced or unannounced visits (-6); Class I diploma / CDA-within-three-years / safe sleep, and 35 sq ft plus illuminated exits for the +3 school-agers (-6.3); Class II first-story rule, hard-wired interconnected smoke detection, extinguisher in every room, E-3 egress, 35 sq ft per child (-6.5); issuance on compliance (-7); class shown on the licence face and the over-capacity penalty chain to sections 33/34/35 (-7.5); two-year expiry, non-transferability, continuation pending renewal, and the public display/distribution of licence-status disclosure with division contact and the county CCR&R number (-12);

provisional licence, one year maximum, three-month reviews (-13); probationary licence, six months extendable once, invalidates the prior licence, and the seven-day IC 5-3-1 publication plus written notice to every parent or guardian (-14). https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-2-1/ — division duties: national criminal history background check before licensure; administer licensing and monitoring; provide or approve safe sleep training; public website of violations and licence status excluding home addresses. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-2-2/ — THE FEE SECTION. "Current as of January 01, 2026". Fees the division MAY charge: $2 per licensed child capacity for a child care CENTER licence application and renewal; not more than $5 for a child care center new inquiry packet; not more than $5 for a child care HOME new inquiry packet; not more than $25 for the child care HOME ANNUAL INSPECTION.

There is NO home licence application or renewal fee. Basis of element 05. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-7-2-33-7/ and .../in-code-sect-12-7-2-33-8/ — Class I = 12 + 3 full-day-kindergarten children; Class II = more than 12, not more than 16; both excluding related children 7+ and any child 14+ not needing care. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-36-local-government/in-code-sect-36-7-4-1108/ — verbatim zoning protection: a zoning ordinance may not exclude a child care home from a residential area solely because it is a business, may not vary the IC 12-7-2-33.7/33.8 capacity limits, and may not impose requirements differing from DFR or fire prevention and building safety commission rules; subsection (c) preserves only the ordinary residential zoning, developmental standards and building codes. "Current as of January 01, 2026". Basis of element 15. https://secure.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/Homes_Interpretative_Guide_effective_2-2016.pdf — FSSA's own Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules, marked "Effective February 2016" on every page, downloaded and converted in full (207 KB of text).

Establishes what the rule text does not: the document set the worker reviews at initial application (application, proof of orientation attendance, attestation statement, medical statement, water test, design professional statement if applicable, "approval by the local fire inspector" if applicable, verification of education); that the water test is "good for 60 days prior to initial application received date"; that "The application is considered complete once the application, all of the attachments listed on the front of the application, and the results of the FBI fingerprints are received by the Bureau. The 60 days to process the completed application starts at that time."; that an incomplete applicant has 90 days before the application "is considered abandoned ... null and void"; that a positive water test requires two negative samples 24-48 hours apart and "is grounds for emergency closure"; that at annual inspection a verbal statement of local fire department notification is acceptable; that first aid certification is valid 3 years while CPR and Universal Precautions are valid one year; the two-hour firewall detail (30 inches above the roof line or a one-hour rating extending 4 feet each side); and that the relicensure visit is announced only to the quarter, never to the day.

DATED 2016 — used only for procedure and thresholds, never to override current rule or statute text. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/2023PolicyGrandfatheringLaw.pdf — OECOSL letter of 28 June 2023 signed by Licensing Director Tikila Welch, on the IC 12-17.2-5-6.3 grandfather clause: homes licensed before 1 July 2001 are excused the diploma, the CDA and the safe sleep course, but must still follow safe sleep practices, and lose the grandfather entirely if they close and re-open or open a new home, subject to a discretionary waiver where the closure was outside their control.

Basis of element 06. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/info_and_resources_on_training_requirements_MB.pdf — OECOSL guidance on the 12 hours of annual continuing education under IC 12-17.2-3.5, including the pro-rating of the first year from 1 July to the month of inspection and the no-duplicate-training rule. https://childcareanswers.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/OT2-Manual-for-Licensed-Child-Care-Homes.pdf — "Licensing Orientation 2 Training Manual for Family Child Care Home Providers", the CCR&R-delivered manual for the mandatory Orientation 2. Establishes the operational packet: apply at www.ilead.in.gov; "All first-time applicants must submit for Class I status"; the three licence types (regular / provisional / probationary); the 30-day physical window, 60-day criminal-history and drug-screen windows, 5-panel DOT chain-of-custody drug screen with MRO signature; the $15.00 Diploma Sender verification; the business permit form and the county "no permit required" letter; the HOA covenant warning; the pre-visit health/safety/fire checklist (4-foot fence, 35 sq ft per child fenced, pool fence with locked gate, wading pools prohibited, water temperature not exceeding 120°F, extension cords no longer than 6 feet, 35 sq ft landing outside a basement exit, landline required for CCDF, monthly drills for CCDF); and the state form numbers including Child care home licensing report State Form 46739, Statement of Attestation 48629, Consent to release information 53323, Business permit form 56523, Record of adult physical health examination 49970, Proposed class II child care home design professional statement 53939. NOT LAW, and dated 2020 — used for procedure and cited as agency/CCR&R practice, not as rule.

WHERE THIS CONTRADICTS THE BRIEF AND THE TASK PROMPT — the text wins, four times. 1. THE FEE. The task prompt asked for "the fee". There is no application or renewal fee for an Indiana child care HOME. IC 12-17.2-2-2 authorises only a $5 inquiry packet and a $25 ANNUAL INSPECTION fee for homes; the $2-per-capacity fee is a CENTER fee and the $50 fee is a MINISTRY registration fee. Every "$50-$75" or "$25-$100" figure on commercial licensing-guide sites is unsourced invention. 2. THE FIRE MARSHAL. The prompt asked for "the fire safety inspection and local fire marshal sign-off". Indiana Class I homes have NEITHER. 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(u) requires only that the licensee NOTIFY the local fire department of capacity and hours at application and relicensure; 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(x) makes State Fire Marshal inspection conditional on the licensing division requesting it; IC 12-17.2-5-2 makes the fire prevention and building safety commission a consultative body "upon request". Only Class II homes face hard building-code fire requirements, and those come from IC 12-17.2-5-6.5, not from a fire marshal visit. 3. ZONING.

The prompt called zoning clearance "an Indiana-specific expense that catches applicants late". It is the opposite: IC 36-7-4-1108 forbids a zoning ordinance from excluding a home child care business from a residential area, from varying the state capacity limits, or from imposing requirements differing from DFR rules. What is genuinely required is the IC 12-17.2-5-3(b) local business permit — or a written statement from the county, city or town that no permit is required — plus a private HOA covenant check, which the statute does not protect against. 4. LIABILITY INSURANCE. The prompt asked for "liability insurance or the written parent notice in lieu of it". Neither exists in Indiana for child care homes. Across all 62 sections of 470 IAC 3-1.1 the only insurance requirement is 470 IAC 3-1.1-40(b), on the VEHICLE used to transport children; there is no general liability requirement and no notice-in-lieu mechanism in the rule. The written-disclosure duty that DOES exist is IC 12-17.2-5-12, and it concerns licence status, division contact information and the county CCR&R telephone number — not insurance.

Also worth flagging for the coordinator: 470 IAC 3-1.1-27, -7.3 and the whole of -28(b) still direct the applicant to the "county office of family and children", a body abolished in the FSSA reorganisation. The codified rule describes an administrative world that no longer exists; the live process is I-LEAD plus a county-assigned OECOSL licensing consultant. This is the same failure pattern as MN and ND in earlier lots, but here it is the RULE, not the manual, that is stale.

UNVERIFIED: (a) The 2026 Indiana session was NOT swept, because iga.in.gov served no bills, no enrolled acts and no code on 26 August 2026 — HB 1389 of the 2026 session surfaced in search as an enrolled act at iga.in.gov/pdf-documents/124/2026/house/bills/HB1389/HB1389.04.ENRS.pdf but the file could not be retrieved; whether it or any other 2026 act amends IC 12-17.2 is unknown. (b) A 2026 FSSA rulemaking exists at iar.iga.in.gov/register/20260603-IR-470260159RAA touching 470 IAC 3-4.7 (centers) and possibly the home rules; the Indiana Register was unreachable and its content could not be read — 470 IAC 3-1.1 may have been amended in 2026 in ways not reflected here. (c) All IC text above is dated to FindLaw's stated currency of 1 January 2026 and therefore does NOT include anything effective 1 July 2026; the codified 470 IAC text is Cornell's current compilation with no explicit as-of date beyond "updated quarterly". (d) Sections of IC 12-17.2-5 numbered 8 through 11 and 15 through 35 were not individually opened; the assertion that no liability-insurance requirement exists rests on the complete 470 IAC 3-1.1 section list and on FSSA's own document lists, not on a section-by-section reading of the whole statute chapter. (e) The $25 annual inspection fee is stated as a fee the division MAY charge;

whether OECOSL actually bills it to home licensees today was not confirmed on any FSSA page. (f) The "three to six months" end-to-end timeline in element 18 is an estimate built from the 60-day statutory clock, the FBI-results gate and the 90-day abandonment rule; FSSA publishes no median processing time. (g) The Interpretative Guide (2016) and the Orientation 2 manual (2020) are the only sources for several procedural thresholds — the 90-day abandonment rule, the 30/60-day document windows, the MRO-signed 5-panel drug screen, the $15 Diploma Sender fee, the 4-foot fence and 120°F water temperature — and none of those appear in current rule or statute text; treat them as agency practice that may have moved. [preservice_training] Research date: 2026-08-26. State: Indiana.

Field: preservice_training. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/title-470/article-3/rule-470-IAC-3-1.1 — index of every section of 470 IAC 3-1.1 as currently compiled; establishes that Rule 1.1 defines ONLY "Class I child care home" (sec. 7.2) and contains no Class II definition; shows the newly added sec. 20.5 "Substitute educator" present in the current version and absent from the prior quarterly release. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-33.5 — full verbatim text of the training section AND the superseded prior text side by side; source of the 2025 amendment diff at subsection (d) ("trained ... annually" -> "maintain current certification"); credit line gives "Filed 5/7/2025, 2:20 p.m.: 20250604-IR-470240388FRA". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-28 — sec. 28(a)(1) "Attend an orientation training arranged or approved by the CDFC"; 30-day medical statement; sex offender registry check citing repealed IC 5-2-12. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-28.5 — annual inspection; current and superseded text of (c)(5) ("current cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification" vs former "annual CPR certification");

also carries the 2025 FRA credit line. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-32 — documentation requirements; (a)(5) still says "annual CPR certification" (NOT conformed to the 2025 amendment); (a)(13) quarterly fire drill record; (a)(14) written evacuation plan; (a)(4) cites repealed IC 5-2-12. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-20.5 — new 2025 definition of "substitute educator". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-22.5 — "volunteer" defined; volunteer counted in ratio must be 14+ and "must meet the same requirements as paid personnel". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-7.2 — Class I capacity definition (12 + 3 school-age, school year only, not during breaks over four weeks). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-24 — 15-children-under-11 ceiling including the caregiver's own children. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-26 — exemption from licensure (under six unrelated children, relatives only, no regular compensation, migrant). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-34 — physical exam and annual Mantoux;

30-day deadline at (c). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-35 — mandated reporting section citing IC 31-6-11-3, repealed by P.L. 268-1995 effective 1 July 1995. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-40 — transportation and off-site activities; no separate training mandate. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-44 — health; (f) medication permission/labelling/log; (b) still requires syrup of ipecac. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-29.5 — two-year licence validity. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-27 — biennial application. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/title-470/article-3/rule-470-IAC-3-1.3 and https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.3-1 — Class II is a one-section rule; incorporates 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 3-1.2; IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 prevails on any difference. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/title-470/article-3/rule-470-IAC-3-1.2 — confirms Rule 1.2 (infant/toddler) contains NO training section. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-18-7 — CCDF rule;

current and superseded text ("current certification ... American Heart Association or the American Red Cross" replacing "annual certification ... JAMA standards"), same 2025 FRA. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-18-1 — CCDF definitions, incl. the 2025-added "substitute educator". https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-6-3/ — IC 12-17.2-5-6.3, Class I qualifications: diploma/HSE, CDA "completed / enrolled in / agrees to complete within the next three (3) years", safe sleep course, waiver clause.

Current as of 1 January 2026. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-6-5/ — IC 12-17.2-5-6.5, Class II qualifications, nine subdivisions; diploma and CDA are NOT among them; (9) safe sleep course. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-18-2/ — IC 12-17.2-5-18.2: one adult with current pediatric CPR certification present at all times, certification "must include a live return demonstration of skills"; 90-day CPR training for each caregiver; current pediatric first aid certification for each caregiver. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-3-7/ — IC 12-17.2-5-3.7 safe sleep duty and the $50/$75/$100 per-violation civil penalty ladder with probation on the fourth inspection. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-28/ (and the rest of IC 12-17.2-5, sections 1 through 37 read in full) — confirms the chapter contains no continuing-education hour count for licensed homes. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/become-a-child-care-provider/ — OECOSL's own instruction: Orientation 1 then Orientation 2 (home version) inside Indiana Learning Paths at I-LEAD, application submitted at I-LEAD, then onsite inspection.

Separate Orientation 2 courses exist for centers, homes and ministries. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/new-health-and-safety-orientation-training-requirement/ — CCDBG 2014 health and safety orientation; applies to "All licensed homes"; the ten required topic areas quoted verbatim plus "Major domains of child development" as highly recommended; Health and Safety Modules 1-4 documented through the I-LEAD provider portal; certificate content requirements; compliance checked at renewal inspection. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/laws-rules-and-related-policies/ — OECOSL's rules index; links 470 IAC 3-1.1 / 3-1.2 / 3-1.3 to the 2025 IAC edition and 470 IAC 3-4.7 to the 2026 edition; links 410 IAC 7-24 for food establishment sanitation; links the Homes Interpretative Guide. https://www.in.gov/dA/cf7eff9e48/Homes_Interpretative_Guide_effective_2-2016.pdf — Interpretative Guide for Child Care Home Rules, effective February 2016. Quotes 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(d) and 28.5(c)(5) in their PRE-2025 form. Source of the universal precautions threshold ("OSHA requires that all staff and volunteers working with children complete Universal Precautions training annually. Training must be conducted by someone with current Universal Precautions training and approved by the agency") and of "First aid certification is valid for 3 years.

CPR and Universal Precautions certification is valid for one year." https://www.in.gov/dA/3a74118d09/2023PolicyGrandfatheringLaw.pdf — OECOSL letter of 28 June 2023 on the pre-1 July 2001 grandfather practice for diploma, CDA and safe sleep, and its loss on closure/reopening. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/early-child-care-and-education-legislative-changes/ — 2025 changes: SEA 486 TB testing removed for ministries and LLEPs but "For licensed centers and homes, TB testing requirements remain in effect under current administrative rules ... providers in these categories must submit a single variance per site to omit TB testing"; pediatric CPR/first aid within 90 days for all provider types; the training-versus-certification distinction and H&S Safety Module #3; SEA 463 ratio/group changes stated NOT to apply to licensed homes; HB 1253 school-program exemption. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/provider-resources/professional-development/ — I-LEAD, Indiana Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning Career Pathways, Indiana Core Knowledge and Competencies second edition "adopted by the Indiana Professional Development Network on April 6, 2016", non-formal CDA project and CDA scholarships. https://www.in.gov/dA/519d39b749/info_and_resources_on_training_requirements_MB.pdf — OECOSL information sheet on ongoing training under IC 12-17.2-3.5 (still published);

certificate content rules and the no-double-counting rule. https://www.in.gov/fssa/rulemaking-notices-and-updates/ — lists LSA 26-158 Child Care Homes Rule and LSA 26-159 Child Care Centers Rule as current pending rules; public hearing videos for "July 6, 2026 OECOSL Child Care Home Rule". https://www.in.gov/dA/3d16d29c26/LSA-26-158ChildCareHomesDocket.pdf — the homes rulemaking docket: "Amends rules at 470 IAC 3-1 concerning licensed child care homes"; proposed rule published 6/3/2026; public hearing 7/6/2026; final rule adopted 7/13/2026; Governor's office 8/27/2026; filed with Indiana Register 9/11/2026; anticipated effective date 10/11/2026. CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF (1): the brief describes 470 IAC 3-1.1 as covering "class I / class II family child care homes".

It does not. 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.2 defines only "Class I child care home"; there is no Class II definition anywhere in Rule 1.1. Class II is created by IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 and regulated by the single-section rule 470 IAC 3-1.3, which incorporates Rule 1.1 and Rule 1.2 by reference and makes the statute prevail on any difference. Writing "470 IAC 3-1.1 (class I / class II)" sends a Class II applicant to a rule that never mentions their licence class and hides the provision that actually controls. CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF (2): the brief's suggested Indiana angle is the "unlicensed registered ministry" exemption boundary. That is a real and separate topic, but it is not where the training money is lost. The two live, dated, expensive facts for a 2026 applicant are (a) the 7 May 2025 final rule 20250604-IR-470240388FRA, which deleted "annually" from the CPR obligation in three places while leaving 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(5) saying "annual CPR certification", and (b) the pending LSA 26-158 rewrite of 470 IAC 3-1 with an anticipated effective date of 11 October 2026. ACCESS NOTE (method rule 1 applied): the official index — iar.iga.in.gov (Indiana Administrative Rules and Policies) and iga.in.gov (Indiana General Assembly) — could NOT be read on 2026-08-26 from this vantage.

Both are React single-page applications whose JavaScript bundles (/static/js/main.07ecd1f5.js and /static/js/main.0fd45481.js) return the 735-byte and 691-byte index.html with "x-cache: Error from cloudfront" via the CDG54 CloudFront POP, so the app never mounts and every /code/... and /register/... path renders an empty page. Verified by curl, by headless Chrome over CDP, and by same-origin fetch() from inside the loaded page. api.iga.in.gov returns 403 "Invalid API key". law.justia.com is behind a Cloudflare bot challenge. The primary text above was therefore read on law.cornell.edu (Indiana Administrative Code, updated quarterly, which uniquely also serves the superseded prior quarterly text — that side-by-side is what exposed the 2025 amendment) and on codes.findlaw.com (Indiana Code, "Current as of January 01, 2026"), and cross-checked against agency-hosted material on in.gov. This failure may be POP-specific rather than nationwide; it is not published as a fact about Indiana law. UNVERIFIED: the effective date of 20250604-IR-470240388FRA. The rule was filed 7 May 2025 and published in the 4 June 2025 Register; the statutory 30-day rule under IC 4-22-2-36 was not read directly and no effective date is asserted in the field text.

UNVERIFIED: the full text of the LSA 26-158 proposed rule (20260603-IR-470260158FNA) and what it changes in 470 IAC 3-1 — the Register document could not be rendered. Only the docket PDF was read. UNVERIFIED: whether the OECOSL pre-1 July 2001 grandfather practice rests on a non-code session-law provision. The codified text of IC 12-17.2-5-6.3 as published contains no such clause; the field text says so and tells the reader to get the exemption confirmed in writing rather than asserting the clause does not exist. UNVERIFIED: the Spanish-language rule PDFs (homes1.1_SP.pdf, Rule1.3_SP.pdf) were not opened; no claim rests on them. [program] https://iar.iga.in.gov/code/current/470/3 — Indiana Administrative Code, CURRENT Title 470 Article 3 as the index serves it on 26 Aug 2026 (via r.jina.ai; the site is a JS SPA that returns a 735-byte shell to curl/WebFetch).

Verbatim source for: 470 IAC 3-1.1-7 (definition of child care home, six children / regular compensation / more than 4 but less than 24 hours in each of 10 consecutive days per year), -7.2 (Class I: 12 + 3 enrolled in at least grade one; related child 7+ not counted), -24 (separate cap of 15 children under 11 present at any one time, including the caregiver's own), -26 (exemption from licensure, four grounds), -29.5 (two-year license, non-transferable, public display, multiple homes in one structure, 2-hour fire wall, design professional certification, 327 IAC 8 at 25+ people), -36.5 (child to staff ratios 6:1 / 10:1 / 12:1 with the 16-months-and-walking footnotes), -28(a)(5), -32(a)(2) and -34 (Mantoux tuberculin test still required of homes); Rule 1.2 (infant and toddler services, crib and portacrib definitions, naps); Rule 1.3 sole section 470 IAC 3-1.3-1 verbatim (Class II = more than 12 but not more than 16, must also meet 3-1.1 and 3-1.2, "the specific information contained in IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 shall prevail"); Rule 4.5 (registered day care ministries) including 470 IAC 3-4.5-1 definitions and the "substitute educator" addition; Rule 18 (CCDF voucher provider eligibility) in the article list. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/MatrixforIndianaCCProgramJan.pdf — OECOSL "Matrix" of all regulated Indiana child care program types (PDF, read with pdftotext).

Establishes side by side: Center / Ministry / Home Class I / Home Class II / LLEP-PES / VCP; that Class I and Class II providers "Must live in the home to meet Residential Building Codes (DHS)"; annual inspection and 2-year licence renewal for homes; ministry capacity "Set by DHS" and ministry ratios "Not Regulated"; VCP as the pathway to Paths to QUALITY; and the statutory Class I wording "twelve (12) children plus three (3) children who are enrolled in at least full-day kindergarten" with the exclusion of a related child "at least fourteen (14) years of age and does not require child care" — wording that DIFFERS from 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.2's "enrolled in at least grade one (1)". https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/Monitoring-Process-Child-Care-Programs-in-Indiana.pdf — the four regulated program types named verbatim by OECOSL; unannounced monitoring at least annually, bi-annually for unlicensed registered ministries. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/early-child-care-and-education-legislative-changes/ — OECOSL page on the 2025 legislative changes as served today. Verbatim source for: pediatric CPR and pediatric first aid within 90 days for "centers, homes, ministries, and LLEPs" with at least one certified individual present at all times and live return demonstration of skills; HB 1253 school-operated exemption conditions; three-year variances for centers; the two-year freeze on new building/fire/equipment requirements after an inspection or plan review; SEA 463 group and ratio definitions; the FAQ statements that the updated ratio chart at IC 12-17.2-4-14.5 took effect 1 December 2025 and that "These specific ratios do not apply to exempt or licensed child care home programs"; and the TB answer "Yes—for now.

The statutory requirement has been removed for ministries and Legally Licensed Exempt Providers (LLEPs), but administrative rules for centers and homes remain in effect ...

Until then, a site-specific variance must be submitted." (SEA 486). https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/child-care-vouchers/ — CCDF and On My Way Pre-K as served today: 135% FPL / about $43,000 for a family of four; the 2024 waitlist for all new CCDF and OMWPK applicants; 90-day reconfirmation; re-authorization documents; Pay by Enrollment replacing attendance billing; Child Care Support Line 1-800-299-1627. https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2025/10/30/fssa-simply-does-not-have-the-funding-no-new-indiana-child-care-vouchers-to-be-issued-until-2027/ and https://www.wboi.org/2026-08-05/thousands-of-indiana-families-got-childcare-help-but-the-waitlist-still-tops-29-000 — the voucher timeline: the October 2025 position that no new vouchers would issue before 2027; the April 2026 $200 million CCDF increase approved by the budget committee; roughly 14,000 children moved off the waitlist from May 2026; enrolment cap back to about 57,000; waitlist about 29,800 at the end of July 2026. Journalism, not law — used only for the subsidy queue figures, which no official page states in one place. https://www.in.gov/fssa/pathstoquality/ — "Paths to QUALITY - Indiana's Child Care Quality Rating and Improvement System", as served today. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-2-8/ — IC 12-17.2-2-8 exemptions from licensure, edition "current as of January 01, 2026";

enumerated exemptions (1)-(8) quoted, with (9)-(14) summarised by the source. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-6-1/ — IC 12-17.2-6-1 verbatim (ministry exempt if it complies with the chapter; may apply for licensure and is then fully regulated), same edition. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-6-2/ — IC 12-17.2-6-2 verbatim (may not operate unless registered with the division AND the department of homeland security; e-mail address required; registration expires two years after issuance), same edition. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-6-5/ — IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 Class II qualification requirements, same edition. https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-1/, .../in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-12/, .../in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-29/, .../in-code-sect-12-17-2-5-35/ — licence required and over-capacity prohibition; two-year expiration, display, renewal and required postings; $100-a-day civil penalty and removal of children; Class B misdemeanor.

All "current as of January 01, 2026". https://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-12-human-services/in-code-sect-12-17-2-7-6-1/ — IC 12-17.2-7.6-1, micro facility defined as a licensed entity serving "not less than three (3) children and not more than thirty (30) children for at least four (4) hours per day", with the face notice "Section effective until January 1, 2027. This section expires pursuant to IC 12-17.2-7.6-5". https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/12 — IGA 2026 edition, Title 12 navigation (via r.jina.ai, cache bypassed). Confirms the CURRENT chapter list of IC 12-17.2: Chapter 2 (general powers and duties), 2.5 (child care advisory committees), 3.5 (eligibility of child care provider for voucher reimbursement), 3.8 (Early Learning Advisory Committee), 4 (centers), 5 (homes, full section list read), 6 (ministries), 7.2 (prekindergarten), 7.5 (Technology Based In-Home Early Education), 7.6 (Micro Facility Pilot Program). Chapters 3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.6 and 3.7 are shown as Repealed. https://iar.iga.in.gov/register/20260603-IR-470260159RAA and https://iar.iga.in.gov/register/20250604-IR-470240388FRA and https://iar.iga.in.gov/register/20241002-IR-470240269IFA — the rulemaking timeline: EO 25-68 extension of the child care rules' expiration to 1 January 2027; the pending rewrite limited to 470 IAC 3-4.7 and 3-4.8; the May 2025 final rule that amended 470 IAC 3-1.1-20.5, -28.5 and -33.5 and 470 IAC 3-18-7; the interim final rule effective 19 September 2024 and expired 18 November 2025. BRIEF CONTRADICTED (1): the Lot 7 brief describes "470 IAC 3-1.1 (class I / class II family child care homes)".

Class II homes are NOT in 470 IAC 3-1.1. They are governed by 470 IAC 3-1.3, a single-section rule that incorporates 3-1.1 and 3-1.2 by reference and then subordinates itself to the statute: "If there is any difference in requirements, the specific information contained in IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 shall prevail." An entry that cites only 3-1.1 for a 16-child home is citing the wrong rule and will miss the first-story, hard-wired-smoke-detection, 35-square-feet and E-3 exit requirements that live in the statute. BRIEF CONTRADICTED (2): the brief frames the "unlicensed registered ministry" as an exemption to verify. It is not an exemption you elect, it is a registration you obtain, and the registration is filed with two bodies, neither of which is the one the rule names. IC 12-17.2-6-2 requires registration "with ... the division and the department of homeland security"; 470 IAC 3-4.5-1(3) still says "registered with IDOH and the state fire marshal's office". The rule is stale and the statute governs. The exemption also belongs to the 501(c)(3) religious organization, not to the caregiver: the ministry must be "an extension of a church or religious ministry" and must remain "under the jurisdiction and management of the religious organization".

CONFLICT INSIDE THE RULE, documented rather than resolved: 470 IAC 3-1.1-24 caps a Class I home at "fifteen (15) children who are less than eleven (11) years of age ... at any one (1) time", counting the caregiver's own and related children, while 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.2 and -36.5 state the capacity as twelve plus three school-age children. Both are in the code as served today. Both were carried unchanged through the November 2019 readoption. UNVERIFIED: the exact current statutory wording of the Class I definition (IC 12-7-2.1-68). FindLaw returned 404 for that section and IGA renders section text only in the browser. The "full-day kindergarten" and "at least fourteen (14) years of age" wording is quoted from OECOSL's own Matrix, which presents it as the statutory definition; the rule at 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.2 still says "grade one (1)". Treat the divergence as real and the exact statutory phrasing as second-hand. UNVERIFIED: whether any 2026 session enrolled act amended IC 12-17.2. HEA 1360 (2026) was read in full and contains no reference to 12-17.2. A complete act-by-act sweep of the 2026 session was not possible because the IGA bill list renders only in the browser; the 2025 acts (SEA 463 / P.L.140-2025, SEA 486, HB 1253) are documented from FSSA's own legislative-changes page. [required_forms] SOURCES OPENED FOR IN / required_forms — research performed 26 August 2026. All URLs below were fetched during this task; nothing here is written from memory. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/family-resources/forms/ — THE primary source for this field.

OECOSL's Forms page as served on 26/08/2026, with four tabs (Licensed centers, Licensed homes, Registered ministries, Legally licensed-exempt providers).

Established the exact current titles and State Form numbers used throughout: Attestation SF 48629; Birth Certificate Consent SF 50548; Consent to release information for licensed centers, licensed homes, unlicensed registered ministries and CCDF LLEPs SF 53323; Child Care Home Certificate of Residential Structure SF 51477; Proposed multiple residences for child care home design professional statement SF 51476; Immunization Form SF 49445 (listed as "History of immunizations - State Form 49445" on the ministries tab — same number, two titles); Physical Form for Adult Caregiver SF 49970; Physical Form for Child SF 49969; Injury Report Child SF 54265; Inspection Checklist - Pre-Licensing SF 49450 (Spanish SF 57677); Licensed Home Inspection Checklist SF 46739 (Spanish SF 57680); Inspection Checklist Class II Home SF 53959; Provider Response Form to a POI/POC SF 53320; Proof of local business permit / license to operate a child care program SF 56523 (Spanish SF 57678); Over The Counter Medication Order SF 49968 (listed under Licensed centers only); Child care medical waiver SF 57670 Spanish / SF 56619 on the ministries tab; Annual Tuberculosis Risk-Symptom Screening Questionnaire, Safe Sleep Medical Waiver Form, Drug Testing Consent, Health and Safety Module Orientation Training Log, Variance or Waiver Application for Homes, Monthly Reporting of Enrolled Children (Homes & Centers, Birth Certificate) — all published with NO State Form number. https://www.in.gov/dA/2aa0cd279b/homes1.1_SP.pdf?language_id=1 — FSSA's own published text of 470 IAC 3-1.1 (Spanish edition; the English link on the same index goes to iar.iga.in.gov, which is unreachable, see below).

Established verbatim: sec. 27 biennial application to the COFC on forms provided by the CDFR; sec. 28(a)(1)-(6) and 28(b)(1)-(5) and 28(c) sixty-day decision; sec. 29 relicensure attachments; sec. 29.5(a) two-year licence, (e) design professional statement for multiple licences in one structure, (f) two-hour fire wall, (h) 327 IAC 8 water testing at 25+ persons; sec. 31 incomplete application returned; sec. 32(a)(1)-(14) the full documentation list; sec. 33.5 orientation/training deadlines; sec. 34(a)-(c) medical requirements and religious exemption with parental notice; sec. 35; sec. 36.5 Class I capacity and ratios; sec. 37(a)-(f) admission requirements; sec. 39 swimming; sec. 40 transportation; sec. 41 discipline; sec. 44(f) medication; sec. 46(r),(s),(u),(v),(w); sec. 47(b) annual water test; sec. 49 waivers and variances. Filing history in this text ends at the 12 July 2001 readoption for most sections, with three 2021 filings. https://www.in.gov/dA/cf7eff9e48/Homes_Interpretative_Guide_effective_2-2016.pdf?language_id=1 — OECOSL Interpretative Guide for child care home rules, effective February 2016, 80 pages.

Used as the ENGLISH cross-check on the Spanish rule text: sections 32, 35, 36.5, 37, 44 and 46 were compared word for word and match. It also gave the English definitions at 470 IAC 3-1.1-4.5 ("CDFR" means the central office of the Indiana division of family resources) and 470 IAC 3-1.1-7.3 ("COFC" means the county office of family and children), and reproduces IC 12-17.2-5-18.6 (missing child reports) and IC 12-17.2-5-18.7 in full. Treated as an agency publication, not as law — every rule quotation used in the field was confirmed against the FSSA rule PDF as well. https://www.in.gov/dA/1b3eefa1c3/Rule1.3_SP.pdf?language_id=1 — FSSA text of 470 IAC 3-1.2 and 470 IAC 3-1.3. Established 470 IAC 3-1.3-1: a Class II home serves a minimum of twelve and a maximum of sixteen children, must meet all of 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 470 IAC 3-1.2, and IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 prevails on any difference. Established that Rule 1.3 adds NO drill requirement. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/laws-rules-and-related-policies/ — OECOSL index of laws and rules as served 26/08/2026. Established which rules are in force for homes (470 IAC 3-1.1, 3-1.2, 3-1.3, 3-4.8, 3-18) and that FSSA's English links point to iar.iga.in.gov/code/2025/470/3 for the home rules while pointing to /code/2026/470/3 for the centre rule 470 IAC 3-4.7 — i.e. the agency's own index sends home providers to the 2025 edition. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/become-a-child-care-provider/ — established that the licence application is submitted ONLINE at I-LEAD (secure.in.gov/apps/fssa/childcare/portal/home) after Orientation 1 and Orientation 2 in Indiana Learning Paths, followed by an onsite OECOSL inspection.

No paper application form is published for a licensed home. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/background-check-requirements/ — established State Form 53323 as the required consent for all child care staff members, the definition of a child care staff member, the explicit extension to "the caregiver and all household members age 18 or older" in licensed family child care homes, the four components of a complete check, fingerprints every three years, a new check after 180 consecutive days out of Indiana child care, annual CPI and SOR checks, provisional status under direct visual supervision, and that Indiana is not an NFF or Compact state. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/provider-resources/provider-fingerprinting-services/ — established the IdentoGO by MorphoTrust requirement since 1 June 2013, the separate juvenile criminal history check instructions for under-18s, and the record-challenge document. https://www.in.gov/dA/9b9e8dffa1/Home-Child-File-Resource-Sheet.pdf?language_id=1 — OECOSL "Child File Review for Licensed Home", last updated 9/13/2023. Established the on-site child file list, including the 12-month look-back on the child's physical ("within 30 days of child's enrollment date, no earlier than 12 months prior to enrollment"), "Immunization (within 30 days of enrollment, kept current)", the authorized pick-up list, the emergency medical care release, transportation permission, the signed discipline policy, the suspension and expulsion policy shared at enrolment, and "Licensed Child Care Home Consent Form State form: 50548". https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/Home-Staff-File-Resource-Sheet.pdf — OECOSL "Staff file review for licensed homes", dated 8/10/2026 — the most recent OECOSL document found in this research.

Established the staff and household-member file lists quoted in element 17, including the CDA-or-similar documentation, the drug test with MRO review, the post-1 July 2023 CPR currency rule keyed to the card expiry, universal precautions within 30 days and annually, safe sleep modules 1 and 2 before working, the four Health and Safety Modules within 90 days, 12 hours of annual in-service, and fire prevention within one week. https://www.in.gov/dA/605c1b084a/IN-ChildCare-Dev-Fund-Drug-Substance-Abuse-Screening-Test-Consent.pdf?language_id=1 and https://www.in.gov/dA/30a4e5ebbd/Drug-test-consent.pdf?language_id=1 — the Substance Abuse Screening Test Consent Form (2025 revision, Braun administration letterhead). Established on its face the authority IC 12-17.2-5-3.5 for licensed homes, the five-substance panel (Amphetamines, Cocaine, Opiates, PCP, THC), coverage of the provider, all residents over eighteen and every employee or caregiver, timing "prior to licensing or participation in the CCDF program", and the immediate suspension/termination consequence of a positive result. https://www.in.gov/dA/c99016fa38/Tuberculosis_Questiannaire.pdf?language_id=1 — the Annual Tuberculosis Risk/Symptom Screening Questionnaire, verbatim header and fields.

No State Form number is printed on it. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/early-child-care-and-education-legislative-changes/ — OECOSL's 2025 legislative and rule changes page as served 26/08/2026. Established that SEA 486 removed TB testing for ministries and LLEPs only, that "For licensed centers and homes, TB testing requirements remain in effect under current administrative rules" and that "providers in these categories must submit a single variance per site to omit TB testing"; that pediatric CPR and first aid training is due within 90 days of starting for all provider types with at least one certified individual present at all times and a live return demonstration of skills; that SEA 463 ratio and mixed-age changes (IC 12-17.2-4-14.5, effective 1 December 2025) apply to centres and CCDF programmes accepting more than 16 children and expressly "do not apply to exempt or licensed child care home programs"; and that HB 1253 widened the school-operated exemption. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/provider-resources/house-enrolled-act-1073/ — established that HEA 1073 requires licensed homes to provide, at initial application or at renewal, either a business permit/licence or a signed statement from the county, city or town that none is required (State Form 56523). https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/provider-resources/emergency-response-planning-for-child-care-providers/ — established that Indiana's tornado/severe-weather material is guidance (Indiana Emergency Response Planning Guide for Child Care Providers, plus an Indiana Learning Paths course), not a drill rule for homes. https://www.in.gov/dA/6ce99b7c3f/Monitoring-Process-Child-Care-Programs-in-Indiana.pdf?language_id=1 — OECOSL monitoring process;

established the inspection/complaint-inspection framework referred to in element 16. https://www.in.gov/dA/d7c1c1e84e/BCC_Health_Program_for_Accredited_Homes.pdf?language_id=1 — opened because the Licensed homes tab links it as "Health program for accredited child care homes".

The file that is actually served is HEALTH CARE PROGRAM FOR CHILD CARE CENTERS, State Form 45877 (R5 / 11-11), which incorporates 470 IAC 3-4.7-84 — a CENTRE form under a HOME heading. Not used as authority for anything in this field; recorded here as a live mislabelling on OECOSL's own homes tab. WHERE THIS FIELD CONTRADICTS THE BRIEF AND THE TASK INSTRUCTION 1. TORNADO DRILLS. The task said "the fire and tornado drill logs (Indiana requires tornado drills — verify)". Verified and DENIED for licensed family child care homes. 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(13) requires a "record of dates of quarterly fire drills" kept two years, and 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(s) requires the caregiver to "conduct and document quarterly fire drills". The word tornado appears nowhere in 470 IAC 3-1.1 as published by FSSA, and 470 IAC 3-1.3 adds no drill for Class II homes. Tornado sheltering is guidance under OECOSL's emergency response planning page and belongs in the 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(14) written evacuation plan; it is not a logged drill requirement. (Indiana's centre rule 470 IAC 3-4.7 was not read in this task — the tornado-drill claim may well be true for CENTRES, which would explain how it entered the brief.) 2. SWIMMING/WATER PERMISSION.

The task listed "the swimming/water activity permission" as a required form. 470 IAC 3-1.1-39 imposes supervision, wading-pool emptying and fencing/locked-gate duties and contains NO consent or signature requirement. A swim outing away from the premises is caught instead by 470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(9) and 470 IAC 3-1.1-40(a) as an activity away from the home. Written as such in element 12. 3. THE LICENCE APPLICATION IS NOT A STATE FORM. There is no published paper application form for a licensed child care home; OECOSL takes it only in I-LEAD. The rule text at 470 IAC 3-1.1-27 and -28 still directs it to the "COFC" (county office of family and children) on forms provided by the "CDFR" (central office of the division of family resources) — two bodies that no longer perform this function. The rule is stale on its face; the agency's live instruction governs. 4. "PARENT HANDBOOK ACKNOWLEDGEMENT". The task asked for a parent handbook / written policy acknowledgement. Indiana's home rule requires no handbook. What it requires, specifically, is a signed copy of the licensee's WRITTEN DISCIPLINE POLICY (470 IAC 3-1.1-32(a)(10), -37(a)(3), -41(a)) plus, per the 9/13/2023 child file sheet, the suspension and expulsion policy shared at enrolment.

Written as such in element 11 rather than inventing a handbook requirement. 5. NO FORM WAS FOUND RETIRED. Every State Form number cited in this field is live on the OECOSL Forms page today. Two naming discrepancies were found and are recorded rather than resolved: SF 50548 is "Birth Certificate Consent" on the Forms page but "Licensed Child Care Home Consent Form" on the 9/13/2023 child file sheet; and SF 49445 is "Immunization Form" on three tabs and "History of immunizations" on the ministries tab. UNVERIFIED: (a) The revision codes and printed legal citations on the face of the State Forms themselves could not be read — forms.in.gov returned Cloudflare HTTP 403 ("Sorry, you have been blocked / You are unable to access in.gov") to every request, including from a real Chrome session over CDP and from an independent fetch path, so every Download.aspx?id= link on the OECOSL forms page was unreachable during this task.

Titles and State Form numbers therefore come from OECOSL's own forms index as served on 26/08/2026, not from the forms' own headers, except where a copy is mirrored on in.gov/dA (SF 45877 R5/11-11, the TB questionnaire, the drug consent, the universal precautions verification, the Health and Safety new employee orientation log, and the Not Living in the Child Care Home form, all of which were read directly). (b) The current codified English text of 470 IAC 3-1.1 on the official rules site could not be read: iar.iga.in.gov and iac.iga.in.gov serve a JavaScript single-page application whose bundle (/static/js/main.07ecd1f5.js) returns the 735-byte index shell instead of the script for every request, so the site renders nothing — the same is true of iga.in.gov for the Indiana Code, and api.iga.in.gov rejects unkeyed requests with 403. Rule text used here therefore comes from FSSA's own published edition of the rule cross-checked against FSSA's English Interpretative Guide;

the two agree section by section, but a 2022-2026 amendment that FSSA has not reflected in either publication would not be visible from here. (c) Whether the three 2021 filings noted in FSSA's rule text are a full readoption of Rule 1.1 or partial amendments could not be determined without the Register. (d) IC 12-17.2-5 as currently enacted was not read in full — law.justia.com, casetext.com and codes.findlaw.com all returned 403/410 — so the statutory citations here (IC 12-17.2-5-3.5 drug testing, IC 12-17.2-5-12(c) posting, IC 12-17.2-5-18.6 missing children, IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 Class II) rest on the forms' own recitals and on the 2016 Interpretative Guide's reproduction of the chapter. (e) The OECOSL forms index shows a Spanish "Child care medical waiver - State Form 57670" on the homes tab but no English equivalent number for homes; whether the English home version is SF 56619 (the number shown on the ministries tab) was not confirmed. (f) 470 IAC 3-4.7, the centre rule, was not read; nothing in this field should be applied to a licensed child care centre. [required_postings] IN / required_postings — sources actually opened on 26 August 2026 (all fetches performed today; nothing quoted from memory) READ THIS FIRST — THE OFFICIAL INDIANA CODE AND ADMINISTRATIVE CODE SITES WERE NON-FUNCTIONAL TODAY. https://iar.iga.in.gov/code/2025/470/3 and https://iar.iga.in.gov/code/2026/470/3 — the Indiana Administrative Rules and Policies site (the official IAC publisher, to which https://www.in.gov/legislative/iac/ now 302-redirects) is a JavaScript single-page app that renders NOTHING.

Verified in a real Chrome instance over the DevTools Protocol, not merely with curl: document.body.innerHTML was 88 bytes and innerText was empty after 25 seconds. The cause was isolated from inside the page's own origin — the app's script bundle, /static/js/main.07ecd1f5.js, is served back as the 735-byte HTML shell instead of JavaScript (fetch() from page context returned status 200, content-type text/html, length 735). The site therefore serves no rule text at all to anyone today. https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/12 and https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/12 — same failure mode on the General Assembly's own site: innerHTML 88 bytes, and /static/js/main.0fd45481.js likewise returns the 691-byte shell. The Indiana Code is not readable from the legislature's website today. https://api.iga.in.gov/2026/code/title/12 — the underlying public API responds but returns 403 {"message":"x-api-key not found"}; no public key is obtainable because docs.api.iga.in.gov is the same broken SPA (403 + shell). http://iac.iga.in.gov/iac//T04700/A00030.PDF and https://www.in.gov/legislative/iac/T04700/A00030.PDF — the legacy per-article IAC PDF URLs are DEAD; both now return the SPA shell with HTTP 200, which means any pinned citation to those URLs in older material silently resolves to nothing.

This is method rule 1 in the flesh: do not re-download a pinned URL to "verify". https://forms.in.gov/Download.aspx?id=5478 (and ids 13940, 5222, 7473, 8495, the five checklist links embedded in FSSA's monitoring document) — HTTP 403 to every user agent tried, including a real Chrome. The published "Home Child Care Inspection Checklist" could NOT be opened today. https://licensingregulations.acf.hhs.gov/... and https://law.justia.com/codes/indiana/... — 403 / Cloudflare interstitial; unusable. Consequence: the rule text below was taken from Cornell LII's mirror of the Indiana Administrative Code, section by section, cross-checked against FSSA's own published interpretative guides which quote the rule and statute verbatim. Every LII section page carries the IAC filing history, and those histories are quoted in the entry, so the vintage of each provision is auditable. RULE TEXT — 470 IAC 3-1.1 (Child Care Homes), read section by section on 26/08/2026 https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/title-470/article-3/rule-470-IAC-3-1.1 — full section index of the rule as currently published: sections 0.5, 1-23 (definitions), 24, 26-35, 36.5, 37-49, with 5, 18, 25 and 36 marked Repealed.

Established that there is NO definition of "conspicuous place" anywhere in 470 IAC 3-1.1, and that section 20.5 ("Substitute educator" defined) now exists, showing the mirror is current at least through the 2025 amendment. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-29.5 — sec. 29.5(a) two-year licence; (c) valid only for name and location, not transferable; (d) "The license shall be publicly displayed in the home. (IC 12-17.2-5-12(c))". THE ONLY POSTING COMMAND IN THE ENTIRE HOMES RULE. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-32 — sec. 32(a) "The licensee shall maintain the following documentation in the child care home for review by the COFC" + the fourteen items, including (10) signed discipline policy, (11) daily attendance records kept 2 years, (13) "Record of dates of quarterly fire drills which shall be maintained for at least two (2) years", (14) "Written plan of evacuation ... in case of emergency"; and 32(b) "Upon request of the COFC, the licensee shall make these records available for review".

Established that the evacuation plan and the drill log are KEPT, not posted. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-44 — sec. 44(a) Red Cross First Aid Manual or equivalent kept in the home; 44(d) ill-child procedure (separate area, notify parent, monitor) — no exclusion policy, no posted notice; 44(e) "The caregiver shall keep the phone numbers of the ambulance, police, fire department, poison control center, and nearest hospital by the telephone" — KEEP BY, not post in a conspicuous place; 44(f) medication permission and record. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-46 — sec. 46(q) identify and keep accessible gas/electric/water shut-offs; 46(r) "The caregiver shall have a written plan for evacuating in case of fire or other emergencies"; 46(s) "The caregiver shall conduct and document quarterly fire drills"; 46(j) written record of fireplace inspections; 46(a),(c),(d),(g) egress. Established: quarterly (not monthly) FIRE drills only, NO tornado drill, NO posted plan, NO floor diagram. Filing history ends "Readopted filed 11/13/2019 ... 20191211-IR-470190490RFA". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-41 — sec. 41(a) "The licensee shall provide the parent or legal guardian with a written copy of the discipline policy"; 41(b) prohibited practices.

Handed over, not posted. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-37 — sec. 37(a)(1)-(4) pre-acceptance steps incl. parent signing the discipline policy and seeing all areas used for care; 37(b)(3) 30-day physician statement stating "Whether the child has allergies or any chronic health conditions"; 37(f) inform parents that unscheduled visits are permitted. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-42 — sec. 42 in full: two sentences, meals available and drinking water at all times. NO MENU, no posting. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-38 — sec. 38 activities and daily outdoor play. NO written or posted schedule. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-35 — sec. 35(a) immediate reporting duty "as required by IC 31-6-11-3", with LII's own bracketed note that IC 31-6 was repealed by P.L.268-1995 SEC.17 effective 1 July 1995; 35(b) substantiated abuse = grounds for revocation. Established that the rule carries a 30-year-dead cross-reference and imposes no posted reporter notice. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-33.5 — sec. 33.5(b)(1) training on "The child care home inspection checklist" within 30 days; (b)(3) abuse detection/reporting training; (c) first aid every 3 years; (d) pediatric CPR on the premises at all times.

Filing history shows the ONLY recent amendment in the whole rule: "Filed 5/7/2025, 2:20 p.m.: 20250604-IR-470240388FRA". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.1-33, -34, -36.5, -45, -47, -48, -49, -28.5, -29, -0.5, -24, -26, -27, -28, -31, -39, -40, -43 — all read; between them they contain no posting requirement of any kind. 45(c) working telephone and duty to notify COFC of number changes; 48(c),(e) hazardous materials and firearms locked/inaccessible; 36.5 capacity 12+3 and the ratio table; 34(b) written notice to parents where a provider files a religious exemption (a notice, not a posting). Filing histories read on every one of those pages: with the single exception of 33.5, every substantive section of 470 IAC 3-1.1 was last amended by the filing of 3 July 1996 (19 IR 3057-3071) and thereafter merely READOPTED — 2001, 2007 (20071121-IR-470070448RFA), 2013 (20130918-IR-470130306RFA) and 11/13/2019 (20191211-IR-470190490RFA). The Indiana home posting régime is textually frozen since 1996. RELATED RULES read for scope and contrast https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.3-1 — Class II home = more than 12 and not more than 16 children; "shall meet all the requirements of 470 IAC 3-1.1 and 470 IAC 3-1.2 as well as the requirements of this rule", with IC 12-17.2-5-6.5 prevailing on conflict.

Establishes that Class II adds NO posting duty. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-1.2-1, -4, -5, -6, -7 — infant/toddler services in a home: naps, diaper changing, feeding. NO posting of diapering or handwashing procedures, NO safe-sleep posting, NO infant feeding plan posting. (Centres must post all three.) https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-4.7-19 — the centre "Posted items" section, quoted at length in the entry: (a)(1)-(6) prominently posted items incl. licence, director's name, child/staff ratio chart, weekly menus, prohibitions, division licensing telephone number; (b)(1)-(10) handwashing, diapering, infant feeding plans, bottle sterilisation, "Fire and emergency disaster routes in each child care room", "Disaster and shelter procedures in each child care room", dishwashing, sanitiser mixing, first aid directives, cleaning schedules; (c)(1)-(8) numbers posted by the telephone including CPS 1-800-800-5556, institutional abuse hotline 1-800-562-2407 and child care information line 1-877-511-1144. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-4.7-3 — centre licence "posted in a conspicuous place that parents regularly view" (contrast with the homes wording). https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/indiana/470-IAC-3-4.8-1 — emergency/temporary closure conditions, tornado at (a)(1)(C); filing history shows a final rule filed 11/8/2024 (20241204-IR-470240251FRA) and provisional/emergency rule LSA #25-278 (20250521-IR-470250278ERA) expiring 11/8/2025. Confirms 470 IAC 3 is actively amended — and that 3-1.1 nonetheless was not.

AGENCY DOCUMENTS (official FSSA publications, all downloaded today from in.gov, which is reachable) https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/laws-rules-and-related-policies/ — the agency's own index of laws and rules. Establishes the current link targets AND an internal inconsistency worth knowing: the homes rules 470 IAC 3-1.1 / 3-1.2 / 3-1.3 are linked to the 2025 edition (iar.iga.in.gov/code/2025/470/3) while the centres rule 470 IAC 3-4.7 is linked to the 2026 edition. All of those links are dead in practice (see above). https://www.in.gov/dA/cf7eff9e48/Homes_Interpretative_Guide_effective_2-2016.pdf — Interpretative Guide for child care home rules, EFFECTIVE FEBRUARY 2016, still the current guide FSSA links today.

Source of: the assessment method for licence display ("Observe to determine if the license is prominently displayed in the home in order that parents can review it"); the verbatim text of IC 12-17.2-5-12(a)-(e), IC 12-17.2-5-13, -14, -18.2, -18.6, -18.7; the smoke-free air signage instruction ("At least two (2) signs must be posted inside the residence ... 'State Law Prohibits Smoking within 8 feet of this Entrance' ... must be posted at all public entrances"); the explicit negative threshold on assistant caregivers under 21 ("Parental notification ... does not have to be posted"); and — critically — the sentence "Individual child's food allergies shall be posted prominently", which sits inside the guide's "Best Practice Training Resources" section, of which the guide's own page 1 says "The Best Practice section is not intended to be used to determine compliance." https://www.in.gov/dA/9af01d1f58/Centers_Interpretive_Guide.pdf — Interpretative Guide for child care center rules, EFFECTIVE 11-01-2018. Source of the centre contrasts: 470 IAC 3-4.7-1(16) "'Conspicuous place' means a place that is easily visible and at eye level viewed daily by the parents";

3-4.7-14 communicable disease notice posted in a conspicuous place OR personal note; 3-4.7-47 "Directors shall prominently post the following child/staff ratio chart in each class" area, with the guide adding that a granted ratio variance must be posted in the affected classroom; 3-4.7-58 posted schedule of activities; 3-4.7-76 menus posted in a conspicuous place and in the kitchen, with dietary exceptions posted in the kitchen and where meals are served; 3-4.7-82 special diets posted; 3-4.7-91 first aid directions posted in each room; 3-4.7-92(b) disaster/evacuation/shelter procedures posted in all areas used by children, kitchen, offices and hallways; and the probationary licence guidance ("The probationary license shall be posted in a prominent place regularly viewed by parents").

NOTE A DEFECT IN THIS OFFICIAL GUIDE: at 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(c) it prints items (6) and (8) and OMITS (7), the institutional abuse hotline 1-800-562-2407, which the rule text on LII does contain. The agency's manual is not the law. https://www.in.gov/dA/6ce99b7c3f/Monitoring-Process-Child-Care-Programs-in-Indiana.pdf — FSSA, The Monitoring Process for Child Care Programs in Indiana. Source of: the 10-day Plan of Correction response and 21-day CCDF response; "Federal law requires states and territories to post the results of child care monitoring and inspection reports online. For Indiana these can be found at Child Care Finder"; and the CCDF certificate duty, "Providers are required to post the certificate in a place that is visible for parents to see in the home/facility." https://www.in.gov/dA/d3a9f96fa5/Critical_violation_letter_for_providers.pdf — FSSA/OECOSL letter of 15 November 2018: "The federal rule requires States to prominently display specific health and safety violations", describing the red "Critical Health and Safety Violations" banner on the state's Child Care Finder site.

Confirms the prominent display is the STATE's, on its website, not the provider's, on a wall. https://www.in.gov/dA/76d8e97e6c/InterpretativeGuidelinescarefinder.pdf — Interpretative guide for unlicensed registered child care ministry rules (revised 03/31/2010, effective 04/01/2010). Source of checklist item "1b. Notice of Inspection/Registration posted in a conspicuous place (IC 12-17.2-6-6)", the verbatim IC 12-17.2-6-6 notice form, IC 12-17.2-6-7 (the "this child care ministry is not licensed under the laws of Indiana" acknowledgement, SIGNED AND KEPT ON FILE for two years, not posted), and the policy that a "Certificate of NOT IN COMPLIANCE" replaces the Certificate of Registration and "must be posted in a conspicuous place, visible to the public". https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/contact-us/ — read live today. Establishes the current complaint route: OECOSL complaints and concerns by telephone at 877-511-1144 or online form, anonymous accepted; and "Any person who suspects that child abuse or neglect may have occurred in a child care program has a duty to report to the Department of Child Services at 800-800-5556." Both numbers match the ones hard-coded into 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(c).

Page footer reads "Copyright © 2026 State of Indiana" and the site banner names Governor Mike Braun, so the page is live and current. https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/ , /provider-resources/ , /become-a-child-care-provider/ — read for a published inspection checklist; the agency links "View Inspection Reports" to https://www.in.gov/fssa/childcarefinder/ and routes all checklists through forms.in.gov, which is blocked (above). https://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/files/CCDF-Provider-Manual.pdf — CCDF and On My Way Pre-K provider manual, downloaded and searched in full: it contains NO posting or display requirement. Reported here so the CCDF certificate duty is attributed to the monitoring document, which is where it actually appears. WHERE I CONTRADICT THE BRIEF AND THE FIELD PROMPT — deliberately, text in hand 1. The prompt asked for "the emergency evacuation and tornado shelter plan with floor diagram" as a posting. FOR AN INDIANA LICENSED HOME THIS IS WRONG ON ALL THREE COUNTS. 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(r) requires the caregiver to HAVE a written evacuation plan and 32(a)(14) to MAINTAIN it in the home for the consultant; there is no display duty.

The word "tornado" appears nowhere in 470 IAC 3-1.1 — only in 470 IAC 3-4.8-1(a)(1)(C) as a ground for a closure order. No floor diagram is required of a home anywhere in Title 470. The posted-in-every-room disaster/evacuation/shelter regime is the CENTRE rule, 470 IAC 3-4.7-19(b)(5)-(6) and 3-4.7-92(b). 2. The prompt asked for "the daily schedule" and "the menu where meals are served" as postings. Neither exists for a home. 470 IAC 3-1.1-38 and -42 impose no writing and no display; the posted schedule is 470 IAC 3-4.7-58 and the posted menu is 470 IAC 3-4.7-76, both centres-only. 3. The prompt asked for "the fire and tornado drill logs" as postings. 470 IAC 3-1.1-46(s) requires QUARTERLY FIRE drills only, documented, with the dated record kept two years under 32(a)(13). There is no tornado drill and no posted log. 4. The prompt asked for "the mandated reporter notice", "the discipline policy", "the illness exclusion policy" and "allergy notices" as postings. None of the four is posted in an Indiana home. The discipline policy is handed to and signed by each parent (41(a), 37(a)(3), 32(a)(10)); there is no illness exclusion policy at all, only the three-step ill-child procedure at 44(d); the allergy datum is a line in the 30-day physician statement (37(b)(3)); and the only "post allergies prominently" sentence in Indiana material is in the Best Practice section the guide itself excludes from compliance. 5. The prompt asked whether "the regulations themselves must be available to parents".

They must not. No provision of 470 IAC 3-1.1, 3-1.2, 3-1.3 or IC 12-17.2-5 requires a home to hold, post or furnish the rules. The only publication compelled is a Red Cross First Aid Manual or equivalent, kept in the home under 44(a). 6. The brief's Indiana line ("Family and Social Services Administration, Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning; 470 IAC 3-1.1 (class I / class II family child care homes)") IS CORRECT as to agency, office and citation — verified on the agency's own laws-and-rules index and on the live contact page today. One refinement: the rules call them "child care homes", Class I and Class II, never "family child care homes", and Class II lives in a separate rule, 470 IAC 3-1.3, which simply incorporates 3-1.1 and 3-1.2. The brief's unlicensed-registered-ministry lead is confirmed and material to this field: the ministry régime is where Indiana's real "conspicuous place" posting lives (IC 12-17.2-6-6), while the licensed home's only display command is the licence. 7. Two items the prompt listed ARE real and are in the entry, but neither is in 470 IAC 3-1.1: the complaint-procedure/division-number posting comes from statute, IC 12-17.2-5-12(e), and the CCDF certificate posting comes from agency monitoring policy. A checklist built only from the administrative rule will miss both.

UNVERIFIED: (a) The text of IC 12-17.2-5-12, -13 and -14 quoted in this entry was read in FSSA's Interpretative Guide for child care home rules, which is EFFECTIVE FEBRUARY 2016 — I could NOT confirm the 2026 statutory text directly, because iga.in.gov serves no content today (broken SPA, verified in a real browser), api.iga.in.gov requires an unobtainable key, and every third-party mirror tried (Justia, FindLaw, ACF licensing database) returned 403 or a Cloudflare interstitial.

Treat the two-year licence term, the "publicly displayed" command and the (e) display-and-handout list as HIGHLY LIKELY current — 470 IAC 3-1.1-29.5(d) independently cross-cites IC 12-17.2-5-12(c) and was readopted in 2019 — but not confirmed against the 2026 code as served. (b) I could NOT read the Home Child Care Inspection Checklist itself (forms.in.gov returns 403 to every agent), so the entry does not claim what that checklist scores; 470 IAC 3-1.1-33.5(b)(1) makes training on it mandatory, which is asserted from the rule, not from the form. (c) A readoption notice for 470 IAC 3 appears in the Indiana Register as 470 26-159, published 20260603-IR-470260159RAA — consistent with the seven-year readoption cycle after 11/13/2019 — but the Register document could not be opened (same broken SPA), so nothing about its content is asserted; a readoption does not change rule text in any event. (d) LSA Document 25-369, an "Early Childhood Caregivers Rule" amending 470 IAC 3, surfaced in search but its docket PDF 404s on secure.in.gov and its Register entries are unreadable; if it takes effect it is a caregiver-qualifications rule, and no posting change is asserted from it. (e) 470 IAC 3-1.1-44(e) does not name a specific poison control telephone number; the entry says so rather than supplying one. (f) The county child care resource and referral telephone numbers are routed through brighterfuturesindiana.org, which was linked from the FSSA carefinder page but not opened county by county; no individual county number is asserted.

Verified 2026-08-26. General information, not legal advice and not a guarantee of licensure — confirm with your state’s licensing agency before applying.