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Home Daycare License Requirements in Missouri (2026)

Opening a home daycare in Missouri means getting a family child care home license from the DEPARTMENT OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, OFFICE OF CHILDHOOD. 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 Missouri

MISSOURI SORTS HOME-BASED CHILD CARE INTO FOUR LEGAL BOXES, AND ONLY ONE OF THEM IS A LICENCE TO RUN A DAYCARE OUT OF THE HOUSE YOU LIVE IN. The four are: (1) the unlicensed caregiver who stays under the statutory exemption ceiling in section 210.211.1(1) RSMo; (2) the "registered child care provider" who takes state or federal subsidy money for four or fewer unrelated children under 5 CSR 25-200.070; (3) the LICENSED FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME under 5 CSR 25-400, which is the actual home daycare licence and the subject of this entry; and (4) the GROUP CHILD CARE HOME under 5 CSR 25-500, which despite its name is defined by Missouri law as NOT being in your residence. Getting these four apart is the single most useful thing a Missouri applicant can do before spending any money, because three of them are commonly described online as if they were the same product. BOX ONE — THE EXEMPTION, AND IT IS SIX CHILDREN, NOT FOUR. Section 210.211.1 RSMo opens with the prohibition: "It shall be unlawful for any person to establish, maintain or operate a child-care facility for children, or to advertise or hold himself or herself out as being able to perform any of the services as defined in section 210.201, without having in effect a written license granted by the department of elementary and secondary education; except that nothing in sections 210.203 to 210.245 shall apply to:" — and then subdivision (1) reads, in the text effective 28 August 2024: "Any person who is caring for six or fewer children, including a maximum of three children under the age of two, at the same physical address.

For purposes of this subdivision, children who live in the caregiver's home and who are eligible for enrollment in a public kindergarten, elementary, or high school shall not be considered in the total number of children being cared for". The companion definition in section 210.201(3) RSMo is drawn to match: a "child-care facility" is "a house or other place conducted or maintained by any person who advertises or holds himself or herself out as providing child care for any part of the twenty-four-hour day for compensation or otherwise if providing child care to more than: (a) Six children; or (b) Three children under two years of age". Read those two together and the licensing trigger in Missouri is a DOUBLE ceiling, not a single one. You cross into licensure the moment you exceed SIX children total, OR the moment you exceed THREE children under age two — whichever comes first. A caregiver with two infants, one one-year-old and three four-year-olds is at six children and at three under two, and is still exempt. Add a fourth child under two and the count is seven and four under two, and the person is operating an unlicensed child-care facility.

Note also the arithmetic relief buried in the second sentence of subdivision (1): the caregiver's OWN resident children who are old enough to enrol in public kindergarten or above are not counted at all. A caregiver with three school-age children of her own living in the house still has the full six slots available. There is no equivalent relief for the caregiver's own children who are younger than kindergarten age — those count. Two riders qualify the exemption and both matter. First, section 210.211.2 RSMo: "Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 1 of this section, no child care facility shall be exempt from licensure if such facility receives any state or federal funds for providing care for children, except for federal funds for those programs which meet the requirements for participation in the Child and Adult Care Food Program pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 1766. Grants to parents for child care pursuant to sections 210.201 to 210.257 shall not be construed to be funds received by a person or facility listed in subdivisions (1) and (18) of subsection 1 of this section." The carve-out from the carve-out is what keeps the small-caregiver exemption workable alongside the subsidy programme.

Second, section 210.211.3 RSMo imposes an affirmative disclosure duty on EVERY facility, exempt or not: "Every child care facility shall disclose the licensure status of the facility to the parents or guardians of children for which the facility provides care. No child care facility exempt from licensure shall represent to any parent or guardian of children for which the facility provides care that the facility is licensed when such facility is in fact not licensed. A parent or guardian utilizing an unlicensed child care facility shall sign a written notice indicating he or she is aware of the unlicensed status of the facility. The facility shall keep a copy of this signed written notice on file. All child care facilities shall provide the parent or guardian enrolling a child in the facility with a written explanation of the disciplinary philosophy and policies of the child care facility." An unlicensed Missouri home caregiver therefore has paperwork obligations even though she has no licence: a signed unlicensed-status acknowledgment per family, kept on file, plus a written discipline policy handed to every enrolling parent.

BOX TWO — THE REGISTERED PROVIDER, WHICH IS A SUBSIDY STATUS AND NOT A LICENCE. If an otherwise-exempt home caregiver wants to be paid by the state child care subsidy, she must become a "registered child care provider" under 5 CSR 25-200.070, a rule whose own title is "Registration Requirements for Child Care Providers Serving Four (4) or Less Unrelated Children" and whose PURPOSE clause states that it exists "to implement the provisions of sections 210.025 and 210.027, RSMo, for the purpose of registering child care providers and defining eligibility for providers to receive state or federal funds for providing child care services." The core limit is in 5 CSR 25-200.070(1)(B): "The child care provider shall not care for more than four (4) unrelated children." The contract term repeats it at 5 CSR 25-200.070(8)(B)2.: "Child care provider shall care for no more than four (4) or fewer unrelated children." Registration is not a soft status. Under 5 CSR 25-200.070(1) the applicant must be at least eighteen; must pass a background check "as defined in 13 CSR 35-32.050"; must not have "received a substantiated child abuse and neglect report", must not "have been previously refused licensure or have experienced licensure suspension or revocation", must not appear on "the Department of Mental Health's Disqualification Registry pursuant to section 630.170, RSMo", and must not be "a registered sex offender or required to register as a sex offender in any state".

Every person living with the applicant "over the age of seventeen" must clear "A search of the Family Care Safety Registry as described in sections 210.903 through 210.936, RSMo", the child abuse and neglect registries of Missouri and every state of residence for the preceding five years, and the sex offender registries on the same geographic basis (5 CSR 25-200.070(1)(G)). The applicant must submit a "Risk Assessment for Tuberculosis" form signed by a medical professional within ninety days and a physical/mental health statement on the same ninety-day clock (5 CSR 25-200.070(1)(D) and (E)). And the applicant "must cooperate and allow for an unannounced on-site inspection by the division or designee at initial application" (5 CSR 25-200.070(1)(I)), against a checklist that reads like a miniature licensing standard: smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, a clean vermin-free home, working heating and cooling, potable running water with at least one flush toilet and one handwashing sink accessible to children, an equipped food preparation area, indoor play and nap space, hazardous materials inaccessible, no smoking while children are present, weapons and ammunition in locked cabinets, a fire extinguisher, a safe and either fenced or supervision-planned outdoor play area, a posted emergency preparedness and response plan, and rules on animals and animal excrement.

The registered provider also carries a real training load — arguably a heavier PRE-SERVICE load than the licensed family child care home provider does. 5 CSR 25-200.070(1)(J) requires the applicant to "register with Opportunities in a Professional Education Network (OPEN) and secure a Missouri Professional Development Identifier (MOPD-ID)" and to complete twelve named courses before registration: First Aid and CPR; Child Care Subsidy Orientation; Prevention of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Safe Sleeping; Prevention of Shaken Baby Syndrome and Abusive Head Trauma; Emergency Disaster Response and Planning; Mandatory Child Abuse and Neglect (CA/N) Reporting; Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (including immunizations); Administration of Medication, consistent with standards for parental consent; Prevention and Response to Food Allergy Emergencies; Building and Physical Premises Safety, including identification of and protection from hazards that can cause bodily injury; Handling and Storage of Hazardous Materials and the Appropriate Disposal of Bio-Contaminants; and Transportation of Children.

The certificate of registration is "good for one (1) year" (5 CSR 25-200.070(4)(B)) and renewal requires an annual unannounced on-site inspection, a biennial TB risk assessment and medical statement, and a five-yearly re-run of the background check and household screening (5 CSR 25-200.070(5)(B)). THERE IS A LIVE TENSION BETWEEN BOX ONE AND BOX TWO AND IT IS WORTH SEEING CLEARLY. The statute now exempts up to six children (max three under two). The subsidy registration rule caps a registered provider at four UNRELATED children. Those are different numbers counted on different bases — the statutory six counts all children at the address minus the caregiver's own school-eligible residents; the regulatory four counts unrelated children only. A caregiver can therefore be lawfully unlicensed at six and still be ineligible to bill the subsidy for more than four unrelated. The registration rule's numbers were set when the licensing exemption was drawn differently, and the rule has not been re-cut to the statutory six. BOX THREE — THE FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME, THE ACTUAL PRODUCT. The definition is at 5 CSR 25-400.010(11): "A family child care home or home, whether owned by a sole proprietor or other legal entity, is a child care program where care is given by a person licensed as a family child care home provider for no more than ten (10) children for any part of the twenty-four- (24-) hour day.

The provider may be licensed to operate no more than one (1) family child care home or group child care home." The identical definition is repeated verbatim in the sibling chapter at 5 CSR 25-500.010(10), with the small drafting slip that the sibling says "licensed as a child care home provider" rather than "family child care home provider" — a difference of one word with no operative effect. Three things are doing work in that sentence. First, "whether owned by a sole proprietor or other legal entity" — the licence attaches to a person, but the business behind it may be an LLC, a corporation, a partnership or a charity, and 5 CSR 25-400.010(16) defines "legal entity" expansively to include "the lawful or legally standing individual, corporation, sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability company, limited liability limited partnership, partnership, charity, and other forms of organization that has the legal capacity to enter into agreements, contracts, assume obligations, incur and pay debts, sue and be sued in its own right, and that is accountable for illegal activities."

Where an entity owns the home, 5 CSR 25-400.025(2) requires it to "designate a person to be responsible for the daily operation of the facility and to meet the requirements of the child care provider", with immediate written notice to the department on any change of that person, and 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(K) requires "Documentation as required by the Missouri Secretary of State and state law to verify the legal entity is in good standing." Second, "for any part of the twenty-four- (24-) hour day" — Missouri does not require a minimum number of daily hours to trigger the licence, unlike states that use a three-hours-a-day threshold. One hour of care is care. Third, "no more than one (1) family child care home or group child care home" — a Missouri provider cannot hold two home licences at once, which forecloses the multi-site home operator model outright. Notice what the definition does NOT say. It does not say the home must be the provider's residence. That is inferred negatively, from the way the OTHER two definitions are drawn, and this is the single most misread point in Missouri's scheme.

BOX FOUR — THE GROUP CHILD CARE HOME IS NOT IN YOUR HOUSE, AND MISSOURI SAYS SO IN THE DEFINITION. 5 CSR 25-400.010(12): "A group child care home, whether owned by a sole proprietor or other legal entity, is a child care program where care is given by a person licensed as a group child care home provider for not more than twenty (20) children for any part of the twenty-four- (24-) hour day. A GROUP CHILD CARE HOME SHALL BE IN A LOCATION OTHER THAN THE PROVIDER'S PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR SEPARATE FROM THE PROVIDER'S LIVING QUARTERS. The provider may be licensed to operate no more than one (1) group child care home or family child care home." The capitalisation is added here for emphasis; the words are the rule's. And the child care centre definition at 5 CSR 25-400.010(5) uses the very same locational test: "A child care center or center, whether owned by a sole proprietor or other legal entity, is a child care program conducted in a location other than the provider's permanent residence, or separate from the provider's living quarters, where care is provided for children for any part of the twenty-four- (24-) hour day."

So Missouri's three licensed tiers are not a simple headcount ladder. They are a headcount ladder for the first rung and a LOCATION test for the second and third. The family child care home is the only tier that can be your permanent residence and share your living quarters. Go above ten children and you have not merely earned a bigger home licence — you have left home-based care entirely, because both remaining tiers require premises other than, or separated from, where you live. The words "or separate from the provider's living quarters" leave a narrow door open: a converted, physically separated wing, a detached structure or a walled-off ground floor with its own entrance can host a group home or centre at the same street address as the provider's residence, provided the child care space is genuinely separate from the living quarters. That is a construction question for the licensing representative and the fire inspector, not a paperwork question, and 5 CSR 25-400.086(3) on mixed occupancies gives a sense of how seriously the separation is taken elsewhere in the chapter: a one-hour fire barrier between occupancies, and thirty-two-inch, twenty-minute-rated, self-closing doors where two exit accesses discharge into a shared apartment corridor.

THE CATCH-ALL AND THE VOCABULARY. 5 CSR 25-400.010(6) collects the three: "A child care facility or facility is a family child care home, group child care home, or child care center." The person who holds the licence is defined at 5 CSR 25-400.010(7): "Child care provider, group child care home provider, or provider is the person(s) licensed or required to be licensed under section 210.211, RSMo, in order to establish, conduct, or maintain a child care facility. This person(s) shall have the following rights and responsibilities as determined by the division: (A) Ultimate responsibility for making and implementing decisions regarding the operation of the facility; and (B) Ultimate financial control of the operation of the facility." Two details deserve flagging. The rule still says "as determined by the DIVISION" — a residue of the Division of Regulation and Licensure at the Department of Health and Senior Services, which has not held this function since 2021; the sibling chapter 5 CSR 25-500.010(6) was cleaned up and says "as determined by the department". And the two-part test — decision-making authority plus ultimate financial control — is what a licensing representative uses to decide who the real provider is when a family or an entity fronts someone else's operation.

Two more definitional pieces are needed to read the capacity and ratio rules. 5 CSR 25-400.010(1): "Adult is any individual eighteen (18) years of age or older." 5 CSR 25-400.010(2): "The assistant is an adult who is employed or volunteers in the home to care for children in case of an emergency, to meet staff/child ratios, to substitute for the provider during absences, or to assist the provider with the care of children." 5 CSR 25-400.010(3): "Caregiver is the child care provider, other child care staff member, or an assistant." Note that the family home chapter, unlike the group-home-and-centre chapter, has NO "Junior Aide" category: 5 CSR 25-500.010(2) allows a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old Junior Aide to be counted in ratio in group homes and centres under conditions; no such person exists in a family child care home, where 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(C) flatly requires that "Caregivers shall be eighteen (18) years of age or older." AGE BANDS, WHICH ARE NOT THE ONES MOST STATES USE. 5 CSR 25-400.010(15): "Infant is any child under twelve (12) months of age." 5 CSR 25-400.010(25): "Toddler is any child twelve to twenty-four (12–24) months of age." 5 CSR 25-400.010(21): "Preschool child is any child two through five (2–5) years of age who is not in kindergarten." 5 CSR 25-400.010(23): "School-age child is any child five (5) years of age or older who is in kindergarten or above."

And 5 CSR 25-400.010(18): "Night is the part of the twenty-four- (24-) hour day between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m." The under-two line — not the under-one line — is the one that drives the ratio table, so "infant" as defined in the rule is narrower than the category the ratio table actually rations. WHAT IS NOT A FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME AT ALL.

Beyond the six-child exemption, section 210.211.1 RSMo lists eighteen further exemptions, several of which a home-based operator might plausibly try to fit into: the personal-guest exemption in subdivision (2) for a person "who receives free of charge, and not as a business, for periods not exceeding ninety consecutive days, as bona fide, occasional and personal guests the child or children of personal friends of such person, and who receives custody of no other unrelated child or children"; the graded boarding school in (3); summer or day camp in (4); a hospital, sanitarium or home providing medical or convalescent care in (5); a Department of Mental Health residential facility or day programme under sections 630.705 to 630.760 in (6); a "school system" as defined in section 210.201 in (7); a Montessori school in (8); the four-hour employer or customer convenience programme in (9), conditioned on the customer or employee remaining "on site while their children are being cared for"; home school in (10); a religious organization academic preschool or kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds in (11);

Sunday, Sabbath and vacation bible school and care during worship in (12); a neighbourhood youth development programme under section 210.278 in (13); "Any program serving only children enrolled in grade six or above" in (14); a religious organization elementary or secondary school in (15); a private organization elementary or secondary school system providing child care to children younger than school age in (16), which must "submit documentation annually to the department to verify its licensure-exempt status"; a nursery school as defined in section 210.201 in (17); the religious organization exclusive-control exemption in (18); and, added by the 2024 session, "Any FPE school" in (19). The nursery school definition in section 210.201(8) — "a program operated by a person or an organization with the primary function of providing an educational program for preschool-age children for no more than four hours per day per child" — is the one most often stretched by home operators, and the four-hour-per-day-per-child cap is the part that usually defeats the attempt.

Finally, the anti-laundering rule for the religious exemption is in the rule as well as the statute. 5 CSR 25-400.025(5): "When a nonreligious organization having as its principal purpose the provision of child care services enters into an arrangement with a religious organization to provide continuing assistance in the maintenance or operation of a child care facility, the facility is not under the exclusive control of the religious organization and does not qualify for exemption from licensure under section 210.211.1(17), RSMo." That internal cross-reference is itself now stale: after the 2024 amendments inserted a new subdivision, the religious exclusive-control exemption sits at section 210.211.1(18), not (17). And 5 CSR 25-400.025(6) sets the procedure for anyone claiming exemption: "If the person(s) operating the facility claims exemption from licensure, s/he shall file all information requested by the department to make a determination of exemption prior to opening. Facilities may waive the right to apply for exemption and request voluntary licensure. These facilities shall comply with all licensing rules." Voluntary licensure is thus explicitly available to an exempt home — and if taken, it is full licensure with every rule attached, not a lighter version.

How many children you can care for in Missouri

TEN CHILDREN IS THE CEILING ON THE LICENCE — BUT THE NUMBER PRINTED ON YOUR LICENCE IS DECIDED BY SQUARE FOOTAGE, BY THE RATIO TABLE, AND BY THE FIRE INSPECTOR, AND IT WILL USUALLY BE LOWER THAN TEN. THE HEADLINE NUMBER, IN TWO PLACES. The definition first: 5 CSR 25-400.010(11) says a family child care home is "a child care program where care is given by a person licensed as a family child care home provider for no more than ten (10) children for any part of the twenty-four- (24-) hour day." The operative rule second: 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(A) opens "A family child care home may be licensed for up to ten (10) children. The following staff/child ratios must be maintained at all times and shall not be exceeded except as permitted under these rules". Ten is a maximum on what the department MAY licence, not an entitlement. What you actually get is fixed on the licence itself: 5 CSR 25-400.045(18) provides that "The number and ages of children a family child care home is authorized to have in care at any one time shall be specified on the license and shall not be exceeded except as permitted within these rules", and section 210.221.1(1) RSMo requires the same at statutory level — "Each license shall specify the effective date and whether the license is temporary, the kind of child-care services the licensee is authorized to perform, the number of children that can be received or maintained, and their ages".

Missouri licences an AGE RANGE as well as a number, which is why so many Missouri family homes are licensed "for ten, ages two through twelve" or "for eight, ages six weeks through five" rather than simply "for ten". FOUR INDEPENDENT CONSTRAINTS PRODUCE THE NUMBER. Take them in the order they will actually bite. CONSTRAINT ONE, INDOOR SQUARE FOOTAGE. 5 CSR 25-400.085(2)(B)1.: "At least thirty-five (35) square feet of usable floor space shall be provided for each child coming into the home for day care." The measuring rules are strict and they are what shrink most applications. 5 CSR 25-400.085(2)(B)2.: "Floor space shall be measured wall-to-wall from the inside walls of areas used for children's activities." 5 CSR 25-400.085(2)(B)3.: "Floor space shall not include food preparation areas, bathrooms, hallways used exclusively as passageways, closets, office space or floor space occupied by furniture or shelving not used by the children or for their activities." And 5 CSR 25-400.085(2)(B)4. removes still more: "Space occupied by permanently placed cots, cribs, beds or playpens used for napping cannot be counted as usable floor space.

Cots shall not be set up early or left in place to interfere with children's play activities." A home licensing for infants therefore pays twice for its cribs — once in floor area consumed, once in the ratio table. Ten children at thirty-five square feet is three hundred fifty square feet of qualifying, wall-to-wall, furniture-net child activity space, and that is a larger room than most applicants assume. The measurement is not done by the applicant alone: 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(A) requires "A sketch or diagram of the home showing the arrangement of the rooms, including the location of toilet and handwashing facilities, the kitchen, and the doors. The licensing representative and the applicant shall measure the home jointly". CONSTRAINT TWO, OUTDOOR SQUARE FOOTAGE. 5 CSR 25-400.085(3)(A)2.: "A minimum of seventy-five (75) square feet per child of outdoor play area shall be provided." Ten children means seven hundred fifty square feet of outdoor play area, "available on or adjoining the day care property", located "so it is convenient and the children can gain access to it without hazard", and "fenced when necessary for the protection of children from traffic, water or other hazards" (5 CSR 25-400.085(3)(A)1.). For homes first licensed after the effective date of the rule, or when a new fence goes in at an existing home, the fence "shall be at least forty-two inches (42") high" and "shall be constructed to prevent children from crawling or falling through or becoming entrapped."

CONSTRAINT THREE, THE RATIO TABLE, WHICH IS A CAPACITY RULE DISGUISED AS A STAFFING RULE. The table at 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(A) does not merely say how many adults you need — it caps how many children under age two you may have at each staffing level. One caregiver alone may not exceed ten children, and at seven-to-ten children may have no more than TWO children under two. So a solo provider cannot licence for ten and fill it with infants; a solo provider who wants four children under two is capped at four children total. Capacity and age mix are welded together in Missouri, and an applicant who wants both ten slots and an infant-heavy roster must budget for a second caregiver from day one. CONSTRAINT FOUR, THE FIRE INSPECTOR. 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A): "The Missouri Division of Fire Safety shall inspect the facility annually for the capacity specified on the license application and the fire inspection request. The inspection shall include a determination of whether or not the facility is approved for overlap care as provided in 19 CSR 30-61.155 Overlap Care of Children." (The cross-reference to 19 CSR 30-61.155 is stale; that rule was moved to 5 CSR 25-400.155 effective 30 August 2021.) The fire inspection is capacity-specific, so a later request to raise the number is a fire matter as well as a licensing matter — 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(N): "When the licensed capacity increases, hours of care change, alterations are completed, or other changes occur that affect fire safety, the provider shall meet all the requirements of this rule unless otherwise excepted by the Division of Fire Safety."

And 5 CSR 25-400.085(2)(A)1. adds a floor-by-floor gate: "Any floor of a home used for child care shall be approved by the State Fire Marshal or his/her designee." Basement and upper-floor use is further constrained by 5 CSR 25-400.086(6)(A) — "Areas used for day care shall not be located more than one (1) level below ground level" — and, for homes licensed on or after the rule's effective date, by 5 CSR 25-400.086(6)(B)1., which requires at least one exit discharging directly outside and caps vertical travel to ground level at "eight feet (8') for the basement and twelve feet (12') for the second floor". WHOSE CHILDREN COUNT — THE MOST-ASKED QUESTION, AND MISSOURI ANSWERS IT TWICE, NOT QUITE IDENTICALLY. The rule is 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(C): "A maximum of two (2) children five (5) years of age and older who are related to the family child care home provider, or under court-appointed guardianship or legal custody of a family child care home provider, shall not be counted in the licensed capacity. For the purpose of this rule, related is any of the following relationships by marriage, blood, or adoption between the provider and the children in care: parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, brother, sister, stepparent, stepbrother, stepsister, uncle, aunt, niece, or nephew." A tie-breaker follows at 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(C)1.: "If more than one (1) member of the legal entity is responsible for the daily operation of the family child care home, the related children of only one (1) such member shall be excluded from counting in the licensed capacity."

Three consequences most summaries get wrong. FIRST, the exclusion is capped at TWO children, not "your children". A provider with four school-age children of her own excludes two of them and counts the other two against her ten. SECOND, the exclusion is for children FIVE AND OLDER only. The provider's own infant, toddler or four-year-old counts in the capacity — and counts in the under-two column of the ratio table if under two. A provider with a newborn of her own has spent one of her ten slots and one of her precious under-two slots before a single paying family arrives. THIRD, the enumerated relationship list is a closed list of the named relations by marriage, blood or adoption; it does NOT reach a cousin, a great-aunt, or a foster child, though "under court-appointed guardianship or legal custody" catches most formal placements.

The statutory version, section 210.211.4 RSMo, is drawn differently and adds a duty the rule does not mention: "Up to two children who are five years of age or older and who are related within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity to, adopted by, or under court appointed guardianship or legal custody of a child care provider who is responsible for the daily operation of a licensed family child care home that is organized as a corporation, association, firm, partnership, limited liability company, sole proprietorship, or any other type of business entity in this state shall not be included in the number of children counted toward the maximum number of children for which the family child care home is licensed under section 210.221. If more than one member of the corporation, association, firm, partnership, limited liability company, or other business entity is responsible for the daily operation of the licensed family child care home, then the related children of only one such member shall be excluded. A family child care home caring for children not counted in the maximum number of children, as permitted under this subsection, shall disclose this to parents or guardians on the written notice required under subsection 3 of this section.

If a family child care home begins caring for children not counted in the maximum number of children after a parent or guardian has signed the written notice required under subsection 3 of this section, the family child care home shall provide a separate notice to the parent or guardian that the family child care home is caring for children not counted in the maximum number of children for which the family child care home is licensed and shall keep a copy of the signed notice on file." Line the two up and three divergences appear. The statute uses the abstract test "related within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity", which is BROADER than the rule's closed list and would reach, for example, a great-niece. The statute conditions the exclusion on the home being "organized as a corporation, association, firm, partnership, limited liability company, sole proprietorship, or any other type of business entity" — a list so wide, because it includes sole proprietorship, that it is hard to imagine a licensed home outside it, but it is nonetheless a condition the rule omits. And the statute imposes a PARENT-DISCLOSURE duty — written notice, signed, kept on file, with a fresh separate notice if the arrangement starts mid-enrolment — that appears nowhere in 5 CSR 25-400. A Missouri provider relying on the two-related-children exclusion who has read only the rule will be out of compliance with the statute's notice requirement.

The statutory text has been in force in this form since 28 August 2022 (SS SCS SB 683, 2022) and was carried forward unchanged by the 2024 acts; the rule was last amended, as to 5 CSR 25-400.105, effective 30 April 2023, and still does not carry the notice duty. THE EIGHTEEN-HOUR RULE — THE MOST OVERLOOKED CAPACITY CONSTRAINT IN MISSOURI. 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(B): "A family child care home may be licensed at maximum capacity for a period of eighteen (18) consecutive hours of the twenty-four- (24-) hour day. For the remaining six (6) hours of the twenty-four- (24-) hour day, care may be provided for one-third (1/3) of the licensed capacity of the home." A ten-child home is a ten-child home for eighteen consecutive hours and a THREE-child home (one-third of ten, rounded down in practice) for the other six. Providers who run genuine round-the-clock or split-shift operations — third-shift hospital and plant workers are the usual clientele — have to build their schedule around this, because the six-hour trough is not optional and is not waivable by simply hiring more staff. The rule caps children, not caregivers.

TEMPORARY EXCESSES, BOTH CAPPED AT ONE-THIRD, AND NOT CUMULATIVE. Missouri allows a home to go above its licensed number in exactly two situations. OVERLAP CARE, 5 CSR 25-400.155(1): "There may be situations (for example, to accommodate parents' work shifts or before- and after-school care) when the number of children in care over two (2) years of age may exceed the licensed capacity of the home. The number in care shall never be more than one-third (1/3) over the licensed capacity of the home at the time of overlap. The overlap period(s) shall not exceed two (2) hours total in any twenty-four- (24-) hour child-care day. The two (2) hours of available overlap time may be utilized in smaller time periods." Two hard limits follow. 5 CSR 25-400.155(2): "Overlap care of children under two (2) years of age shall not be permitted." And 5 CSR 25-400.155(3): "Overlap care shall not be provided until a Child Care Facility Overlap Request form has been submitted, including the hours overlap care will be provided, and written approval has been received from the department. The Child Care Facility Overlap Request form, promulgated 2021, is incorporated by reference in this rule, as published by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, PO Box 480, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0480 and available by the department at https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/forms."

Any change in the hours requires a new form and a new approval (5 CSR 25-400.155(4)); all normal admission procedures apply to overlap children (5 CSR 25-400.155(5)); and, critically for the after-school market, 5 CSR 25-400.155(6): "Overlap approval shall not be granted to facilities licensed exclusively for before- and after-school child care programs." Overlap is also a fire-inspection item, since 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A) makes the annual Division of Fire Safety inspection determine "whether or not the facility is approved for overlap care". EMERGENCY SCHOOL CLOSINGS, 5 CSR 25-400.165(1): "On days when schools are closed due to emergencies such as inclement weather or physical plant failure, the home may accommodate enrolled school-age children who need care. The provider shall be permitted to exceed for the day the licensed capacity of the home by one-third (1/3). The one-third (1/3) excess attendance shall not be in addition to the one-third (1/3) excess attendance allowed for overlap care. At no time may the total number in care be more than one-third (1/3) over the licensed capacity of the home."

The anti-stacking sentence is the operative one: a snow day does not buy a second one-third on top of the overlap one-third. A written record is required — 5 CSR 25-400.165(2): "The provider shall maintain a written record including the date of the emergency school closing, the reason for the closing and the number of children in care on that date" — and 5 CSR 25-400.165(3) shuts the door on planned closures: "Emergency school closing overlap shall not be permitted for scheduled days of school closing." Teacher in-service days and spring break do not qualify. IRREGULAR AND DROP-IN CARE DOES NOT CREATE HEADROOM. 5 CSR 25-400.135(8): "If a provider enrolls children for irregular or intermittent care, all procedures for admitting children shall be followed. Children enrolled on an irregular or intermittent basis shall be accepted only by appointment and shall not cause the home to exceed its licensed capacity." Missouri has no drop-in allowance. THE FLOOR UNDER THE WHOLE SCHEME. Below the licence, the statutory exemption ceiling in section 210.211.1(1) RSMo is "six or fewer children, including a maximum of three children under the age of two, at the same physical address", excluding the caregiver's own resident children who are "eligible for enrollment in a public kindergarten, elementary, or high school".

The "at the same physical address" phrase forecloses the obvious workaround of splitting a roster between two exempt caregivers operating from one house. Above the licence, ten is the end of home-based care: eleven or more children requires a group child care home (capped at twenty by 5 CSR 25-400.010(12)) or a centre, and both must be, in the words of the definitions, "in a location other than the provider's permanent residence or separate from the provider's living quarters." AND ONE LAST STRUCTURAL LIMIT. 5 CSR 25-400.010(11), last sentence: "The provider may be licensed to operate no more than one (1) family child care home or group child care home." Whatever the capacity of the single home, there is no second one. 5 CSR 25-400.045(14) reinforces it from the other side: "The license shall not be transferable and shall apply only to the person(s) and address shown on the license." Move house and the licence does not move with you; sell the business and the licence dies, because 5 CSR 25-400.045(17) provides that the licence "shall become null and void if— (A) Revoked; (B) The owner closes the facility; (C) The facility changes ownership; or (D) In the case of licenses not held by legal entities, the death of the licensee(s)."

Adult-to-child ratios

MISSOURI DOES NOT RATION FAMILY-HOME STAFF BY AGE BAND. IT RATIONS BY HEADCOUNT AND BY A SINGLE AGE LINE — UNDER TWO — AND THE WHOLE TABLE FITS ON FIVE ROWS. THE TABLE, VERBATIM. 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(A) reads: "A family child care home may be licensed for up to ten (10) children. The following staff/child ratios must be maintained at all times and shall not be exceeded except as permitted under these rules". The three columns are headed "Number of caregivers present", "Number of children present" and "Maximum number of children under age two (2)", and the five rows are: One caregiver present — up to 4 children present — maximum 4 children under age two. One caregiver present — 5 to 6 children present — maximum 3 children under age two. One caregiver present — 7 to 10 children present — maximum 2 children under age two. Two caregivers present — up to 8 children present — maximum 8 children under age two. Two caregivers present — up to 10 children present — maximum 4 children under age two. That is the entire staffing arithmetic for a Missouri family child care home. There is no separate preschool ratio, no separate school-age ratio, no mixed-age formula, and no group size.

The rule works by asking two questions and only two: how many bodies are in the house caring for children, and how many of the children are under twenty-four months. HOW TO READ IT WITHOUT GETTING IT WRONG. The rule is a lookup, not a formula. You do not compute a ratio; you find the row that matches the number of caregivers and the number of children actually present at that moment, and the third column then caps your infants and toddlers. Three consequences follow that are counter-intuitive to anyone coming from a state with per-age-band ratios. FIRST, ADDING CHILDREN COSTS YOU INFANT SLOTS, NOT STAFF. A solo provider with four children may have all four under two. Take that same solo provider to five or six children and her under-two allowance drops to three — she has more children but fewer infants permitted. Push her to seven, and it drops again to two. The ratio table does not require her to hire anyone at any point up to ten children; it simply squeezes the infant column shut. A Missouri family home run by one adult may lawfully hold ten children, of whom at most two may be under two.

That is a genuinely permissive headcount ratio by national standards and a genuinely restrictive infant ratio, and the two facts are the same fact. SECOND, THE SECOND CAREGIVER BUYS INFANTS, NOT HEADROOM. Going from one caregiver to two adds at most two children to the maximum (from ten to ten — the ceiling does not move at all, because the licence caps at ten regardless). What the second caregiver buys is the under-two column: with two caregivers and up to EIGHT children, the home may have all eight under two; with two caregivers and up to TEN children, the home may have four under two. The steepest cliff in the table sits between those last two rows. Eight children, all infants, is permitted with two adults — a one-to-four infant ratio. Add a ninth child of any age and the under-two allowance collapses from eight to four. A two-caregiver home running six infants and two toddlers is at the top of row four; enrolling one four-year-old would put it at nine children and instantly put it four infants over the row-five limit. Missouri providers who take infants therefore have to manage the ninth and tenth enrolment with unusual care.

THIRD, "UNDER AGE TWO" IS NOT "INFANT" AS THE RULE DEFINES IT. 5 CSR 25-400.010(15) defines "Infant is any child under twelve (12) months of age" and 5 CSR 25-400.010(25) defines "Toddler is any child twelve to twenty-four (12–24) months of age." The ratio table's third column governs "children under age two (2)" — that is, infants AND toddlers together. A home with two eleven-month-olds and one eighteen-month-old has three children under two, not one infant and two toddlers, for ratio purposes. Providers who track their roster by the rule's own vocabulary rather than by the table's wording are the ones who get written up. "AT ALL TIMES" MEANS AT ALL TIMES, INCLUDING NAP, MEALS AND OUTDOORS. The family home chapter grants none of the relaxations the group-home-and-centre chapter grants. 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(C) lets centres and group homes drop ratio inside the napping area for children two and older provided ratio is maintained on the premises; 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(D) suspends GROUP SIZE for outdoor play, indoor gross motor activity, meals, field trips and special events; 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(G) permits outdoor ratios of one and one-half times the indoor ratio where no child two or under is outside.

NONE of that appears in 5 CSR 25-400. The family home rule says simply "must be maintained at all times", and the surrounding supervision rules pull in the same direction: 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)1., "Child care providers shall not leave any child without competent adult supervision"; 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)3., "Caregivers shall provide frequent, direct contact so children are not routinely left unobserved on the premises"; 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)7., "All children shall nap on the same floor and a caregiver shall remain on the floor where children are napping at all times"; and 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(A)6., "If children are napped with no caregiver in the room, the door to the room cannot be closed." The ratio also travels. 5 CSR 25-400.200(3)(C): "Staff/child ratios shall be maintained at any time the provider transports children away from the home." Outdoors, the requirement is supervision-specific rather than ratio-specific but no less demanding: 5 CSR 25-400.085(3)(A)3., "An adult shall be outside at all times to provide supervision for children under three (3) years of age", and 5 CSR 25-400.085(3)(A)4., "An adult shall be outside with the children at all times if the play area is not fenced and adjoining the building exit, or unless the children are of school age and definite limits have been established as their boundaries.

These children shall receive frequent and routine supervision." Water adds a certification requirement rather than a ratio: 5 CSR 25-400.085(3)(B)5. requires "An adult with a current lifeguard training certificate, including infant/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training" on duty whenever a pool of forty-eight inches or more is in use, and 5 CSR 25-400.085(3)(B)6. requires "An adult who has completed a course in basic water safety, which includes infant/child CPR" for shallower water. WHO COUNTS AS A CAREGIVER IN THE FIRST COLUMN. 5 CSR 25-400.010(3): "Caregiver is the child care provider, other child care staff member, or an assistant." 5 CSR 25-400.010(2): "The assistant is an adult who is employed or volunteers in the home to care for children in case of an emergency, to meet staff/child ratios, to substitute for the provider during absences, or to assist the provider with the care of children." Every caregiver must be an adult — 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(C), "Caregivers shall be eighteen (18) years of age or older, have knowledge of the needs of children, and be sensitive to the capabilities, interests, and problems of children in care" — and, unlike group homes and centres, a family child care home has NO sixteen- or seventeen-year-old "Junior Aide" category to count in ratio. 5 CSR 25-500.010(2) creates the Junior Aide for the other tier; 5 CSR 25-400.010 does not create it at all.

One person is affirmatively removed from ratio while training: 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(L), "Caregivers shall not be counted in ratio when obtaining clock hour training." So a provider who wants to sit her twelve annual clock hours during operating hours must have someone else covering the ratio row. THE PROVIDER'S OWN PRESENCE IS ITSELF REGULATED, AND THAT IS A DE FACTO STAFFING RULE. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(A): "The provider routinely shall be present during the hours of highest attendance a minimum of forty (40) hours per week." 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(B): "The provider shall name an assistant caregiver who shall be available to substitute during his/her absence or to meet staff/child ratios." 5 CSR 25-400.105(3)(A): "The provider shall have at least one (1) assistant available." 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(G): "The provider shall not be engaged in any other employment while on duty at the family child care home." Missouri therefore requires a named, screened, medically cleared back-up caregiver on every family child care home licence, whether or not the ratio table ever calls for a second body, and requires the licensee personally to be on site for forty hours a week at the busiest times. A licence held by an absentee owner with a hired manager is not available in the family home tier.

Parents must be told when the substitution happens: 5 CSR 25-400.105(3)(C), "Parents shall be notified of any absence of the provider and informed of the name of the assistant on duty", and the assistants' details must be posted with the emergency numbers under 5 CSR 25-400.105(3)(B). THE ASSISTANT IS NOT A CHEAP HIRE. Because the assistant is a "caregiver" and a "child care staff member", she carries most of the provider's own compliance load: qualifying background screening before presence under 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(M) to (Q) and 5 CSR 25-600.020; a facility orientation within seven days of starting and before being left alone with children under 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(J); safe sleep training within thirty days of starting if the home is licensed for infants under 5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A)3.; a medical examination report within thirty days if she works or volunteers more than five hours a week under 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(D); and, on the same five-hour threshold, the full twelve annual clock hours under 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(A). WHAT THE OVERLAP AND SNOW-DAY ALLOWANCES DO TO RATIO. Neither suspends the ratio table.

Overlap under 5 CSR 25-400.155 raises the permitted headcount by up to one-third for no more than two hours in a twenty-four-hour day and is barred outright for children under two — 5 CSR 25-400.155(2), "Overlap care of children under two (2) years of age shall not be permitted" — so overlap children arrive in the columns where the under-two cap is least likely to be the binding constraint, but the caregiver count still has to support the larger headcount. Emergency school closing under 5 CSR 25-400.165(1) works the same way and, by its terms, admits only "enrolled school-age children". The eighteen-hour rule at 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(B) cuts the other way, forcing the home down to one-third of licensed capacity for six hours of every twenty-four. THE ONE PLACE THE FAMILY HOME CHAPTER USES THE WORDS "GROUP SIZE". 5 CSR 25-400.010(13) defines it — "Group size is the maximum number of children assigned to a specific staff member or group of staff members, occupying an individual classroom or well-defined physical space within a large room" — and then the chapter never uses the term again.

The definition is inherited boilerplate from the shared definitional block that DESE carried across all three chapters when the rules moved into 5 CSR 25 in 2021; the operative group size table lives only in the other chapter, at 5 CSR 25-500.112. FOR CONTRAST, THE TIER ABOVE. A group child care home or centre is governed by 5 CSR 25-500.112(1)(A), amended effective 30 January 2024, which does ration by age band: birth to thirty-six months, 1:4 with a maximum group of 8; groups composed solely of children twenty-four to thirty-six months, 1:8 with a maximum group of 16; groups composed solely of three- and four-year-olds, 1:10 with a maximum group of 20; groups composed solely of children five and older, 1:16 with a maximum group of 32; a mixed group of no more than four children aged twenty-four to thirty-six months plus at least one child over thirty-six months, 1:10 with a maximum group of 20; and a mixed group of more than four children aged twenty-four to thirty-six months plus at least one older child, 1:8 with a maximum group of 16. A Missouri operator who crosses from ten to eleven children therefore does not merely change licence type; she moves from a five-row headcount table with no group size to an age-banded table with group size caps, and she must do it in premises that are not her living quarters.

Training you must complete before licensure

MISSOURI HAS NO PRE-SERVICE CLOCK-HOUR NUMBER FOR A FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME PROVIDER. IT HAS FOUR SEPARATE GATES, EACH WITH ITS OWN TRIGGER AND ITS OWN DEADLINE, AND ONLY THREE OF THEM HAVE TO BE CLEARED BEFORE THE LICENCE ISSUES. ANYONE WHO ANSWERS "HOW MANY PRE-SERVICE HOURS DOES MISSOURI REQUIRE?" WITH A NUMBER IS ANSWERING A QUESTION MISSOURI DOES NOT ASK. Read Chapter 400 end to end and there is no rule that says "before licensure the provider shall complete N hours of training". There is no equivalent of Texas's twenty-four pre-service hours, Colorado's Early Childhood Education credential, or North Carolina's Early Childhood Credential. What there is instead is: an orientation with no stated duration; a facility orientation with a seven-day clock and a content list; a certification requirement in first aid and CPR; and a safe sleep course with a three-year renewal cycle and a conditional trigger. Below, each gate in the order it actually bites. GATE ONE — THE DEPARTMENT'S LICENSING ORIENTATION, WHICH IS THE FIRST STEP IN THE ENTIRE PROCESS AND HAS NO STATED LENGTH. 5 CSR 25-400.045(1) is the opening subsection of the licensing process rule, and it reads in full: "AN APPLICANT SHALL COMPLETE THE LICENSING ORIENTATION AVAILABLE ON THE DEPARTMENT'S WEBSITE TO LEARN ABOUT THE LICENSING PROCESS AND RULES."

That is the entire text. It says nothing about duration, nothing about a passing score, nothing about a certificate, nothing about currency, and nothing about whether it may be completed after the application is filed. It is drafted as a condition on the applicant rather than a condition on the licence, and it sits at subsection (1) — before the application, before the inspection, before everything. Three observations follow. FIRST, the content is delegated wholesale to a web page the rule does not name and does not incorporate by reference. Contrast this with the way the same chapter treats the Application for License to Operate a Child Care Facility form, the Annual Declaration for Licensed Facility form, the Tuberculosis (TB) Risk Assessment form, the Medical Examination Report for Caregivers and Staff form, the Child Medical Examination Report, the School-Age Child Health Report and the Child Care Facility Overlap Request form — all seven are formally "incorporated by reference in this rule" with a publisher, a postal address, a URL and a "This rule does not incorporate any subsequent amendment or additions" clause.

The orientation is not incorporated. Whatever DESE puts on its website is the orientation, and DESE can change it tomorrow without touching the Code of State Regulations. SECOND, because the orientation is not incorporated by reference and carries no stated hour count, the honest answer to a pre-service hours question is that the number is set administratively and is not law. THIRD, the parallel rule in the group-home-and-centre chapter is drafted the same way, so this is a deliberate Office of Childhood drafting choice across the whole licensing scheme rather than an oversight in the family home chapter. GATE TWO — THE FACILITY ORIENTATION, SEVEN DAYS, TEN NAMED TOPICS, AND IT COVERS EVERY CAREGIVER INCLUDING VOLUNTEERS. This one is drafted with the specificity the licensing orientation lacks. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(J): "The child care provider shall ensure that WITHIN SEVEN (7) DAYS OF EMPLOYMENT OR VOLUNTEERING, AND BEFORE BEING LEFT ALONE WITH CHILDREN, that caregivers employed on or after August 30, 2019, receive a facility orientation. The child care provider shall ensure that documentation verifying completion of the facility orientation is maintained and on file for review by the department for each caregiver.

The facility orientation shall include: 1. A tour of the facility, indoors and outdoors; and 2. A review of the following: A. Licensing rules; B. The facility's license and its limitations, if any; C. The facility's written child care practices, including procedures for medication administration, child illness, discipline, and guidance policies; D. The daily schedule; E. The assigned duties and responsibilities of staff; F. The names and ages of the children for whom the staff member will be responsible, including any special health, nutritional, or developmental needs; G. The location of children's records; H. The facility's safe sleep policy, if applicable; I. The facility's disaster emergency plan and the location of emergency information; and J. The mandated responsibility to report any suspected child abuse or neglect to the Children's Division." Four things in that text repay attention. FIRST, THE DEADLINE IS A DOUBLE DEADLINE — seven days from employment or volunteering, AND before being left alone with children. Whichever arrives first controls. A person hired on Monday who will be alone with children on Tuesday must be oriented on Tuesday morning; a person hired to work only alongside the provider still has a hard seven-day ceiling.

SECOND, THE OBLIGATION REACHES VOLUNTEERS EXPLICITLY. The words are "employment OR VOLUNTEERING". A grandmother who comes in unpaid two afternoons a week is a caregiver within 5 CSR 25-400.010(3) ("Caregiver is the child care provider, other child care staff member, or an assistant") and must be oriented and documented. THIRD, THE CUT-OFF DATE OF 30 AUGUST 2019 grandfathered caregivers hired before the rule took effect at its old address (19 CSR 30-61.105, amended filed 15 February 2019, effective 30 August 2019); a caregiver continuously employed since before that date is outside the obligation, which is a genuinely live point in long-running Missouri homes. FOURTH, THE DOCUMENTATION DUTY IS SEPARATE AND EXPLICIT — "documentation verifying completion of the facility orientation is maintained and on file for review by the department FOR EACH CAREGIVER". A facility orientation that happened but was not documented is, for inspection purposes, a facility orientation that did not happen. Note also what the facility orientation is NOT. It is not the licensing orientation of 5 CSR 25-400.045(1); those are two different events with two different audiences (the applicant, versus every caregiver including the applicant once licensed).

And it is not counted as clock-hour training: 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(D) restricts clock hours to "one (1) or more of the department-approved content areas", and orientation to a specific facility's schedule and licence limitations is not an approved content area. GATE THREE — FIRST AID AND CPR, WHICH IS A CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENT AND A CONTINUOUS STAFFING REQUIREMENT AT THE SAME TIME. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(S): "The provider shall have documentation on file at the home of CURRENT CERTIFICATION IN AGE-APPROPRIATE FIRST AID AND CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION (CPR) TRAINING. The training shall be certified by a nationally recognized organization, such as the American Red Cross, American Heart Association, or an equivalent certification and be approved by the department. AT LEAST ONE (1) CAREGIVER WITH CURRENT CERTIFICATION IN AGE-APPROPRIATE FIRST AID AND CPR MUST BE ON SITE AT ALL TIMES WHEN CHILDREN ARE PRESENT. First aid/CPR training may count toward the annual clock hour training requirement." Unpack the four distinct obligations packed into that one subsection. (i) THE PROVIDER PERSONALLY must hold current certification — the first sentence is addressed to "The provider", not to the facility. (ii) THE CERTIFICATION MUST BE AGE-APPROPRIATE, which in practice means infant/child CPR and paediatric first aid rather than adult-only cards, and the word "age-appropriate" tracks the ages on the licence. (iii) THE ISSUER MUST BE NATIONALLY RECOGNISED AND DEPARTMENT-APPROVED.

The rule names the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association as examples ("such as"), then adds "or an equivalent certification AND BE APPROVED BY THE DEPARTMENT". The conjunction matters: national recognition alone is insufficient; departmental approval is a second, independent condition, and an online-only card from an unrecognised vendor fails both limbs. (iv) THE ON-SITE RULE IS ABSOLUTE AND CONTINUOUS — "at all times when children are present". In a one-adult home this collapses into the provider's own certification never being allowed to lapse for a single day; in a home using an assistant to meet ratio, it means the provider must know the expiry date on every card in the house before building a rota. Two cross-references complete the picture. The last sentence — "First aid/CPR training may count toward the annual clock hour training requirement" — is repeated in the annual training rule and is one of the few explicit double-counting permissions in the chapter. And 5 CSR 25-400.085(3)(B)5.–6. layer a further, narrower certification requirement on top where there is a pool: "An adult with a CURRENT LIFEGUARD TRAINING CERTIFICATE, including infant/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training, shall be on duty when a swimming or wading pool containing a depth of forty-eight inches (48") or more of water is being used", and "An adult who has completed a COURSE IN BASIC WATER SAFETY, which includes infant/child CPR, shall be on duty when a swimming or wading pool containing less than forty-eight inches (48") of water is being used." A Missouri family home with a backyard wading pool therefore needs a basic water safety course in addition to first aid and CPR, and one with a full-depth pool needs a lifeguard certificate.

GATE FOUR — SAFE SLEEP TRAINING, WHICH IS THE ONLY GATE THE RULE EXPRESSLY PLACES "PRIOR TO LICENSURE", AND IT IS CONDITIONAL. 5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A): "EVERY THREE (3) YEARS the provider, assistant(s), and volunteers in a family child care home LICENSED TO PROVIDE CARE FOR INFANTS LESS THAN ONE (1) YEAR OF AGE shall successfully complete department-approved training regarding the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) safe sleep recommendations contained in the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on sleep-related infant deaths. The Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Updated 2022 Recommendations for Reducing Infant Deaths in the Sleep Environment, July 2022, is incorporated by reference in this rule, as published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and available at https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/150/1/e2022057990/188304/Sleep-Related-Infant-Deaths-Updated-2022 or as published in PEDIATRICS Volume 150, Issue 1, July 2022. A copy can also be obtained from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Childhood, 205 Jefferson Street, PO Box 480, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0480 and at https://dese.mo.gov/governmental-affairs/dese-administrativerules/incorporated-reference-materials.

This rule does not incorporate any subsequent amendments or additions." Then the three numbered paragraphs that do the operative work. 5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A)1.: "The training shall be documented and maintained as described in paragraph (4)(E)2. of this rule" — that is, recorded in the department's professional development system under a MOPD ID. 5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A)2.: "THE PROVIDER, ASSISTANT(S), AND VOLUNTEERS IN A FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME SHALL COMPLETE THE SAFE SLEEP TRAINING DESCRIBED IN SUBSECTION (5)(A) OF THIS RULE PRIOR TO LICENSURE." 5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A)3.: "The provider and any assistant hired or volunteering at the facility AFTER INITIAL LICENSURE shall complete the safe sleep training described in subsection (5)(A) of this rule WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS of employment or volunteering at the facility." Two subtleties here that Missouri material routinely gets wrong. FIRST, THE TRIGGER IS THE LICENCE, NOT THE ENROLMENT. The obligation attaches to a home "LICENSED TO PROVIDE CARE FOR INFANTS LESS THAN ONE (1) YEAR OF AGE" — recall that under 5 CSR 25-400.045(18) and section 210.221.1(1) RSMo the licence itself states the ages. A home licensed from age two upward has no safe sleep training obligation at all, even in theory. A home licensed from six weeks has the obligation from day one whether or not an infant is currently enrolled.

The ages an applicant asks for on the application therefore determine the training load, and asking for infants "just in case" imports a permanent three-yearly training cycle for the provider and every assistant and volunteer. SECOND, THE INCORPORATION IS FROZEN AT THE JULY 2022 AAP STATEMENT. The rule says "This rule does not incorporate any subsequent amendments or additions", so even if the American Academy of Pediatrics issues a newer policy statement, the Missouri regulatory standard remains the 2022 text until DESE amends the rule. Section 210.223.1 RSMo, by contrast, requires the facility's own written safe sleep policy to follow "THE MOST RECENT safe sleep recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics", and section 210.223.4 requires that employees and volunteers "successfully complete department-approved training on THE MOST RECENT safe sleep recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics every three years". The statute says most recent; the rule freezes 2022. That is a genuine, visible conflict between the statute and the rule, and on ordinary principles the statute governs.

THE WRITTEN SAFE SLEEP POLICY IS A SEPARATE PRE-LICENSURE DELIVERABLE, NOT A TRAINING. 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(N) requires, "Prior to the granting of a license", "A written safe sleep policy, if licensed to care for children under twelve (12) months of age". 5 CSR 25-400.135(1)–(2) then prescribe its contents in detail: the policy must comply with section 210.223 RSMo and must "list the licensee's expectations regarding how and when caregivers are to be trained on safe sleep"; require back sleeping for children under one; require "a written statement from the infant's licensed health care provider stating that the infant requires alternative sleep positions or special sleeping arrangements" before any non-supine placement; and address "Supervision of infants during nap/sleep times, to include: A. Positioning of staff; B. Lighting in the nap room; C. Physical checks of the child to ensure he or she is not overheated or in distress; and D. Prohibitions against the use of any equipment such as a sound machine that may interfere with the caregiver's ability to see or hear a child who may be distressed".

On the environment side it must state "that cribs and playpens must have a firm mattress and tight fitting sheets, be free of loose bedding, bumper pads, pillows, and soft toys"; "require infants' heads be uncovered during nap/sleep times"; "prohibit covering cribs or playpens with blankets or bedding"; "prohibit smoking in the child care home during the hours children are in care"; and "require giving the parent(s) or guardian(s) of each infant in care a copy of the provider's safe sleep policy upon the child's enrollment." THE MANDATED-REPORTER OBLIGATION IS A KNOWLEDGE REQUIREMENT WITHOUT A COURSE. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(I): "All child care providers and assistants shall acquaint themselves with the child abuse and neglect law and shall make a report of any suspected child abuse or neglect to the Children's Division at the toll-free number 1-800-392-3738 or online at https://apps.dss.mo.gov/OnlineCanReporting/default.aspx." No course is named, no hours are prescribed, and the duty is discharged by the facility orientation item at 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(J)2.J. ("The mandated responsibility to report any suspected child abuse or neglect to the Children's Division").

Compare the registered-subsidy-provider tier, where 5 CSR 25-200.070(1)(J) requires a named course, "Mandatory Child Abuse and Neglect (CA/N) Reporting", before registration. THE RULES-KNOWLEDGE REQUIREMENT, WHICH FUNCTIONS AS AN UNCOUNTED PRE-SERVICE OBLIGATION. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(H): "The provider shall have available a copy of the Licensing Rules for Family Child Care Homes in Missouri. PROVIDERS AND ASSISTANTS SHALL REVIEW AND BE KNOWLEDGEABLE OF THE RULES AT THE TIME THEY BEGIN WORK, AND SHALL BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND AND APPLY THE RULES WHICH RELATE TO THEIR RESPECTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES." This is drafted as a competence standard rather than a training standard — there is no course, no hours and no certificate, but a licensing representative can and does test it by asking questions on site. 5 CSR 25-400.135(3) adds a parent-facing limb: "The provider shall have available a copy of the Licensing Rules for Family Day Care Homes in Missouri and shall advise the parent(s) at the time of enrollment of his/her child of the availability of the rules for review." (The two subsections name the publication differently — "Family Child Care Homes" in one, "Family Day Care Homes" in the other — a leftover from the pre-2021 nomenclature.) THE QUALIFICATION FLOOR FOR A CAREGIVER IS AGE AND CHARACTER, NOT EDUCATION.

There is no minimum educational attainment for a Missouri family child care home provider — no high school diploma requirement, no CDA, no college credit, no credential of any kind. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(C): "Caregivers shall be eighteen (18) years of age or older, have knowledge of the needs of children, and be sensitive to the capabilities, interests, and problems of children in care." 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(D): "Caregivers shall be of good character and intent and shall be qualified to provide care conducive to the welfare of children." 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(E): "Caregivers shall be capable of handling emergencies promptly and intelligently." Section 210.221.1(1) RSMo supplies the statutory version of the same test: the department grants a licence "if satisfied as to the good character and intent of the applicant and that such applicant is qualified and equipped to render care or service conducive to the welfare of children." Note that Missouri's family home tier has no junior aide: 5 CSR 25-500.010(2) permits sixteen- and seventeen-year-old Junior Aides in group homes and centres, but 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(C) admits no one under eighteen into the caregiver role in a family home.

THE FORTY-HOUR PRESENCE RULE, WHICH IS NOT TRAINING BUT IS A PRE-CONDITION OF THE BUSINESS MODEL. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(A): "The provider routinely shall be present during the hours of highest attendance A MINIMUM OF FORTY (40) HOURS PER WEEK." 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(G): "The provider shall not be engaged in any other employment while on duty at the family child care home." Together these foreclose the absentee-owner model and the second-job model. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(B) and (3)(A) then require a named backup: "The provider shall name an assistant caregiver who shall be available to substitute during his/her absence or to meet staff/child ratios" and "The provider shall have at least one (1) assistant available." That assistant, if working or volunteering more than five hours a week, picks up the full annual training obligation under 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(A) and the medical examination obligation under 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(D). THE MEDICAL GATE, WHICH RUNS ON THE SAME PRE-LICENSURE CLOCK AS THE TRAINING GATES. 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(B): "The provider shall have a medical examination report ON FILE AT THE TIME OF INITIAL LICENSURE." 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(D): "Assistants who are employed or volunteer more than five (5) hours per week shall have a medical examination report on file WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS of beginning work in the home." 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(F): the report must be "signed by a licensed physician or registered nurse who is under the supervision of a licensed physician and completed NOT MORE THAN TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRIOR to beginning work in the home.

These reports may be transferable to another child care facility for subsequent employment." 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(E) attaches the tuberculosis limb: the report "shall include either a Tuberculosis (TB) Risk Assessment form, completed and signed by a health care professional, or a negative tuberculin skin test (TST) completed not more than twelve (12) months before beginning work in the facility", with the twist at (E)1. that "If the person has no documented history of ever receiving a tuberculin skin test (TST), and elects to receive a TST, then A TWO- (2-) STEP TST IS REQUIRED. A history of bacilli Calmette-Guerin vaccination (BCG) shall not exempt a person from receiving a tuberculin test." A two-step TST takes one to three weeks to complete, which is why an applicant working to the six-month application deadline in 5 CSR 25-400.045(2) should start it early. FOR CONTRAST, THE TIER BELOW HAS A LONGER PRE-SERVICE LIST THAN THE LICENSED TIER. This is the most counter-intuitive fact in the whole Missouri training picture and it is worth stating plainly.

An unlicensed home caregiver who wants subsidy money must register under 5 CSR 25-200.070, and 5 CSR 25-200.070(1)(J) requires her to "register with Opportunities in a Professional Education Network (OPEN) and secure a Missouri Professional Development Identifier (MOPD-ID)" and complete TWELVE NAMED COURSES BEFORE REGISTRATION: First Aid and CPR; Child Care Subsidy Orientation; Prevention of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Safe Sleeping; Prevention of Shaken Baby Syndrome and Abusive Head Trauma; Emergency Disaster Response and Planning; Mandatory Child Abuse and Neglect (CA/N) Reporting; Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (including immunizations); Administration of Medication, consistent with standards for parental consent; Prevention and Response to Food Allergy Emergencies; Building and Physical Premises Safety, including identification of and protection from hazards that can cause bodily injury; Handling and Storage of Hazardous Materials and the Appropriate Disposal of Bio-Contaminants; and Transportation of Children. Those twelve are the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant health-and-safety topics, imported into the subsidy registration rule.

THE LICENSED FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME RULE DOES NOT IMPORT THEM. Chapter 400 requires the licensing orientation, the facility orientation, first aid and CPR, and (conditionally) safe sleep — and it does not name shaken baby syndrome, food allergy response, medication administration, infectious disease control, hazardous materials or transportation as pre-service courses at all. Whether DESE folds those topics into the unnamed, unincorporated "licensing orientation available on the department's website" is not something the Code of State Regulations answers. ONE FORWARD-LOOKING ITEM THAT IS NOT YET LAW ON 26 AUGUST 2026. Section 210.225 RSMo, "Elijah's Law", enacted by L. 2026 H.B. 2372, TAKES EFFECT ON 28 AUGUST 2026 — two days after the verification date of this entry. It will require, at section 210.225.2(1), that "Before July 1, 2028, each licensed child care provider shall adopt a policy on allergy prevention and response with priority given to addressing potentially deadly foodborne allergies", with six mandated elements, and at section 210.225.3 that "Adoption of a policy on allergy prevention and response in accordance with this section IS REQUIRED FOR LICENSURE as a child care provider."

Section 210.225.4 directs that "The department of elementary and secondary education shall, in cooperation with any appropriate professional association, develop a model policy or policies before July 1, 2027." As at the verification date this is not an operative pre-licensure requirement; from 28 August 2026 it becomes a licensure condition with a July 2028 compliance deadline, and any Missouri applicant planning a 2027 or 2028 opening should treat the allergy policy as a fifth deliverable alongside the safe sleep policy, the disaster plan and the parent policies. THE HONEST SUMMARY. Before a Missouri family child care home licence issues, the applicant must have completed the DESE licensing orientation (duration unstated, content not incorporated by reference), must hold current age-appropriate first aid and CPR certification from a nationally recognised, department-approved issuer, and — if the licence will cover infants under one — must have completed the department-approved AAP safe sleep training and every assistant and volunteer must have done the same. Within seven days of any caregiver starting, and before that caregiver is ever alone with children, the ten-item facility orientation must be delivered and documented.

Everything else Missouri asks of a new provider is medical (the twelve-month medical examination report and TB risk assessment), documentary (the safe sleep policy, the disaster plan, the parent policies), or competence-based (knowledge of the rules, good character, capacity to handle emergencies) rather than a training hour.

Ongoing (annual) training

TWELVE CLOCK HOURS PER CALENDAR YEAR, FOR THE PROVIDER AND FOR ANY ASSISTANT WHO WORKS OR VOLUNTEERS MORE THAN FIVE HOURS A WEEK — AND THE WORD "CALENDAR" IS DOING MORE WORK THAN ANY OTHER WORD IN THE RULE. THE CORE OBLIGATION, VERBATIM. 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(A): "THE PROVIDER SHALL OBTAIN AT LEAST TWELVE (12) CLOCK HOURS OF CHILD CARE-RELATED TRAINING DURING EACH CALENDAR YEAR. ANY ASSISTANT WHO WORKS OR VOLUNTEERS MORE THAN FIVE (5) HOURS PER WEEK SHALL MEET THE SAME TRAINING REQUIREMENTS. CLOCK HOUR TRAINING SHALL BE APPROVED BY THE DEPARTMENT." 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(B) defines the unit: "A clock hour shall be a minimum of one (1) hour." 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(C) prorates for partial years: "Caregivers who were employed less than the full year shall obtain ONE (1) CLOCK HOUR OF TRAINING FOR EACH ONE (1) MONTH OF EMPLOYMENT, REGARDLESS OF THE DATE EMPLOYMENT BEGAN." THE CALENDAR YEAR IS THE MEASURING PERIOD, NOT THE LICENCE YEAR — AND THIS DESYNCHRONISES THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT DEADLINES IN THE CHAPTER. Missouri renews by annual declaration keyed to the licence anniversary: 5 CSR 25-400.055(1) requires the declaration "at least thirty (30) calendar days prior to the ANNIVERSARY DATE as printed on the license", and 5 CSR 25-400.055(2)(C) requires the Family Care Safety Registry sweep "within thirty (30) days prior to the ANNIVERSARY DATE as printed on the license".

But the training obligation runs 1 January to 31 December regardless of when the licence issued. A home licensed on 15 September therefore has an annual declaration due each 16 August and a training year that closes each 31 December, and the two never align. The consequence is that a provider who counts her training "since last renewal" will systematically miscount. The only correct count is hours recorded against a calendar year in the department's professional development system. THE PRORATION RULE IS ONE HOUR PER MONTH AND IT IS BLIND TO THE START DATE. 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(C) says "regardless of the date employment began", which means the fraction of the month is ignored. An assistant who starts on 28 October owes two clock hours for that calendar year (October and November... and December — three, on the natural reading that October, November and December are three months of employment). The rule does not say "each full month" and does not say "each completed month"; it says "each one (1) month of employment, regardless of the date employment began". The safest reading for a provider is to count every calendar month in which the person was employed for any part of the month.

Note also that the proration is expressed as a floor ("shall obtain one (1) clock hour ... for each one (1) month"), not a cap, and that it applies to "caregivers", so it reaches the provider herself in the year of initial licensure: a home licensed on 1 October owes the provider three clock hours for that first calendar year, not twelve. THE FIVE-HOUR-A-WEEK LINE IS THE SAME LINE USED FOR MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS, WHICH IS A USEFUL MNEMONIC. 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(A) attaches the twelve-hour duty to "Any assistant who works or volunteers MORE THAN FIVE (5) HOURS PER WEEK", and 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(D) attaches the medical examination report to "Assistants who are employed or volunteer MORE THAN FIVE (5) HOURS PER WEEK". Cross the five-hour line and an assistant simultaneously acquires a training obligation and a medical examination obligation. Below the line, an assistant still needs the facility orientation within seven days (5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(J)), still needs a qualifying background screening result on file (5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(N)), and still needs safe sleep training within thirty days if the home is licensed for infants (5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A)3.) — but owes no clock hours and no medical report.

The five-hour threshold is thus the single most consequential staffing number in a Missouri family home after the ratio table itself. THE EIGHT APPROVED CONTENT AREAS. 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(D): "The clock hour training shall include one (1) or more of the department-approved content areas. THE EIGHT (8) CONTENT AREAS ADDRESS CHILD DEVELOPMENT, FAMILY-TEACHER PARTNERSHIPS, CHILD OBSERVATION, DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE, EARLY CHILDHOOD CURRICULUM, PROFESSIONALISM, HEALTH AND SAFETY, AND LEADERSHIP." All twelve hours may come from a single content area; the rule requires only "one (1) or more". There is no mandatory annual health-and-safety minimum, no mandatory annual safe sleep refresher inside the twelve (safe sleep runs on its own three-year cycle under subsection (5)), and no mandatory child abuse and neglect refresher. That is unusually permissive; many states ring-fence a portion of annual hours for health and safety. THE DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENTS ARE SPECIFIC AND THE SYSTEM OF RECORD IS THE STATE'S, NOT THE PROVIDER'S. 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(E): "Training shall be documented with THE DATES, THE INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANT'S NAME, THE NUMBER OF HOURS OF TRAINING COMPLETED, THE TITLE OF THE TRAINING, TRAINING APPROVAL IDENTIFICATION CODE, AND THE NAME OF THE TRAINER(S)." Then the two numbered paragraphs that move the record off the provider's shelf: 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(E)1.: "CAREGIVERS SHALL OBTAIN A MISSOURI PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IDENTIFICATION (MOPD ID) NUMBER FROM THE DEPARTMENT." 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(E)2.: "ALL CLOCK HOUR TRAINING RECORDS SHALL BE RECORDED IN THE DEPARTMENT'S PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM. A SUMMARY OF TRAINING FROM THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM WILL SERVE AS DOCUMENTATION OF TRAINING HOURS COMPLETED."

Three practical consequences. FIRST, the MOPD ID is a per-person credential, so every caregiver crossing five hours a week needs one, not just the provider. SECOND, "training approval identification code" is a field that only department-approved training carries — a workshop with no approval code cannot be documented in the prescribed form and therefore cannot be counted, which is the enforcement mechanism behind the bare requirement in (4)(A) that "Clock hour training shall be approved by the department". THIRD, because the state system is the record, a provider's own certificates and sign-in sheets are evidence of nothing at inspection if the hours were never posted; the rule says the SYSTEM SUMMARY "will serve as documentation", not the certificates. The system Missouri uses for this is the professional development registry run through Opportunities in a Professional Education Network (OPEN), which the sibling subsidy rules name expressly — 5 CSR 25-200.070(1)(J) requires a registrant to "register with Opportunities in a Professional Education Network (OPEN) and secure a Missouri Professional Development Identifier (MOPD-ID)".

Chapter 400 does not name OPEN; it refers only to "the department's professional development system", which is a sensible drafting choice since the platform can change without a rule amendment, but it means the Code of State Regulations alone will not tell a provider where to go. WHAT COUNTS, AND THE ARITHMETIC OF COLLEGE CREDIT. 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(E)3.: "Child-related college courses from an accredited college or university as identified by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Post-Secondary Education (http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/) may be counted as clock hour training. Child-related college courses shall meet the following guidelines: A. College coursework accepted for clock hours MUST BE CHILD RELATED; B. ONE (1) COLLEGE CREDIT IS EQUAL TO FIFTEEN (15) CLOCK HOURS; C. College coursework does not include clock hour training or Continuing Education Units (CEUs) taken from a college. Clock hour training provided through colleges, such as a continuing education program or an extension office, must follow the procedures for clock hour training approval; and D. College coursework shall be documented by a transcript from an accredited college." A single three-credit child development course therefore generates forty-five clock hours — but see the carry-over prohibition below, which means those forty-five hours discharge one year's obligation and nothing more.

THE CDA AND YDC SHORTCUT. 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(F): "Completing a Child Development Associate (CDA) or Youth Development Credential (YDC) shall count for TWELVE (12) CLOCK HOURS FOR THE YEAR THE CREDENTIAL WAS AWARDED." Note the precise scope — it counts for twelve hours in the AWARD YEAR only. It is not a standing exemption, and holding a CDA in later years earns nothing. Note too that Missouri does not require a CDA at any point; this is a credit rule, not a qualification rule. FIRST AID AND CPR MAY BE DOUBLE-COUNTED. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(S), last sentence: "First aid/CPR training may count toward the annual clock hour training requirement." Since first aid and CPR certification typically runs on a two-year cycle and a full paediatric first aid and CPR course commonly runs four to six hours, this is a material offset in the years it falls due, and it maps cleanly onto the "health and safety" content area in (4)(D). THE SIX PROHIBITIONS THAT SHRINK THE COUNT.

These are where providers most often over-count. (i) NO DUPLICATES IN THE SAME YEAR — 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(G): "Caregivers shall not receive clock hours for duplicate training taken within the same calendar year." (ii) NO CARRY-OVER — 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(H): "CLOCK HOURS OBTAINED IN EXCESS OF THE TWELVE (12) TRAINING CLOCK HOURS FOR THE CURRENT YEAR SHALL NOT BE CARRIED OVER INTO THE NEXT CALENDAR YEAR." A provider who takes a forty-five-hour college course in November banks nothing for January. (iii) NO HIGH SCHOOL COURSEWORK — 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(J): "High school coursework shall not be approved for clock hours." (iv) NO CREDIT FOR TEACHING — 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(K): "Trainers shall not be awarded clock hours for training sessions which they conducted." A provider who is also an approved trainer earns nothing from her own sessions. (v) NO COLLEGE CEUs BY THE COLLEGE ROUTE — 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(E)3.C., quoted above, forces continuing education units and extension-office offerings back through the ordinary clock-hour approval process rather than the fifteen-hours-per-credit conversion. (vi) TRAINING TIME IS NOT RATIO TIME — 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(L): "CAREGIVERS SHALL NOT BE COUNTED IN RATIO WHEN OBTAINING CLOCK HOUR TRAINING."

This is the operational trap in a one-adult home: on-line training taken during child care hours does not count, because the provider cannot simultaneously be the caregiver satisfying 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(A) and be off-ratio in training. A solo Missouri provider must therefore do her twelve hours outside operating hours or bring in a second adult, and the second adult must herself be background-screened, oriented and (if over five hours a week) medically cleared. THE ONE PERMISSION THAT HELPS A NEW APPLICANT. 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(I): "Clock hour training taken PRIOR TO BEGINNING EMPLOYMENT OR BECOMING LICENSED at the family child care home MAY BE COUNTED AS LONG AS IT OCCURRED WITHIN THAT CALENDAR YEAR." An applicant who spends the spring taking approved training and is licensed in the autumn carries those hours into the licence year. Combined with the proration rule at (4)(C), a home licensed in October with six approved hours already logged that year has already exceeded the three hours it owes. THE SAFE SLEEP CYCLE SITS OUTSIDE THE TWELVE AND RUNS ON THREE YEARS. 5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A): "EVERY THREE (3) YEARS the provider, assistant(s), and volunteers in a family child care home licensed to provide care for infants less than one (1) year of age shall successfully complete department-approved training regarding the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) safe sleep recommendations".

Section 210.223.4 RSMo is the statutory parent: "All employees of licensed child care facilities who care for infants less than one year of age or any volunteer who may be assisting at the facility shall successfully complete department-approved training on the most recent safe sleep recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics EVERY THREE YEARS." The rule does not say whether the safe sleep hours may also be counted inside the twelve; it is department-approved training within the "health and safety" content area, and 5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A)1. requires it to be "documented and maintained as described in paragraph (4)(E)2. of this rule" — i.e. in the same professional development system — which is at least consistent with counting it. The rule's silence is a genuine ambiguity and a provider should not build a year's plan around the assumption. WHERE THE TWELVE HOURS SIT IN THE INSPECTION FILE. 5 CSR 25-400.055(2) lists what must be "on file and available for review" annually, and training is not on that list — because the record lives in the state system rather than the home. 5 CSR 25-400.210 (Records and Reports) likewise does not list training records among the documents required at the home; it requires child files, health information, medication records, attendance records for children and for caregivers ("Daily attendance records for all caregivers shall be maintained and kept on file a minimum of one (1) year", 5 CSR 25-400.210(6)), and background screening results.

The caregiver attendance record is worth noting in this context: it is the document from which an inspector can reconstruct whether a given assistant crossed the five-hour-per-week line and therefore owed twelve clock hours and a medical examination report. THE COMPARISON THAT PUTS TWELVE HOURS IN PERSPECTIVE. Twelve clock hours a year is at the low end nationally for a licensed home-based provider, and Missouri does not stratify it — there is no higher requirement for infant care, no higher requirement for night care, and no higher requirement for a larger licensed capacity. The tier above, group child care homes and centres under 5 CSR 25-500, runs its own training rule; the tier below, registered subsidy providers under 5 CSR 25-200.070, front-loads twelve named courses before registration but is not on the same annual clock-hour scheme. A licensed Missouri family child care home provider caring for ten children including two infants, working forty hours a week, owes the state twelve documented, department-approved, off-ratio hours a year and nothing more. FOR COMPLETENESS, WHAT DOES NOT RECUR ANNUALLY.

The comprehensive background check recurs every five years, not annually — 5 CSR 25-600.020(5): "Criminal background checks shall be completed for each child care staff member every five (5) years." The Family Care Safety Registry check, by contrast, IS annual — 5 CSR 25-400.055(2)(C). The medical examination report does not recur at all once on file; 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(F) requires only that it be "completed not more than twelve (12) months prior to beginning work in the home", with no periodic re-examination, subject to 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(I): "If at any time the department has reason to question the physical or mental health of a provider or assistant, the department shall require a physical or mental examination of that person." The fire inspection is annual under 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A) and section 210.252.1 RSMo. The fire extinguisher inspection is annual under 5 CSR 25-400.086(10)(F). The chimney flue inspection and cleaning is annual under 5 CSR 25-400.086(12)(L). A sprinkler system, where present, is tested annually under 5 CSR 25-400.086(10)(H). The immunization summary report is annual and dated: 5 CSR 25-400.185(4)(D) requires that "An annual summary report shall be made BY JANUARY 15 showing the immunization status of each child enrolled, using forms provided by the department."

Background checks

MISSOURI RUNS TWO SEPARATE, SIMULTANEOUS SCREENING SYSTEMS ON A FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME, ADMINISTERED BY TWO DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS, ON TWO DIFFERENT CLOCKS. CONFLATING THEM IS THE COMMONEST MISTAKE IN MISSOURI CHILD CARE COMPLIANCE, AND IT IS A MISTAKE THAT COSTS LICENCES. SYSTEM ONE IS THE COMPREHENSIVE BACKGROUND SCREENING under section 210.1080 RSMo and 5 CSR 25-600, administered by the DESE Office of Childhood, run every FIVE years, and it is the one that determines eligibility to be present at the facility. SYSTEM TWO is the FAMILY CARE SAFETY REGISTRY under sections 210.900 to 210.936 RSMo — the Family Care Safety Act — administered by the DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SENIOR SERVICES, checked ANNUALLY by the provider against every staff member, and separately triggered on every new hire. They overlap in content (the FCSR is one of the databases the comprehensive check searches) but they are not the same obligation and neither substitutes for the other. THE STATUTORY VERSION IN FORCE ON 26 AUGUST 2026 IS THE 2022 TEXT, NOT THE 2026 TEXT. This matters for precision. Section 210.1080 RSMo has five enacted versions; the version effective 28 August 2022 (A.L. 2022 S.B. 683) is the operative one on the verification date, and a NEW version enacted by A.L. 2026 H.B. 2273 takes effect on 28 AUGUST 2026 — two days later.

The Missouri Revisor pre-publishes the new text, so anyone reading revisor.mo.gov on 26 August 2026 sees the not-yet-effective version by default. The substantive difference is narrow but real: the 2026 amendment replaces "child pornography" with "child pornography as it existed prior to August 28, 2026, or child sexual abuse material" in section 210.1080.9(1)(c) and (i), reflecting Missouri's statewide terminology change, and the Revisor simultaneously applies a section 3.060 correction changing the cross-reference in section 210.1080.12 from "subdivision (17)" to "subdivision (18)" of section 210.211.1, with the footnote "*Statutory reference to subdivision '(17)' changed to '(18)' in accordance with section 3.060 based on renumbering by S.B. 727 merged with S.B. 1111, 2024." On 26 August 2026 the codified religious-exemption cross-reference in section 210.1080.12 still literally reads "(17)", which since 28 August 2024 has pointed at nursery schools rather than at religious exclusive-control facilities. Nothing in the disqualification list changes on 28 August 2026. WHO IS SCREENED — THE DEFINITION IS BROADER THAN "EMPLOYEE" AND IT REACHES INTO THE HOUSEHOLD.

Section 210.1080.1(2) RSMo defines "child care staff member" as "a child care provider; persons employed by the child care provider for compensation, including contract employees or self-employed individuals; individuals or volunteers whose activities involve the care or supervision of children for a child care provider OR UNSUPERVISED ACCESS TO CHILDREN who are cared for or supervised by a child care provider; INDIVIDUALS RESIDING IN A HOME WHERE CHILD CARE IS PROVIDED WHO ARE EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER; or individuals residing in a home where child care is provided who are UNDER EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE AND HAVE BEEN CERTIFIED AS AN ADULT FOR THE COMMISSION OF AN OFFENSE." The regulatory definition at 5 CSR 25-600.010(2) is materially identical but drafted for the family home: "individuals residing in a FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME who are eighteen (18) years of age and older". And 5 CSR 25-400.010(8) repeats it a third time inside the licensing chapter. Spell out what that means for a home daycare. EVERY ADULT WHO LIVES IN THE HOUSE IS SCREENED, whether or not they have anything to do with the daycare.

The spouse who works nights and never sees a child, the adult son back from college, the mother-in-law in the spare room, the lodger — all are "child care staff members" for screening purposes because they reside where child care is provided and are eighteen or older. A seventeen-year-old resident is NOT screened unless he has been certified as an adult for an offence. Contract cleaners and self-employed contractors are caught by the "contract employees or self-employed individuals" limb if they are employed by the provider. Volunteers are caught by the "care or supervision" or "unsupervised access" limb. And a person who merely visits is not a staff member — but see the separate presence prohibition below, which reaches beyond staff members. WHAT THE CHECK ACTUALLY CONSISTS OF — FIVE COMPONENTS, MULTI-STATE, FIVE-YEAR LOOKBACK ON RESIDENCE. Section 210.1080.1(3) RSMo, and identically 5 CSR 25-600.010(4), define "criminal background check" as: "(a) A FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FINGERPRINT CHECK; (b) A search of the NATIONAL CRIME INFORMATION CENTER'S NATIONAL SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY; and (c) A search of the following registries, repositories, or databases IN MISSOURI, THE STATE WHERE THE CHILD CARE STAFF MEMBER RESIDES, AND EACH STATE WHERE SUCH STAFF MEMBER RESIDED DURING THE PRECEDING FIVE YEARS: a.

THE STATE CRIMINAL REGISTRY OR REPOSITORY, WITH THE USE OF FINGERPRINTS BEING REQUIRED IN THE STATE WHERE THE STAFF MEMBER RESIDES and optional in other states; b. THE STATE SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY OR REPOSITORY; and c. THE STATE-BASED CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT REGISTRY AND DATABASE." The regulatory text at 5 CSR 25-600.010(4)(C) adds an express naming of the Missouri registry: "A search of the following registries, repositories, INCLUDING THE FAMILY CARE SAFETY REGISTRY, or databases in Missouri, the state where the child care staff member resides, and each state where such staff member resided during the preceding five (5) years". So the FCSR is folded into the comprehensive check as one of its inputs — which is exactly why so many people conclude, wrongly, that the annual FCSR check is redundant. The five-year residence lookback is the component that most often delays a Missouri licence. A provider or household member who has lived in three states in five years triggers three out-of-state criminal repository searches, three out-of-state sex offender registry searches and three out-of-state child abuse and neglect registry searches, each on that state's own processing timetable.

Against the six-month application deadline in 5 CSR 25-400.045(2) — "If licensing rules are not met within six (6) months, the application shall be void and another application shall be filed" — a recently-relocated applicant should submit screening first and everything else second. The statutory service standard gives the department forty-five days for its own part: section 210.1080.8(1) RSMo, "The department shall process the request for a criminal background check for any prospective child care staff member or child care staff member as expeditiously as possible, BUT NOT TO EXCEED FORTY-FIVE DAYS after the date on which the provider submitted the request." That is forty-five days for the DESE step, not forty-five days for the out-of-state responses. THE FINGERPRINT REQUIREMENT IS ASYMMETRIC AND THE ASYMMETRY IS DELIBERATE. Fingerprints are mandatory twice: for the FBI check under limb (a), and for the state criminal repository check IN THE STATE WHERE THE STAFF MEMBER RESIDES under limb (c)a. For prior states of residence, fingerprints are "optional" — meaning a name-based search suffices.

The Missouri fingerprint infrastructure runs through the Missouri State Highway Patrol; section 210.900.2(9) RSMo defines "Patrol" as "the Missouri state highway patrol" and section 210.903.2(1) routes the registry through "The patrol's criminal record check system pursuant to section 43.540, including state and national information, to the extent possible." WHO PAYS. Section 210.1080.3 RSMo: "THE COSTS OF THE CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK SHALL BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHILD CARE STAFF MEMBER, but may be paid or reimbursed by the child care provider at the provider's discretion. The fees charged for the criminal background check shall not exceed the actual cost of processing and administration." 5 CSR 25-600.030(1) repeats it word for word. So in a family home, the provider pays for her own check, and each adult household member is technically liable for the cost of his own — a point worth raising with a reluctant lodger before the application is filed. WHEN THE CHECK MUST BE DONE — BEFORE THE LICENCE, AND BEFORE ANY NEW PERSON. Section 210.1080.2(1) RSMo: "PRIOR TO the employment or presence of a child care staff member in a licensed, license-exempt, or unlicensed registered child care facility, the child care provider shall request the results of a criminal background check for such child care staff member from the department." 5 CSR 25-600.020(1) narrows the statutory phrase to licensed and regulated facilities not exempted by section 210.1080.13: "Prior to the employment or presence of a child care staff member in a licensed, regulated, or registered child care facility not exempted by section 210.1080.13, RSMo, the child care provider shall request the results of a criminal background check for such child care staff member from the department."

And on the licensing side, 5 CSR 25-400.045(6): "The child care provider and child care staff members, as defined by 5 CSR 25-600.010 Definitions, shall have qualifying background screening results on file as required by 5 CSR 25-600.020 General Requirements, PRIOR TO INITIAL ISSUANCE OF THE LICENSE." THE TEMPORARY-ELIGIBILITY BRIDGE, AND THE SUPERVISION CONDITION ATTACHED TO IT. Section 210.1080.2(2) RSMo: "A prospective child care staff member MAY BEGIN WORK for a child care provider after receiving the qualifying result of EITHER a Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint check OR a search of the Missouri criminal registry or repository with the use of fingerprints; however, PENDING COMPLETION of the criminal background check, the prospective child care staff member SHALL BE SUPERVISED AT ALL TIMES by another child care staff member who received a qualifying result on the criminal background check within the past five years." 5 CSR 25-600.020(2) restates this as a two-branch permission: "(A) The prospective child care staff member has received notice from the department that the individual is ELIGIBLE for employment or presence in a child care setting; or (B) The prospective child care staff member has received notice from the department that the individual is TEMPORARILY ELIGIBLE for employment or presence in a child care setting based on the qualifying results of either a Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint check or a search of the Missouri criminal registry or repository with the use of fingerprints.

Pending completion of the criminal background check, an individual working with a temporary eligibility notice shall be SUPERVISED AT ALL TIMES by a child care staff member who received a qualifying result on the criminal background check within the past five (5) years." Note the structural problem this creates in a ONE-ADULT family child care home: a new assistant on temporary eligibility must be supervised at all times, which means the provider cannot use that assistant to cover her own absence — the very purpose 5 CSR 25-400.010(2) assigns to an assistant ("to care for children in case of an emergency, to meet staff/child ratios, to substitute for the provider during absences"). Temporary eligibility buys a second body in ratio; it does not buy a substitute. THE FIVE-YEAR PORTABILITY EXCEPTION.

Section 210.1080.7 RSMo excuses a new request where three conditions are met: "(1) The staff member received a qualifying criminal background check WITHIN FIVE YEARS before the latest date on which such a submission may be made and while employed by or seeking employment by another child care provider within Missouri; (2) The departments of elementary and secondary education, health and senior services, or social services provided to the first provider a qualifying criminal background check result, consistent with this section, for the staff member; and (3) The staff member is employed by a child care provider within Missouri or has been SEPARATED FROM EMPLOYMENT from a child care provider within Missouri FOR A PERIOD OF NOT MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY CONSECUTIVE DAYS." 5 CSR 25-600.020(4) restates the same three conditions and adds a fourth, independent excusal at (4)(D): "The individual meets the definition of child care provider, but is NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE OVERSIGHT OR DIRECTION of the child care facility and does NOT HAVE INDEPENDENT ACCESS to the child care facility. Such staff members shall be accompanied by an individual with a qualifying criminal background check in order to be present at the child care facility during child care hours."

That fourth limb tracks section 210.1080.2(3) RSMo and exists for passive members, managers, shareholders and officers of an entity that owns a facility — the silent LLC member who never sets foot in the house. The 180-day gap rule is the one that bites in practice: an assistant who left child care work seven months ago needs a fresh check. THE FIVE-YEAR RECHECK. 5 CSR 25-600.020(5): "CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS SHALL BE COMPLETED FOR EACH CHILD CARE STAFF MEMBER EVERY FIVE (5) YEARS." That is the recurring obligation, and it applies to adult household members exactly as it applies to paid staff.

THE DISQUALIFICATION LIST — SIXTEEN GROUNDS, AND SEVERAL OF THEM CATCH MISDEMEANOURS. 5 CSR 25-600.040(1) provides that a person "shall be ineligible for employment or presence at a licensed, regulated, or registered child care facility not exempted by section 210.1080.13, RSMo, if such person— (A) REFUSES TO CONSENT to the criminal background check as required by section 210.1080, RSMo; (B) KNOWINGLY MAKES A MATERIALLY FALSE STATEMENT in connection with the criminal background check as required by section 210.1080, RSMo; (C) IS REGISTERED, OR IS REQUIRED TO BE REGISTERED, on a state sex offender registry or repository or the National Sex Offender Registry; (D) IS LISTED AS A PERPETRATOR OF CHILD ABUSE OR NEGLECT under sections 210.109 to 210.183, RSMo or has any other finding of child abuse or neglect based on any other state's registry or database; or (E) Has pled guilty or nolo contendere to or been found guilty of— 1. ANY FELONY FOR AN OFFENSE AGAINST THE PERSON as defined in Chapter 565, RSMo; 2. Any other offense against the person INVOLVING THE ENDANGERMENT OF A CHILD as prescribed by law;

3. ANY MISDEMEANOR OR FELONY FOR A SEXUAL OFFENSE as defined in Chapter 566, RSMo; 4. ANY MISDEMEANOR OR FELONY FOR AN OFFENSE AGAINST THE FAMILY as defined in Chapter 568, RSMo; 5. BURGLARY IN THE FIRST DEGREE as defined in section 569.160, RSMo; 6. ANY MISDEMEANOR OR FELONY FOR ROBBERY as defined in Chapter 570, RSMo; 7. ANY MISDEMEANOR OR FELONY FOR PORNOGRAPHY or related offense as defined in Chapter 573, RSMo; 8. ANY FELONY FOR ARSON as defined in Chapter 569, RSMo; 9. Any felony for ARMED CRIMINAL ACTION as defined in section 571.015, RSMo, UNLAWFUL USE OF A WEAPON as defined in section 571.030, RSMo, UNLAWFUL POSSESSION OF A FIREARM as defined in section 571.070, RSMo, or the UNLAWFUL POSSESSION OF AN EXPLOSIVE as defined in section 571.072, RSMo; 10. Any felony for MAKING A TERRORIST THREAT as defined in section 574.115, 574.120, or 574.125, RSMo; 11. A FELONY DRUG-RELATED OFFENSE COMMITTED DURING THE PRECEDING FIVE (5) YEARS; or 12. ANY SIMILAR OFFENSE in any federal, state, municipal, or other court of similar jurisdiction of which the director of the designated department has knowledge."

Section 210.1080.4 RSMo carries the identical list and adds the funding consequence: a disqualified person is also "disqualified from receipt of state or federal funds for providing child care services either by direct payment or through reimbursement to an individual who receives child care benefits." Three features of that list deserve emphasis. FIRST, THE MISDEMEANOUR REACH. Sexual offences (Chapter 566), offences against the family (Chapter 568), robbery (Chapter 570) and pornography (Chapter 573) disqualify at MISDEMEANOUR level. Most other categories require a felony. SECOND, ONLY DRUG OFFENCES ARE TIME-LIMITED — "a felony drug-related offense committed during the preceding five (5) years". Every other listed conviction disqualifies permanently, with no lookback window and no rehabilitation clock. THIRD, THE CATCH-ALL IN (E)12. is discretionary in operation and depends on departmental knowledge of an out-of-state or municipal conviction; combined with the multi-state search obligation, it is broader than it looks. THE HOUSEHOLD PRESENCE BAN IS A SEPARATE RULE AND IT IS ABSOLUTE. 5 CSR 25-600.040(2): "ADULT HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS EIGHTEEN (18) YEARS OF AGE AND OLDER, or household members who are under eighteen (18) years of age but have been certified as an adult for the commission of an offense, IN A FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME SHALL BE INELIGIBLE TO MAINTAIN A PRESENCE AT A FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME DURING CHILD CARE HOURS if any one (1) or more of the provisions of section (1) of this rule applies to them."

Section 210.1080.5 RSMo is the statutory version. Read this against 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(O) — "Child care staff members with disqualifying background screening results as defined in 5 CSR 25-600.040 Background Screening Findings shall be prohibited from being present on the premises of the facility during child care hours" — and the practical effect is stark: A DISQUALIFYING RECORD HELD BY A SPOUSE, AN ADULT CHILD OR A LODGER DOES NOT MERELY DISQUALIFY THAT PERSON FROM WORKING; IT REQUIRES THAT PERSON TO BE OUT OF THE HOUSE FOR EVERY HOUR THE DAYCARE OPERATES. In a family child care home, where the premises and the residence are the same building, that is frequently the fact that ends the application. THE DEPARTMENT'S DISCRETIONARY OVERLAY, WHICH GOES BEYOND THE LIST. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(L): "The department shall evaluate any information received that indicates that the subject of the criminal record review poses a threat to the safety or welfare of children. IN ADDITION TO those individuals automatically disqualified from presence at a child care facility by 5 CSR 25-600.040 Background Screening Findings, THE DEPARTMENT MAY ALSO PROHIBIT THE PRESENCE OF ANY PERSON on the premises of the family child care home during child care hours that has a criminal history that the department determines to be evidence that said person poses a threat to the safety and welfare of children."

So the enumerated list is a floor, not a ceiling. And 5 CSR 25-400.115(5) generalises the point beyond criminal history entirely: "Any household member or ANY PERSON PRESENT AT THE HOME during hours in which child care is provided SHALL NOT PRESENT A THREAT TO THE HEALTH, SAFETY, OR WELFARE OF THE CHILDREN." That subsection reaches visitors, not just residents and staff. CONFIDENTIALITY — RESULTS ARE FILED BUT THE REASONS ARE NOT DISCLOSED TO THE PROVIDER. Section 210.1080.8(2) RSMo: "The department shall provide the results of the criminal background check to the child care provider in a statement that indicates whether the prospective child care staff member or child care staff member IS ELIGIBLE OR INELIGIBLE ... THE DEPARTMENT SHALL NOT REVEAL TO THE CHILD CARE PROVIDER ANY DISQUALIFYING CRIME OR OTHER RELATED INFORMATION regarding the prospective child care staff member or child care staff member." Section 210.1080.8(3) sends the detail to the individual instead, "along with information regarding the opportunity to appeal under subsection 9". The provider's filing duties are at 5 CSR 25-400.045(7) and 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(Q), both reading "Background screening information received by the provider shall be RETAINED IN THE INDIVIDUAL'S FILE IN A CONFIDENTIAL MANNER and available for review", and at 5 CSR 25-400.210(8): "A copy of qualifying background screening results shall be kept on file for child care staff members, as required by 5 CSR 25-600.020 General Requirements."

THE APPEAL — TEN DAYS, AND TWO DIFFERENT STANDARDS DEPENDING ON THE OFFENCE. Section 210.1080.9(1) RSMo limits the person disqualified by one of ten grave offence categories — murder as described in 18 U.S.C. Section 1111; felony child abuse or neglect; a felony crime against children including child pornography (child sexual abuse material from 28 August 2026); felony spousal abuse; a felony crime involving rape or sexual assault; felony kidnapping; felony arson; felony physical assault or battery; a violent misdemeanour committed as an adult against a child; or any similar offence in any court — to an appeal "TO CHALLENGE THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION contained in his or her criminal background check". For anything else, section 210.1080.9(2) is wider: the person "may appeal to challenge the accuracy or completeness of the information ... OR TO OFFER INFORMATION MITIGATING THE RESULTS AND EXPLAINING WHY AN ELIGIBILITY EXCEPTION SHOULD BE GRANTED." Section 210.1080.9(3): "The written appeal shall be filed with the department WITHIN TEN DAYS from the mailing of the notice of ineligibility. ...

Such decision shall be considered a NONCONTESTED FINAL AGENCY DECISION by the department, appealable under section 536.150. Such decision shall be appealed within thirty days of the mailing of the decision." 5 CSR 25-600.050 fixes the mechanics: the appeal is "in writing to the department as allowed by section 210.1080.9, RSMo" (subsection (1)), "shall be filed within ten (10) days from the mailing of the notice of ineligibility" (subsection (2)), and "shall include the child care staff member's full name, Social Security number, date of birth, e-mail address, mailing address and zip code, and telephone number, including the area code, where s/he can be reached Monday through Friday, during the hours from 8:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m." (subsection (3)). Ten days from mailing is a very short window and there is no extension provision. SYSTEM TWO — THE FAMILY CARE SAFETY REGISTRY, WHICH IS ANNUAL AND IS A DHSS DATABASE. Section 210.900.1 RSMo names the Act: "Sections 210.900 to 210.936 shall be known and may be cited as the 'Family Care Safety Act'." Section 210.900.2(3) defines "Department" for that Act as "the department of health and senior services".

Section 210.903.1 establishes the registry "within the department of health and senior services" as a "Family Care Safety Registry and Access Line". Section 210.903.2 lists the eight feeds: "(1) The patrol's criminal record check system pursuant to section 43.540, including state and national information, to the extent possible; (2) Probable cause findings of abuse and neglect prior to August 28, 2004, or findings of abuse and neglect by a preponderance of the evidence after August 28, 2004, pursuant to sections 210.109 to 210.183 and, as of January 1, 2003, financial exploitation of the elderly or disabled, pursuant to section 570.145; (3) The division of aging's employee disqualification list pursuant to section 192.2490; (4) As of January 1, 2003, the department of mental health's employee disqualification registry; (5) Foster parent licensure denials, revocations and involuntary suspensions pursuant to section 210.496; (6) CHILD-CARE FACILITY LICENSE DENIALS, REVOCATIONS AND SUSPENSIONS PURSUANT TO SECTIONS 210.201 TO 210.259; (7) Residential living facility and nursing home license denials, revocations, suspensions and probationary status pursuant to chapter 198; and (8) As of January 1, 2004, a check of the patrol's Missouri uniform law enforcement system (MULES) for sexual offender registrations pursuant to section 589.400." REGISTRATION IS A DUTY OF THE WORKER, ON A FIFTEEN-DAY CLOCK, WITH A CRIMINAL PENALTY FOR FAILURE.

Section 210.906.1 RSMo: "Every child-care worker or elder-care worker HIRED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2001 ... shall complete a registration form provided by the department", and the form must "Request the valid Social Security number of the applicant", include appeal information, "Contain the signed consent of the applicant for the background checks required pursuant to this section", and "Contain the signed consent for the release of information contained in the background check for employment purposes only." Section 210.906.2: "Every child-care worker ... shall complete a registration form WITHIN FIFTEEN DAYS OF THE BEGINNING of such person's employment. ANY PERSON EMPLOYED AS A CHILD-CARE ... WORKER WHO FAILS TO SUBMIT A COMPLETED REGISTRATION FORM TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SENIOR SERVICES ... WITHOUT GOOD CAUSE, AS DETERMINED BY THE DEPARTMENT, IS GUILTY OF A CLASS B MISDEMEANOR." Section 210.906.5 permits voluntary registration by anyone not required to register, and section 210.906.6 carves out family: "The provisions of sections 210.900 to 210.936 shall not extend to RELATED CHILD CARE, related elder care or related personal care" — "related child care" being defined at section 210.900.2(12) as "child care provided only to a child or children by such child's or children's grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts or uncles, or siblings living in a residence separate from the child or children."

THE PROVIDER'S TWO FCSR DUTIES UNDER THE LICENSING RULES. FIRST, ON HIRING: 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(P): "THE CHILD CARE PROVIDER SHALL CONDUCT A FAMILY CARE SAFETY REGISTRY SCREENING PRIOR TO EMPLOYMENT FOR ANY NEWLY HIRED CHILD CARE STAFF MEMBER WHO HAS A QUALIFYING CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK RESULT." Note the sequencing: the FCSR screening comes AFTER a qualifying comprehensive result and BEFORE employment. SECOND, ANNUALLY: 5 CSR 25-400.055(2)(C): "THE CHILD CARE PROVIDER SHALL CONDUCT A FAMILY CARE SAFETY REGISTRY CHECK FOR ALL CHILD CARE STAFF MEMBERS WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS PRIOR TO THE ANNIVERSARY DATE AS PRINTED ON THE LICENSE." Because "child care staff members" includes adult household members, the annual sweep covers the spouse and the lodger as well as the assistant. This annual duty is the reason the FCSR is not redundant of the five-yearly comprehensive check: it catches, within a year, a new abuse finding, a new conviction reported to the Patrol, or a new sex offender registration that would otherwise sit undetected for up to five years. WHAT THE PROVIDER IS TOLD BY THE REGISTRY, AND WHAT SHE IS NOT.

Section 210.921.1 RSMo limits disclosure to two things: "(1) Confirming whether the individual is listed in the registry; and (2) Indicating whether the individual has been listed or named in any of the background checks listed in subsection 2 of section 210.903. If such individual has been so listed, the department of health and senior services shall only disclose THE NAME OF THE BACKGROUND CHECK in which the individual has been identified. With the exception of any agency licensed or contracted by the state to provide child care ... which shall receive specific information immediately if requested, any specific information related to such background check shall only be disclosed after the department has received a signed request". Section 210.921.2 requires the requester to be told that registry information "consists only of information relative to the state of Missouri and does not include information from other states" — which is precisely why the FCSR cannot substitute for the multi-state comprehensive check. Section 210.921.3: "Any person who uses the information obtained from the registry for any purpose other than that specifically provided for in sections 210.900 to 210.936 IS GUILTY OF A CLASS B MISDEMEANOR."

Section 210.921.4 requires the department to notify the registrant of the identity of anyone who inquired. Section 210.936 deems the underlying reports public records for the purposes of the Act. THE SEX OFFENDER PROXIMITY RULES — TWO OF THEM, AND THEY ARE DIFFERENT. FIRST, A DISCRETIONARY GROUND OF DENIAL BASED ON GEOGRAPHY. Section 210.221.4 RSMo: "The department MAY DENY an application for a license if the department determines that a home or other place in which an applicant would operate a child care facility is located WITHIN ONE THOUSAND FEET of any location where a person required to register under sections 589.400 to 589.425 either RESIDES, as that term is defined in subsection 3 of section 566.147, or REGULARLY RECEIVES TREATMENT OR SERVICES, excluding any treatment or services delivered in a hospital, as that term is defined in section 197.020, or in facilities owned or operated by a hospital system." SECOND, A MANDATORY SAFETY PLAN. 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(O) requires, prior to the granting of a licence, "A COMPLETED SAFETY PLAN, IF A SEX OFFENDER RESIDES WITHIN ONE THOUSAND FEET (1,000') OF THE FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME", and 5 CSR 25-400.055(1)(D) repeats it annually: "A completed safety plan if a sex offender resides within one thousand feet (1,000') of the facility.

If the provider has an existing safety plan, a new plan is not required." Note the difference in trigger: the statutory denial power reaches residence OR regular receipt of treatment or services; the regulatory safety plan is triggered only by RESIDENCE. Note also that the safety plan is not defined anywhere in Chapter 400 — no content list, no template, no approval standard. And note the practical point that a thousand-foot radius in a Missouri suburb routinely captures at least one registrant, so the safety plan is a common rather than an exceptional deliverable, and an applicant should check the Missouri sex offender registry against the address BEFORE signing a lease or a mortgage. THE LOCAL VETO SITS ALONGSIDE THE SCREENING REGIME AND IS MANDATORY, NOT DISCRETIONARY. Section 210.221.4 RSMo, first sentence: "The department SHALL deny, suspend, place on probation or revoke a license if it receives official written notice that the local governing body has found that license is prohibited by any local law related to the health and safety of children." Combined with 5 CSR 25-400.085(1)(C) — "It shall be the responsibility of the child care provider to determine any applicable local zoning regulations" — the state neither checks zoning for the applicant nor protects her from a later local finding.

THE RELIGIOUS-ORGANISATION CARVE-OUT FROM SCREENING, AND ITS LIMIT. Section 210.1080.12 RSMo: "The provisions of this section shall not apply to any child care facility, as defined in section 210.201, maintained or operated UNDER THE EXCLUSIVE CONTROL OF A RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION, as described in subdivision (18) of subsection 1 of section 210.211, UNLESS SUCH FACILITY IS A RECIPIENT OF FEDERAL FUNDS for providing care for children, except for federal funds for those programs that meet the requirements for participation in the Child and Adult Care Food Program under 42 U.S.C. Section 1766." (On 26 August 2026 the codified text still reads "(17)"; see above.) But note the counterweight in section 210.254.2(4) RSMo, which requires the religious-exempt facility's notice of parental responsibility to include "Notification that BACKGROUND CHECKS HAVE BEEN CONDUCTED under the provisions of section 210.1080", and in section 210.258 RSMo, whose closing sentence provides that "Nothing in subdivisions (2) and (3) of this section shall be interpreted to relieve a child care facility of its duties and obligations under section 210.1080, or to interfere with the department's duties and obligations under said section."

The carve-out is therefore narrower in practice than its opening words suggest. None of this reaches a licensed family child care home, which has no religious exemption available to it. ONE MORE DISQUALIFIER THAT SITS OUTSIDE THE CRIMINAL LIST. Section 210.1080.6 RSMo: "A child care provider may also be disqualified from receipt of state or federal funds for providing child care services ... if such person, OR ANY PERSON EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER RESIDING IN THE HOUSEHOLD in which child care is being provided, excluding child care provided in the child's home, HAS BEEN REFUSED LICENSURE OR HAS EXPERIENCED LICENSURE SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION UNDER SECTION 210.221 OR 210.496." Section 210.496 is foster parent licensure.

So a prior foster licence revocation held by an adult in the household is a funding disqualifier even though it is not a criminal record, and it is one of the eight feeds into the FCSR under section 210.903.2(5). THE COMPLIANCE CHECKLIST A MISSOURI FAMILY HOME ACTUALLY HAS TO RUN. (1) Identify every child care staff member: the provider, every adult resident of the house, every paid assistant, every volunteer with care duties or unsupervised access, every contractor employed by the provider, and any resident under eighteen certified as an adult. (2) For each, request the comprehensive check from DESE before employment or presence, expect up to forty-five days for the departmental step plus out-of-state response time, and pay the actual cost. (3) Confirm a qualifying result on file before the licence issues (5 CSR 25-400.045(6)). (4) Conduct an FCSR screening on each newly hired staff member with a qualifying criminal result, before employment (5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(P)). (5) Confirm the worker filed a DHSS registration form within fifteen days of starting (section 210.906.2 RSMo). (6) File every result confidentially in the individual's file (5 CSR 25-400.045(7), 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(Q), 5 CSR 25-400.210(8)). (7) Bar from the premises during child care hours anyone with a disqualifying result, including adult household members (5 CSR 25-600.040(2), 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(O)). (8) Run an FCSR check on ALL staff members within thirty days before each licence anniversary (5 CSR 25-400.055(2)(C)). (9) Re-run the comprehensive check every five years for each staff member (5 CSR 25-600.020(5)). (10) Maintain a safety plan if a registrant lives within a thousand feet, and refresh the declaration annually (5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(O), 5 CSR 25-400.055(1)(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 ONE — COMPLETE THE DESE LICENSING ORIENTATION BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE, BECAUSE THE RULE PUTS IT AT SUBSECTION (1) AND MEANS IT. The licensing process rule opens with a single sentence: 5 CSR 25-400.045(1), "An applicant shall complete the licensing orientation available on the department's website to learn about the licensing process and rules." That is the whole text — no stated duration, no examination, no certificate, no currency period, and, unlike the seven forms that Chapter 400 formally incorporates by reference with a publisher, a postal address and a "This rule does not incorporate any subsequent amendment or additions" clause, the orientation is not incorporated at all. Its content is therefore whatever the DESE Office of Childhood publishes on its website on the day you take it, and it can change without any amendment to the Code of State Regulations. Three consequences. First, there is no lawful way to skip it or to substitute another state's orientation, because the rule identifies it by source ("available on the department's website") rather than by content. Second, because the rule is silent on timing relative to the application, an applicant is free to take it first — and should, because it is the only free, zero-risk step in the process and it is the step that tells you whether the other twenty are worth starting. Third, the correct URL matters: the page formerly at https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/child-care-regulation now returns a DESE "404 – Page not found" error, and the live Office of Childhood child care section is https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/child-care, with the forms database at https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/forms. Do not confuse this orientation with the separate facility orientation required of every caregiver by 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(J); they are different events with different audiences, different content and different deadlines.
2. STEP TWO — DECIDE THE NUMBER AND THE AGE RANGE YOU WILL ASK FOR, BECAUSE THE LICENCE CARRIES BOTH AND EVERY DOWNSTREAM OBLIGATION FLOWS FROM THEM. Section 210.221.1(1) RSMo, in the version effective 28 August 2025, requires that "Each license shall specify the effective date and whether the license is temporary, the kind of child-care services the licensee is authorized to perform, THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN THAT CAN BE RECEIVED OR MAINTAINED, AND THEIR AGES", and 5 CSR 25-400.045(18) repeats it: "The number and ages of children a family child care home is authorized to have in care at any one time shall be specified on the license and shall not be exceeded except as permitted within these rules." Ten is only the statutory ceiling — 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(A), "A family child care home may be licensed for up to ten (10) children" — and what you actually receive is constrained by indoor square footage at thirty-five square feet per child (5 CSR 25-400.085(2)(B)1.), outdoor area at seventy-five square feet per child (5 CSR 25-400.085(3)(A)2.), the five-row ratio table, and the fire inspector's finding. The AGE decision is the one applicants under-think. Ask for infants under one and you import, permanently: a written safe sleep policy as a pre-licensure deliverable (5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(N)); AAP safe sleep training for the provider, every assistant and every volunteer BEFORE licensure and every three years thereafter (5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A) and (5)(A)2.); a crib, portable crib or playpen meeting 16 CFR Parts 1219 and 1220 for each infant, with stack cribs prohibited (5 CSR 25-400.095(1)(B)2.A.–B.); one approved toy from each of four named categories per infant and toddler (5 CSR 25-400.095(2)(C)1.); a hard cap of two children under two whenever you have seven to ten children with one caregiver (5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(A)); and an absolute bar on overlap care for that age group (5 CSR 25-400.155(2), "Overlap care of children under two (2) years of age shall not be permitted"). A home licensed from age two upward avoids all of it. Decide before you file, because the number and ages go on the application and drive the fire inspection request.
3. STEP THREE — CHECK ZONING, DEED RESTRICTIONS AND THE LOCAL GOVERNING BODY YOURSELF, BECAUSE THE STATE WILL NOT DO IT FOR YOU AND A LOCAL FINDING IS A MANDATORY GROUND OF REVOCATION. 5 CSR 25-400.085(1)(C) allocates the burden in one sentence: "IT SHALL BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHILD CARE PROVIDER TO DETERMINE ANY APPLICABLE LOCAL ZONING REGULATIONS." The department does not check, does not advise, and does not warn. What it does do is act on a later local finding, and it has no discretion when it does: section 210.221.4 RSMo provides that "The department SHALL DENY, SUSPEND, PLACE ON PROBATION OR REVOKE A LICENSE IF IT RECEIVES OFFICIAL WRITTEN NOTICE THAT THE LOCAL GOVERNING BODY HAS FOUND THAT LICENSE IS PROHIBITED BY ANY LOCAL LAW RELATED TO THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF CHILDREN." A Missouri family child care home can therefore be fully licensed, fully compliant, fully inspected — and lose the licence because a city council makes a finding about a residential-district ordinance. Alongside zoning, section 210.221.4 gives the department a discretionary denial power keyed to geography: it "may deny an application for a license if the department determines that a home or other place in which an applicant would operate a child care facility is located WITHIN ONE THOUSAND FEET of any location where a person required to register under sections 589.400 to 589.425 either resides, as that term is defined in subsection 3 of section 566.147, or regularly receives treatment or services". Run the sex offender registry against the address before you commit to it. Also confirm water and sewage: 5 CSR 25-400.085(1)(D), "Water supply and sewage disposal systems shall conform to state or local requirements, or both." And note that where the department has delegated inspection under section 210.231 RSMo — "any instrumentality of any political subdivision of the state of Missouri deemed by the department ... to be competent, to investigate and inspect licensees and applicants" — the people who walk your house may be city or county officials working to standards that must be "substantially equivalent to state standards".
4. STEP FOUR — SUBMIT THE APPLICATION FOR LICENSE TO OPERATE A CHILD CARE FACILITY, AND START THE SIX-MONTH CLOCK THAT KILLS MORE MISSOURI APPLICATIONS THAN ANY OTHER PROVISION. 5 CSR 25-400.045(2): "Upon receipt of a completed Application for License to Operate a Child Care Facility form, a licensing inspection shall be made. See Application for License to Operate a Child Care Facility form, REVISED 2021, incorporated by reference in this rule, as published by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, PO Box 480, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0480 and available by the department at https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/forms. This rule does not incorporate any subsequent amendment or additions. IF LICENSING RULES ARE NOT MET WITHIN SIX (6) MONTHS, THE APPLICATION SHALL BE VOID AND ANOTHER APPLICATION SHALL BE FILED." Read the clock carefully: it runs from the department's receipt of a COMPLETED application, and it must accommodate the whole of the rest of this list — the Division of Fire Safety inspection and any remediation it orders, the sanitation evidence, comprehensive background screening for the provider and every adult in the house (statutorily up to forty-five days for the DESE step alone under section 210.1080.8(1) RSMo, plus out-of-state response time on a five-year residence lookback), a medical examination report and possibly a two-step tuberculin skin test that itself takes one to three weeks, and the full document set of 5 CSR 25-400.045(4). Six months is not generous against fire code remediation on an older house. The practical sequencing lesson is that the application is not the first step; it is the step that should be taken once screening is submitted and the fire inspection is booked. Note also the freeze in the incorporation clause — the rule adopts the 2021 revision of the form and expressly does NOT adopt later revisions, so if DESE posts a newer version the legally incorporated document remains the 2021 one, a tension the rule creates and does not resolve.
5. STEP FIVE — GET COMPREHENSIVE BACKGROUND SCREENING RESULTS ON FILE FOR YOURSELF AND FOR EVERY ADULT WHO LIVES IN THE HOUSE, NOT MERELY FOR PEOPLE WHO WORK IN THE DAYCARE. 5 CSR 25-400.045(6): "The child care provider and child care staff members, AS DEFINED BY 5 CSR 25-600.010 Definitions, shall have qualifying background screening results on file as required by 5 CSR 25-600.020 General Requirements, PRIOR TO INITIAL ISSUANCE OF THE LICENSE." The definition is the trap. 5 CSR 25-600.010(2) and section 210.1080.1(2) RSMo define "child care staff member" to include "individuals residing in a family child care home who are eighteen (18) years of age and older" and "individuals residing in a family child care home who are under eighteen (18) years of age and have been certified as an adult for the commission of an offense", alongside employees, contract employees, self-employed individuals and "individuals or volunteers whose activities involve the care or supervision of children ... or unsupervised access to children". The spouse who never sets foot in the playroom is screened. So is the adult child home from college and the lodger in the basement. The check itself, per section 210.1080.1(3) RSMo, is an FBI fingerprint check, a National Sex Offender Registry search, and — in Missouri, in the state of residence and in EACH state of residence during the preceding five years — a state criminal repository search (fingerprints mandatory in the state of residence), a state sex offender registry search and a state child abuse and neglect registry search. Costs fall on the individual: 5 CSR 25-600.030(1), "The costs of the criminal background check shall be the responsibility of the child care staff member, but may be paid or reimbursed by the child care provider at the provider's discretion." File every result confidentially: 5 CSR 25-400.045(7), "Background screening information received by the provider shall be retained in the individual's file in a confidential manner and available for review." And understand the stakes for the household: 5 CSR 25-600.040(2) makes an adult household member with a disqualifying result "ineligible to maintain a presence at a family child care home DURING CHILD CARE HOURS", which in a home daycare means out of the building for every operating hour.
6. STEP SIX — OBTAIN MEDICAL EXAMINATION REPORTS AND CLEAR THE TUBERCULOSIS LIMB, WHICH TAKES LONGER THAN APPLICANTS EXPECT. 5 CSR 25-400.045(8): "Medical examination reports for the provider and child care assistant(s), as required by 5 CSR 25-400.125 Medical Examination Reports, shall be on file at the home and available for review." The detail is in 5 CSR 25-400.125(1). Subsection (B): "The provider shall have a medical examination report ON FILE AT THE TIME OF INITIAL LICENSURE." Subsection (D): "Assistants who are employed or volunteer MORE THAN FIVE (5) HOURS PER WEEK shall have a medical examination report on file within thirty (30) days of beginning work in the home." Subsection (F): the report must be "signed by a licensed physician or registered nurse who is under the supervision of a licensed physician and completed NOT MORE THAN TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRIOR to beginning work in the home. These reports may be transferable to another child care facility for subsequent employment." Subsection (A) and (C) set the substantive standard — provider and assistants must be "in good physical and emotional health with no physical or mental conditions which would interfere with child care responsibilities". Subsection (E) attaches tuberculosis: the report "shall include either a Tuberculosis (TB) Risk Assessment form, completed and signed by a health care professional, or a negative tuberculin skin test (TST) completed not more than twelve (12) months before beginning work in the facility", the form being "the Tuberculosis (TB) Risk Assessment form, revised March 2014 ... published by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services ... available at https://health.mo.gov/living/healthcondiseases/communicable/tuberculosis/tbmanual/pdf/RiskAssessmentform.pdf". The scheduling trap is paragraph (E)1.: "If the person has no documented history of ever receiving a tuberculin skin test (TST), and elects to receive a TST, then A TWO- (2-) STEP TST IS REQUIRED. A history of bacilli Calmette-Guerin vaccination (BCG) shall not exempt a person from receiving a tuberculin test." A two-step TST runs over one to three weeks. Paragraph (E)2.: "Persons that have a newly positive tuberculin test(s) shall not be allowed to work until a medical evaluation is performed"; paragraph (E)3. excludes persons with active contagious tuberculosis "until deemed non-infectious"; paragraph (E)4. requires that "All positive tuberculin tests shall be reported to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services or local public health agency as required by 19 CSR 20-20.020." The department retains a standing power to reopen the question: 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(I), "If at any time the department has reason to question the physical or mental health of a provider or assistant, the department shall require a physical or mental examination of that person."
7. STEP SEVEN — PASS THE MISSOURI DIVISION OF FIRE SAFETY INSPECTION, WHICH IS A STATUTORY PRECONDITION AND THE STEP MOST LIKELY TO REQUIRE CONSTRUCTION. 5 CSR 25-400.045(5): "PRIOR TO THE GRANTING OF A LICENSE, THE PROVIDER SHALL MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF 5 CSR 25-400.086 FIRE SAFETY." Section 210.252.1 RSMo supplies the statutory frame: all buildings and premises used by a child-care facility to care for more than six children "shall be inspected ANNUALLY for fire and safety by the state fire marshal, the marshal's designee or officials of a local fire district and for health and sanitation by the department of elementary and secondary education or the department's designee". 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A) fixes the mechanics: "THE MISSOURI DIVISION OF FIRE SAFETY SHALL INSPECT THE FACILITY ANNUALLY FOR THE CAPACITY SPECIFIED ON THE LICENSE APPLICATION AND THE FIRE INSPECTION REQUEST. The inspection shall include a determination of whether or not the facility is approved for overlap care" — so the capacity you asked for in step two, and the overlap approval you may want, are both settled at this inspection. The rule is twelve subsections long and the items that most often force work are: two remotely located means of egress on each level occupied by children, each door opening at least twenty-eight inches (thirty-two in new construction) (5 CSR 25-400.086(4)(A)); no dead-end corridor over twenty feet ((4)(J)); no room accessible only by ladder, folding stairs, overhead door or trap door ((4)(C)); no dead-bolt lock requiring a key from the inside and no latching device higher than fifty inches ((4)(F)); child care no more than one level below ground, with vertical travel to ground level capped at eight feet from a basement and twelve feet from a second floor ((6)(A) and (6)(B)1.); ceiling height of at least seven feet for pre-existing space and seven feet six inches for newly approved space ((2)(O)); an outside rescue window with a clear opening at least twenty inches wide, twenty-four inches high, 5.7 square feet total, sill no more than forty-four inches above the floor, for every room over three hundred square feet ((5)(A)1.); Class C interior wall and ceiling finish with no napped, tufted, looped or woven textile on walls or ceilings ((9)(A)); smoke detectors on each level in or near sleeping areas ((10)(C)); carbon monoxide detectors wherever appliances or an attached garage pose a risk ((10)(D)); at least one 5 lb. 2-A:10-B:C extinguisher near the kitchen plus one per additional level, inspected annually by an extinguisher company ((10)(E)–(F)); furnaces, water heaters and boilers in a fire-resistant room of five-eighths-inch sheetrock with a one-and-three-quarter-inch solid core door ((12)(H)); no unvented fuel-fired or portable electric space heaters during child care hours, with a signed compliance letter ((12)(A)); no extension cords without written fire inspector approval ((11)(C)); and annual flue inspection and cleaning with a spark arrestor at the chimney outlet ((12)(L)). 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(M) makes the tie-breaker explicit: "The latest edition of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Chapter 101, Life Safety Code, shall prevail in the interpretation of this rule." And 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(P) catches rural applicants: "Facilities served by a volunteer or membership fire department shall be a member in good standing with the fire department. A copy of the membership or receipt for membership shall be on file at the facility."
8. STEP EIGHT — ASSEMBLE EVIDENCE OF SANITATION COMPLIANCE, AND SETTLE THE KITCHEN QUESTION. 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(J) requires, prior to the granting of a licence, "Evidence of compliance with local or state, or both, sanitation requirements." Section 210.252.1 RSMo puts health and sanitation inspection with "the department of elementary and secondary education or the department's designee, including officials of the department of health and senior services, or officials of the local health department", and section 210.252.6 RSMo preserves a DHSS rulemaking power over sanitation. Which body actually inspects therefore varies by county and city, and section 210.252.2 RSMo authorises local inspection "if the standards employed by local personnel are substantially equivalent to state standards". The physical requirements the sanitarian will look at are in 5 CSR 25-400.085(2)(C) and (D). Bathrooms: "A flush toilet and an adjacent handwashing facility with running water shall be provided"; facilities "in working order and convenient for the children's use"; "An individual cloth towel for each child or paper towels, soap and toilet paper shall be provided and easily accessible so the children can reach them without assistance. If individual towels are used, they shall be laundered daily"; "Children shall be monitored while in the bathroom"; "Bathrooms shall be clean and odor free"; and for infants and toddlers "At least one (1) potty chair, junior commode or toilet with an adaptor seat shall be provided. Potty chairs shall be located in the bathroom and shall be emptied, cleaned and disinfected after each use." Kitchens: "A kitchen shall be required for meal preparation UNLESS MEALS ARE CATERED from a source approved by the local or state sanitarian, or both"; a kitchen used for meal preparation must be "equipped with a stove, sink, hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and storage space for food, dishes and cooking utensils"; if meals are catered, "a sink, hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and storage space" are still required; "Kitchens shall not be used for children's play activities unless the activities are part of the learning program and the children are supervised by adults"; and "Kitchens shall not be used for napping." 5 CSR 25-400.190(1)(H) adds a supply condition — "The water and milk supply shall be approved by local and state health authorities, or both. Powdered milk shall not be used except for cooking purposes. Milk substitutes shall not be used for drinking or cooking" — and 5 CSR 25-400.190(1)(I) requires that "State or local rules, or both, governing food service sanitation shall be maintained in the storage, preparation and service of foods." This evidence is not a one-off: 5 CSR 25-400.055(2)(B) requires it on file every year.
9. STEP NINE — MEASURE THE HOUSE AND THE YARD JOINTLY WITH THE LICENSING REPRESENTATIVE AND PRODUCE TWO SCALE DIAGRAMS. 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(A): "A sketch or diagram of the home showing the arrangement of the rooms, including the location of toilet and handwashing facilities, the kitchen, and the doors. THE LICENSING REPRESENTATIVE AND THE APPLICANT SHALL MEASURE THE HOME JOINTLY." 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(B): "A sketch or diagram of the outdoor play area and placement of equipment, INDICATING IF THE AREA IS FENCED. The licensing representative and the applicant shall measure the area jointly." The joint-measurement requirement is unusual and it is the moment your licensed capacity is actually determined, because the arithmetic is unforgiving. Indoors, 5 CSR 25-400.085(2)(B)1. requires "At least thirty-five (35) square feet of usable floor space ... for each child coming into the home for day care"; paragraph 2. requires floor space to be "measured wall-to-wall from the inside walls of areas used for children's activities"; paragraph 3. excludes "food preparation areas, bathrooms, hallways used exclusively as passageways, closets, office space or floor space occupied by furniture or shelving not used by the children or for their activities"; and paragraph 4. excludes "Space occupied by permanently placed cots, cribs, beds or playpens used for napping ... Cots shall not be set up early or left in place to interfere with children's play activities." A home licensing for ten therefore needs three hundred fifty square feet of qualifying, wall-to-wall, furniture-net activity space, and a home licensing for infants pays twice for its cribs — once in floor area and once in the ratio table. Outdoors, 5 CSR 25-400.085(3)(A)2. requires "A minimum of seventy-five (75) square feet per child of outdoor play area", and (3)(A)1. requires the play area to be "on or adjoining the day care property ... convenient and the children can gain access to it without hazard. It shall be fenced when necessary for the protection of children from traffic, water or other hazards. For family day care homes initially licensed after the effective date of these rules, or for the installation of new fences in existing facilities, THE FENCE SHALL BE AT LEAST FORTY-TWO INCHES (42") HIGH." Bring a tape measure and pre-compute the numbers before the representative arrives; a room that falls two square feet short of a threshold costs a child on the licence. Also note 5 CSR 25-400.045(3): "The licensing process shall include AN INSPECTION OF THE ENTIRE PREMISES of the child care home by the licensing representative" — entire, not merely the approved child care space.
10. STEP TEN — WRITE THE PARENT POLICY SET, WHICH IS FOUR SEPARATE WRITTEN POLICIES AND NOT ONE HANDBOOK. 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(C) requires, prior to the granting of a licence, "Written policies provided to parents shall include: 1. PROGRAM GOALS; 2. ADMISSION, CARE, AND DISCHARGE OF CHILDREN; 3. NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION OF CHILD CARE PRACTICES AND CONCEPTS; and 4. DISCIPLINE AND GUIDANCE POLICIES." 5 CSR 25-400.135(1) restates the obligation from the operational side and adds the safe sleep limb: "The provider shall establish, implement, and maintain written policies pertaining to the program goals, admission, SAFE SLEEP PRACTICES FOR CHILDREN LESS THAN ONE (1) YEAR OF AGE, care and discharge of children, and shall provide a copy to the parent(s) AT THE TIME OF ENROLLMENT." The discipline policy has an independent statutory hook that reaches even unlicensed and exempt facilities: section 210.211.3 RSMo, "All child care facilities shall provide the parent or guardian enrolling a child in the facility with A WRITTEN EXPLANATION OF THE DISCIPLINARY PHILOSOPHY AND POLICIES of the child care facility." Draft the discipline policy against the eleven substantive constraints in 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(C), which permit "brief, supervised separation from the group ... based on a guideline of one (1) minute of separation for each year of the child's age" and prohibit, among other things, "Physical punishment including, but not limited to, spanking, slapping, shaking, biting, or pulling hair", any technique "which is humiliating, threatening, or frightening to children", shaming, ridicule, harsh, abusive or profane speech, associating punishment "with food, rest, or toilet training", and placing children "in a closet, a locked or unlit room, or any other place which is frightening". Alongside the four policies, 5 CSR 25-400.045(4) requires three further written items in the same pre-licensure bundle: "(D) A schedule of daily activities for children"; "(E) A sample weekly menu"; and "(F) An itemized list of available materials and equipment to be used by children". The menu must be buildable from the Meal and Snack Food Chart printed in 5 CSR 25-400.190(1)(G), and the schedule must satisfy 5 CSR 25-400.175(2)(B), which requires among other things "A total of at least one (1) hour of outdoor play for children in attendance a full day unless prevented by weather or special medical reasons", "A supervised nap or rest period for preschool children after the noon meal", and "A study time for school-age children who choose to do homework, with a separate, quiet work space."
11. STEP ELEVEN — BUY AND INVENTORY THE EQUIPMENT, BECAUSE MISSOURI COUNTS IT AND THE COUNT IS FORTY ITEMS PLUS FOUR PER INFANT AND TODDLER. This is the step applicants dismiss as trivial and then fail. 5 CSR 25-400.095(2)(B)2. requires, for children twenty-four months and older, that "A MINIMUM OF FORTY (40) APPROVED ITEMS SHALL BE REQUIRED. The forty (40) items shall include AT LEAST FOUR (4) ITEMS FROM EACH OF THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES: A. Blocks, construction and transportation toys; B. Manipulatives; C. Creative arts; D. Large muscle activities; E. Library and language activities; F. Music and rhythm activities; G. Dramatic and housekeeping play; and H. Science activities or sensory experiences." Paragraph (2)(A)3. closes the obvious workaround: "TOYS OR MATERIALS THAT COME IN SETS SHALL BE CONSIDERED ONE (1) ITEM" — a hundred-piece block set is one item, not a hundred. Paragraph (2)(A)2. adds a maintenance duty: "Play equipment and materials shall be replaced as needed to maintain the number of items required for the licensed capacity of the home." For the youngest children, 5 CSR 25-400.095(2)(C)1. requires "a minimum of one (1) approved item from each of the following categories FOR EACH INFANT AND TODDLER IN THE LICENSED CAPACITY of the home: A. Push-pull toys; B. Balls or other large muscle equipment; C. Blocks, stacking toys or other manipulatives; and D. Cloth or plastic-coated books" — so four dedicated items per infant or toddler slot on the licence, whether or not the slot is filled. Sleeping equipment is separately prescribed by 5 CSR 25-400.095(1)(B): "A cot, bed, sofa, padded playpen, or crib shall be provided for each child who naps or sleeps. An individually assigned sheet and blanket shall be provided for each child twelve (12) months and older who naps or sleeps. UPPER LEVELS OF BUNK BEDS SHALL NOT BE USED"; "If a double bed or larger is used ONLY TWO (2) CHILDREN may nap or sleep on it at one (1) time"; "Sleeping equipment shall be arranged to provide at least a TWO-FOOT (2') AISLE on one (1) long side of the equipment." For infants, paragraph (1)(B)2. requires "A crib, portable crib, or playpen ... for each infant. STACK CRIBS SHALL NOT BE USED", meeting "the Consumer Product Safety Commission and ASTM International ... safety standards for full size baby cribs as found in 16 CFR Part 1219 and for non-full size baby cribs as found in 16 CFR Part 1220", the 2014 standards being incorporated by reference. Outdoor equipment carries its own rules at 5 CSR 25-400.095(3), including "any part of the equipment from which children might fall shall not be more than SIX FEET (6') in height" for newly licensed homes or new installations, "TRAMPOLINES SHALL NOT BE USED", "'S' hooks shall be pinched together", and swings with "lightweight seats of rubber, plastic, canvas or nylon". The itemised list itself is a filing requirement — 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(F) pre-licensure and 5 CSR 25-400.055(1)(B) annually thereafter ("A current list of available equipment").
12. STEP TWELVE — WRITE THE DISASTER AND EMERGENCY PLAN, WHICH IS A LONG, PRESCRIBED DOCUMENT AND NOT A ONE-PAGE EVACUATION MAP. 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(M) makes "A written disaster and emergency plan" a pre-licensure deliverable, and 5 CSR 25-400.090 specifies its contents at length. Subsection (1)(A) requires written procedures for four scenario families: "Medical and non-medical emergencies and disaster situations that could pose a hazard to staff and children, such as a fire, tornado, flood, chemical spill, exposure to carbon monoxide, power failure, bomb threat, person coming to the facility whose health or behavior may be harmful to a child or staff member, or kidnapping"; evacuation; "Lock-down procedures in a situation that may result in harm to persons inside the facility such as a shooting, hostage incident, intruder, trespassing, or disturbance"; and "Evacuation from a vehicle used to transport children." Subsection (1)(B) requires the plan to be built with reference to the children's ages and abilities, whether the home provides "care for non-ambulatory children or overnight care", "The types of disasters likely to affect the area", and "the requirements of the Division of Fire Safety and the Department of Health and Senior Services' The ABC's of Emergency Preparedness Ready in 3 Program (2006), which is incorporated by reference". Subsection (1)(C) prescribes the minimum contents: identification of responsible staff; "The location of the child's attendance record and emergency information and emergency supplies"; "Diagrams that identify exit routes from each area of the facility used for child care to a safe location out of the facility AND to a safe location WITHIN the facility"; a list of emergency contacts; procedures covering alarms, the emergency call to the fire department, isolation of a fire by closing doors, evacuation, "TWO (2) OFF-SITE LOCATIONS IDENTIFIED AS MEETING PLACES in case of evacuation", relocation arrangements for non-ambulatory children and overnight children, and a "System of contact for parents of children and notification of parents of the plan to assist in re-unification"; plus lock-down procedures including "An announcement of the lock-down by the director or designee ... using a pre-selected code word", keeping children away from danger, and accounting for children until an "all clear" is announced. Subsection (2)(A) requires that "At all times, a copy of the facility's disaster emergency plan is readily available in the office area AND IN EACH ROOM USED FOR CARE OF CHILDREN". Subsection (3)(A) sets the drill cadence: "at least every three (3) months, all staff and children at the facility have participated in a disaster or emergency drill", with documentation on file; and 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(C) adds the fire cadence: "Child care staff shall conduct at least ONE (1) FIRE DRILL EACH MONTH and A DISASTER DRILL AT LEAST EVERY THREE (3) MONTHS. The disaster drills shall include tornado drills. The provider shall maintain a written record at the facility of the date, type of drill, time required to evacuate the building, and number of children present during the drill." The evacuation plan itself must be posted and approved: 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(C)3., "An evacuation/emergency plan for fires and tornadoes THAT IS APPROVED BY THE FIRE INSPECTOR shall be posted in the home in a central location and be visible to all occupants. The plan shall include special instructions for infants and nonambulatory children."
13. STEP THIRTEEN — IF THE LICENCE WILL COVER INFANTS UNDER ONE, WRITE THE SAFE SLEEP POLICY AND COMPLETE THE AAP SAFE SLEEP TRAINING FOR EVERY ADULT IN THE OPERATION, BEFORE LICENSURE. Two obligations, both conditional on the age range you chose in step two. First the policy: 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(N) requires "A written safe sleep policy, if licensed to care for children under twelve (12) months of age", and 5 CSR 25-400.135(2) prescribes its contents in eleven mandated elements. It "shall comply with section 210.223, RSMo" and shall "list the licensee's expectations regarding how and when caregivers are to be trained on safe sleep"; require "that children less than one (1) year of age be placed on their backs to sleep"; require a written statement from the infant's licensed health care provider before any alternative sleep position; and address supervision during nap and sleep including "A. Positioning of staff; B. Lighting in the nap room; C. Physical checks of the child to ensure he or she is not overheated or in distress; and D. Prohibitions against the use of any equipment such as a sound machine that may interfere with the caregiver's ability to see or hear a child who may be distressed." On environment it must state that "cribs and playpens must have a firm mattress and tight fitting sheets, be free of loose bedding, bumper pads, pillows, and soft toys"; "require infants' heads be uncovered during nap/sleep times"; "prohibit covering cribs or playpens with blankets or bedding"; "prohibit smoking in the child care home during the hours children are in care"; and "require giving the parent(s) or guardian(s) of each infant in care a copy of the provider's safe sleep policy upon the child's enrollment." Second the training: 5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A) requires that "EVERY THREE (3) YEARS the provider, assistant(s), and volunteers in a family child care home licensed to provide care for infants less than one (1) year of age shall successfully complete department-approved training regarding the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) safe sleep recommendations", incorporating "Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Updated 2022 Recommendations for Reducing Infant Deaths in the Sleep Environment, July 2022" and expressly excluding "any subsequent amendments or additions". Paragraph (5)(A)2. is the pre-licensure command: "The provider, assistant(s), and volunteers in a family child care home shall complete the safe sleep training described in subsection (5)(A) of this rule PRIOR TO LICENSURE." Paragraph (5)(A)3. sets the post-licensure clock: anyone "hired or volunteering at the facility after initial licensure shall complete the safe sleep training ... WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS of employment or volunteering." Paragraph (5)(A)1. requires the training to be recorded in the department's professional development system under a MOPD ID. Note the statute-versus-rule tension: section 210.223.4 RSMo requires training on "THE MOST RECENT safe sleep recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics every three years", while the rule freezes the standard at the July 2022 statement.
14. STEP FOURTEEN — PREPARE A SAFETY PLAN IF A REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER LIVES WITHIN ONE THOUSAND FEET, AND UNDERSTAND THAT THE RULE DOES NOT TELL YOU WHAT ONE LOOKS LIKE. 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(O) makes it a pre-licensure deliverable: "A COMPLETED SAFETY PLAN, IF A SEX OFFENDER RESIDES WITHIN ONE THOUSAND FEET (1,000') OF THE FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME." 5 CSR 25-400.055(1)(D) makes it an annual one, with a carry-forward: "A completed safety plan if a sex offender resides within one thousand feet (1,000') of the facility. If the provider has an existing safety plan, a new plan is not required." Nowhere in Chapter 400 is the safety plan defined, given a content list, given a template, or given an approval standard — it is named twice and left entirely to departmental practice, which makes it one of the few genuinely undocumented deliverables in the Missouri scheme. Two features of the trigger deserve care. First, THE TRIGGER IS RESIDENCE, and only residence: the regulatory trigger is "resides", whereas the department's separate discretionary power to refuse a licence under section 210.221.4 RSMo reaches a registrant who either "resides, as that term is defined in subsection 3 of section 566.147, or REGULARLY RECEIVES TREATMENT OR SERVICES, excluding any treatment or services delivered in a hospital, as that term is defined in section 197.020, or in facilities owned or operated by a hospital system." A treatment facility within a thousand feet does not force a safety plan but may cost the licence. Second, ONE THOUSAND FEET IS A SHORT DISTANCE — roughly three suburban blocks — so in most Missouri towns the plan is a routine deliverable rather than an exception. Check the Missouri sex offender registry against the address before committing to a lease or a purchase, because a plan you cannot write to the department's satisfaction is a licence you do not get. Note finally that this is an entirely separate concern from the disqualification regime: a registrant who lives within a thousand feet triggers the safety plan; a registrant who lives IN the house is a "child care staff member" under 5 CSR 25-600.010(2), is automatically disqualified under 5 CSR 25-600.040(1)(C), and is barred from presence during child care hours under 5 CSR 25-600.040(2), which in a home daycare is fatal.
15. STEP FIFTEEN — FILE THE REMAINING PAPERWORK BUNDLE, WHICH IS SIX MORE ITEMS THAT DO NOT FIT ANYWHERE ELSE. 5 CSR 25-400.045(4) lists sixteen pre-licensure submissions in total; steps nine to fourteen above cover the diagrams, the policies, the schedule, the menu, the equipment list, the disaster plan, the safe sleep policy and the safety plan. The remainder are: "(G) WRITTEN POLICIES AND PROCEDURES WHICH CLEARLY ESTABLISH JOB RESPONSIBILITIES AND LINES OF ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY" — the internal counterpart to the parent-facing policies, and the direct implementation of 5 CSR 25-400.025(1), "Each family child care home shall be organized according to written policies and procedures which clearly establish job responsibilities and lines of administrative authority"; "(H) LISTING OF ALL HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS AND ASSISTANT(S)", which is the document from which the department works out who must be background screened, and which must be refiled every year under 5 CSR 25-400.055(1)(C), with a continuing duty to update under 5 CSR 25-400.115(4), "The provider shall notify the department of any new household members"; "(I) SAMPLE FORMS USED, OTHER THAN THOSE SUPPLIED BY THE DEPARTMENT", so any home-made enrolment form, medication authorisation or incident report goes in with the application; "(K) DOCUMENTATION AS REQUIRED BY THE MISSOURI SECRETARY OF STATE AND STATE LAW TO VERIFY THE LEGAL ENTITY IS IN GOOD STANDING IF A FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME IS OWNED BY A LEGAL ENTITY" — applicable only where the business sits in an LLC, corporation, partnership or charity, and repeated annually at 5 CSR 25-400.055(2)(D); "(L) REQUIRED INFORMATION FOR ASSISTANTS", the assistant-specific bundle of screening results, medical examination report and orientation documentation; and "(P) OTHER INFORMATION REQUIRED BY THE DEPARTMENT TO MAKE A DETERMINATION REGARDING LICENSURE OF THE FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME" — an open-ended catch-all that entitles the licensing representative to ask for anything reasonably bearing on the decision. Where an entity owns the home, 5 CSR 25-400.025(2) adds a standing notification duty: the entity "shall designate a person to be responsible for the daily operation of the facility and to meet the requirements of the child care provider. The department shall be notified in writing IMMEDIATELY if there is a change of the person designated", and 5 CSR 25-400.025(4) imposes the same immediate-notice duty on a change of board president or chairperson.
16. STEP SIXTEEN — PUT THE CHILD-LEVEL RECORDS IN PLACE BEFORE THE FIRST CHILD ARRIVES, BECAUSE TWO OF THEM ARE PRE-LICENSURE ITEMS IN THEIR OWN RIGHT. 5 CSR 25-400.045(10): "ENROLLMENT INFORMATION FOR EACH CHILD SHALL BE ON FILE AT THE HOME as required by 5 CSR 25-400.135 Admission Policies and Procedures." 5 CSR 25-400.045(9): "Medical examination reports shall be on file at the home WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS FOLLOWING THE ADMISSION of each infant, toddler, or preschool child ... A health report for school-age children shall be on file as required by 5 CSR 25-400.125." The admission procedure at 5 CSR 25-400.135(6) is prescriptive: it requires "A personal interview with the parent(s) and child to exchange information and arrive at a mutual decision about admitting a child"; "A plan for continuing communication"; discussion of the plan for care of an ill child and of the parental plan when the provider is ill or school closes; and completion by the parent, ON FILE BEFORE THE CHILD IS ACCEPTED, of information covering "a child's personal development, behavior patterns, habits, and individual needs"; emergency instructions and "permission for emergency medical care"; immunisation status or exemption; permissions for field trips and transportation; permission for school-age children to leave for classes or clubs "naming the activity, time of leaving and returning, and the method of transportation"; and a seven-part parental acknowledgment that they have received the admission, care and discharge policies, that the licensing rules are available for review in the home, that a communication plan is agreed, that "the child may not be accepted for care when ill", that they received the safe sleep policy for a child under one, and "that they may request notice at initial enrollment in or attendance at the facility or upon request of whether there are children for whom an immunization exemption has been filed currently enrolled in or attending the facility." 5 CSR 25-400.135(4) adds that "A child who has a special physical, developmental, or behavioral need shall have on file an individualized plan for specialized care from a professionally qualified source", and (5) that "The provider shall assess his/her ability to provide care for the special needs child while also meeting the needs of the other children." A distinct form is required for related children: 5 CSR 25-400.135(7), "If care is provided for children related to the provider who do not live in the home, the parent(s) shall complete and sign A FORM WHICH IS SUPPLIED BY THE DEPARTMENT. The form shall be on file at the home before related children are accepted for care", carrying each child's name, address, birth date, date of admission, relationship to the provider, and the parents' details. The record set itself is specified at 5 CSR 25-400.210(2)–(7), with one-year retention for children's records after attendance ends and for daily attendance records of both children and caregivers.

What you must post on your walls

• THE LICENCE ITSELF IS THE ONLY DOCUMENT MISSOURI ORDERS YOU TO PUT ON THE WALL BY THE DOOR. 5 CSR 25-400.045(12) is one sentence long and it is the sentence every family child care home in Missouri is measured against: "Once granted, the license shall be posted near the entrance of the home where it may be seen easily by parents or others who visit." Read the three tests separately, because the inspector does. NEAR THE ENTRANCE — not in the playroom, not in the kitchen, not in the file box with the enrolment records; the fixed reference point is the door families come through, and in a home licensed for care in a basement or a walk-out level the entrance that counts is the one the children and their parents actually use. SEEN EASILY — the licence has to be legible from a standing adult's normal position without being handled, so a certificate inside a closed cupboard door, behind a coat rack, or hung above a stairwell fails even though it is physically "near the entrance". BY PARENTS OR OTHERS WHO VISIT — the audience is explicitly wider than your enrolled families, which is why the rule cannot be satisfied by handing each parent a photocopy at enrolment. Post the original. The department issues the licence as its own property, not yours: 5 CSR 25-400.045(15) provides that "The license shall be the property of the department and shall be subject to discipline by the director upon failure of the provider to comply with state statutes and/or licensing rules for family child care homes." That is why the practice of framing a colour photocopy and locking the original in a safe is a bad idea — the department can require the document back, and the document on the wall is meant to be the instrument itself. 5 CSR 25-400.045(14) adds the reason the posted copy has to be the current one: "The license shall not be transferable and shall apply only to the person(s) and address shown on the license." A licence showing a former address, a former legal entity name, or a superseded capacity is not merely out of date, it is evidence that the operation on the premises is not the operation the department licensed. And 5 CSR 25-400.045(17) makes the licence "null and void" if it is revoked, if the owner closes the facility, if the facility changes ownership, or, for licences not held by legal entities, on the death of the licensee — a void licence hanging by the door is a live finding, not a harmless leftover. The statutory content of what you are posting comes from section 210.221.1(1) RSMo, effective 28 August 2025: "Each license shall specify the effective date and whether the license is temporary, the kind of child-care services the licensee is authorized to perform, the number of children that can be received or maintained, and their ages." Everything a visiting parent is entitled to read off your wall is on that one certificate.
• A SECOND POSTING SITS BESIDE THE LICENCE, AND IT IS THE ONE APPLICANTS FORGET. 5 CSR 25-400.045(13) requires that "The name(s), address(es), and telephone number(s) shall be posted prominently near the license for all of the following, as applicable: (A) The child care provider(s); (B) Facility owner(s); (C) Board president or chairperson; or (D) All manager(s) and/or member(s)." This is a separate, freestanding display duty with its own adverb — PROMINENTLY — and its own location anchor, NEAR THE LICENSE. It is not discharged by the licence certificate itself, because the certificate carries the licensee's name and the licensed address but not a home address and telephone number for every responsible person, and not the identity of a board chair or of the members of a limited liability company. If you operate as a sole proprietor in the house you live in, the posting is short: your name, the address, your telephone number. If you operate as an LLC, "all manager(s) and/or member(s)" means every one of them, each with an address and a telephone number, and the words "as applicable" select which of the four categories you must show, not whether you must show any. If the home is owned by someone other than the provider — a landlord, a parent, a family trust — subdivision (B) puts the facility owner on the wall too. The reason for the rule is enforcement reach: section 210.245.1 RSMo makes a violation of sections 210.201 to 210.245 a class C misdemeanour for a first offence with a fine up to seven hundred fifty dollars and a class A misdemeanour with fines up to two thousand dollars per day, capped at ten thousand dollars, for subsequent offences, and it adds that "In case such guilty person is a corporation, association, institution or society, the officers thereof who participate in such misdemeanor shall be subject to the penalties provided by law." The posted block is how a parent or an investigator identifies those officers without a corporate records search. Keep it current: 5 CSR 25-400.025(2) requires that "The department shall be notified in writing immediately if there is a change of the person designated to be responsible for the daily operation of the facility", and 5 CSR 25-400.025(4) requires immediate written notice "if there is a change of the board president or chairperson". A change you were obliged to report to the department is by definition a change your posted block is now wrong about, and the two findings travel together.
• CAPACITY AND AGE RANGE ARE POSTED — BUT ONLY BECAUSE THEY ARE PRINTED ON THE LICENCE, AND MISSOURI DOES NOT REQUIRE A SEPARATE CAPACITY SIGN. 5 CSR 25-400.045(18) states that "The number and ages of children a family child care home is authorized to have in care at any one time shall be specified on the license and shall not be exceeded except as permitted within these rules", and section 210.221.1(1) RSMo requires each licence to specify "the number of children that can be received or maintained, and their ages". There is no rule in 5 CSR 25-400 directing you to hang a placard reading "LICENSED CAPACITY 10". The capacity posting duty is entirely parasitic on the licence-posting duty in 5 CSR 25-400.045(12): post the licence near the entrance and the capacity and age range are posted; hang a decorative certificate with the numbers cropped or covered by a frame mat and you have created a licence-posting violation, not a separate capacity violation. Two Missouri-specific wrinkles change what the posted number means on any given day. First, 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(B) allows a home to be "licensed at maximum capacity for a period of eighteen (18) consecutive hours of the twenty-four- (24-) hour day", after which "For the remaining six (6) hours of the twenty-four- (24-) hour day, care may be provided for one-third (1/3) of the licensed capacity of the home", so the posted number is a ceiling for eighteen hours and a third of that for six. Second, the related-children exclusion under 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(C) and section 210.211.4 RSMo lets up to two children five years of age and older who are related to the provider sit outside the licensed count. That exclusion generates a DOCUMENT DUTY, NOT A POSTING DUTY, and the distinction is exactly the kind that shows up in a finding: section 210.211.4 RSMo provides that "A family child care home caring for children not counted in the maximum number of children, as permitted under this subsection, shall disclose this to parents or guardians on the written notice required under subsection 3 of this section", and that if the home begins caring for such children after a parent has already signed, "the family child care home shall provide a separate notice to the parent or guardian … and shall keep a copy of the signed notice on file." Signed, given, filed — never posted. Do not manufacture a wall sign to satisfy it, and do not assume a wall sign discharges it.
• EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NUMBERS ARE POSTED AT THE TELEPHONE, AND THE ANCHOR IS THE INSTRUMENT, NOT THE ROOM. 5 CSR 25-400.085(1)(A)11. reads in full: "Telephone numbers for the police, fire department, ambulance and other emergency telephone numbers shall be posted near the telephone." It sits inside the physical-requirements rule, in the same subparagraph list as the telephone requirement itself at 5 CSR 25-400.085(1)(A)10.: "A telephone in working order shall be available for incoming and outgoing calls. If a telephone answering machine is used, it must be turned on so incoming messages can be heard and parents' calls can be returned promptly." The two travel together, and they explain each other. The posting location is defined by reference to the telephone, so if you keep a landline in the kitchen and rely on a mobile phone carried on your person while children are in care, the inspector's first question is which instrument is "the telephone" for the purposes of subparagraph 10, and the numbers have to be posted at that one. A home with more than one telephone used during child care hours is safest posting at each. The list is open-ended: "police, fire department, ambulance AND OTHER EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NUMBERS". The three named services are the floor, not the ceiling, and the natural content of the residue is supplied by the disaster-preparedness rule discussed separately — 5 CSR 25-400.090(2)(B)1.B. names "911, if available, the fire department, police department, ambulance service, poison control center, and local radio station". A Missouri family child care home that posts only 911 by the telephone has posted one number and named none of the three services the rule names. Do not abbreviate the fire and police entries to "911" on the theory that the dispatcher routes everything; the rule requires numbers FOR the police, FOR the fire department and FOR the ambulance service, which in most Missouri counties means the local non-emergency and station numbers alongside 911. The reason this posting matters more in a family home than in a centre is that a family home usually has one adult on the floor: the person who needs the number is the person holding the child, and the rule's design assumption is that she reads it off the wall beside the handset rather than unlocking a phone or opening a binder. Note also that this is a POSTING duty in the strict sense. Nothing in 5 CSR 25-400.085 lets you satisfy it with a card in a drawer, a laminated sheet in the emergency backpack, or an entry in a contacts list.
• YOUR ASSISTANTS GO ON THE WALL WITH THE EMERGENCY NUMBERS — A POSTING DUTY THAT IS EASY TO MISS BECAUSE IT LIVES IN THE PERSONNEL RULE. 5 CSR 25-400.105(3) provides that "(A) The provider shall have at least one (1) assistant available. (B) The names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all assistants shall be posted with other emergency numbers in the home. (C) Parents shall be notified of any absence of the provider and informed of the name of the assistant on duty." Subsection (B) is a display requirement and it piggybacks on the telephone posting created by 5 CSR 25-400.085(1)(A)11., which is what "posted with other emergency numbers" means: the assistant block belongs on the same sheet, in the same place, at the telephone. Three details cost people findings. First, the duty covers ALL assistants, not the one on duty today and not only the assistant named on your annual declaration — 5 CSR 25-400.055(1)(C) separately requires you to submit "A listing of household members and assistant(s)" to the department each year, and the posted list must match. Second, the required fields are name, ADDRESS and telephone number; a first name and a mobile number is not compliance, and the address is there because the assistant's function under subsection (A) is availability — someone who can physically reach the home. Third, "shall have at least one (1) assistant available" is a standing condition of the licence, not a staffing option triggered only when you exceed six children, so a Missouri family child care home that has never named an assistant has a substantive violation and a posting violation at the same time. Subsection (C) is the trap the wall cannot fix, and it is worth stating plainly: notifying parents of the provider's absence and of the name of the assistant on duty is a NOTIFICATION duty owed to each parent, not a posting. Writing "Assistant on duty today: —" on a whiteboard by the door is good practice and is not what subsection (C) requires. Conversely, telling every parent verbally who your assistants are does not discharge subsection (B), which requires the names, addresses and telephone numbers to be physically posted in the home. The department reads these as two separate obligations because they serve two different readers — the posted block serves whoever is in the house during an emergency, including a substitute, an emergency responder or an inspector; the notification serves the parent deciding whether to leave a child that morning.
• THE FIRE-AND-TORNADO EVACUATION PLAN IS THE SECOND MANDATORY WALL DOCUMENT, AND IT MUST BE THE VERSION THE FIRE INSPECTOR APPROVED. 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(C)3. provides: "An evacuation/emergency plan for fires and tornadoes that is approved by the fire inspector shall be posted in the home in a central location and be visible to all occupants. The plan shall include special instructions for infants and nonambulatory children." Every clause carries weight. APPROVED BY THE FIRE INSPECTOR — this is not a plan you draft and hang; the annual inspection under 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A), which requires that "The Missouri Division of Fire Safety shall inspect the facility annually for the capacity specified on the license application and the fire inspection request", is where the plan is approved, and a plan you redrew after a room change or a capacity increase is unapproved until the inspector signs off. 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(N) says so directly: "When the licensed capacity increases, hours of care change, alterations are completed, or other changes occur that affect fire safety, the provider shall meet all the requirements of this rule unless otherwise excepted by the Division of Fire Safety." IN THE HOME IN A CENTRAL LOCATION — note the difference from the parallel chapters. For group child care homes and child care centres, 5 CSR 25-500.087 requires both that "The evacuation/emergency plan for fires and tornadoes shall be posted conspicuously" and that the fire-inspector-approved plan "shall be posted in each area of the facility used for child care"; for licence-exempt facilities, 5 CSR 25-300.070 requires that "An emergency plan for fires and tornadoes shall be posted conspicuously." The family-home standard is a single central location, and the qualifier that does the work is the next clause. VISIBLE TO ALL OCCUPANTS — a central hallway or the main living area normally satisfies this; a plan taped inside the door of the utility closet or on the back of a bedroom door does not, because occupants in the care areas cannot see it. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR INFANTS AND NONAMBULATORY CHILDREN — if you are licensed for children under twelve months, or for any child who cannot walk out unassisted, the posted plan must say in terms how they leave, who carries them and in what. A generic exit diagram with no infant provision is an incomplete posting even where the routes are correct. The plan is the operational half of a pair: 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(C) also requires that "Child care staff shall conduct at least one (1) fire drill each month and a disaster drill at least every three (3) months. The disaster drills shall include tornado drills. The provider shall maintain a written record at the facility of the date, type of drill, time required to evacuate the building, and number of children present during the drill." The drill record is KEPT, not posted; the plan is POSTED, not merely kept. Inspectors check both in the same visit and they are two different findings.
• THE HEAVIEST POSTING DUTY IN THE WHOLE CHAPTER IS THE ONE MOST APPLICANTS HAVE NEVER READ: 5 CSR 25-400.090(2)(B), WHICH POSTS A BLOCK OF INFORMATION IN EVERY ROOM USED FOR CHILD CARE AND BESIDE EVERY TELEPHONE. The rule states: "The licensee shall ensure that … (B) The following information is posted in each room used for child care and beside each telephone in the facility: 1. Contact information, including the following: A. The name, address, and telephone number of the facility; B. A list of emergency numbers, including 911, if available, the fire department, police department, ambulance service, poison control center, and local radio station; C. When a facility operates at more than one (1) site, the name and telephone number of the facility's principal place of business; and D. When a facility occupies space it does not own, the name and telephone number of the owner of the building or the building manager; 2. A diagram of evacuation routes from the room; and 3. Any special instructions for infants and non-ambulatory children." Read the location clause twice. IN EACH ROOM USED FOR CHILD CARE — this is a per-room duty, and it is the only per-room posting duty a Missouri family child care home has. A home licensed to use a living room, a den and a finished basement posts the block three times. AND BESIDE EACH TELEPHONE — a conjunction, not an alternative, so the kitchen telephone gets the block even if no child care happens in the kitchen. Item 2 is why a single central evacuation plan does not discharge this rule: the diagram posted in each room must show the routes FROM THAT ROOM, which means a room-specific diagram, not a copy of the whole-house plan. Item 1.D. catches renters and anyone caring in a home they do not own, including a provider operating in a relative's house — the landlord's or building manager's name and telephone number go on the wall of every care room. Item 1.B. adds two entries most Missouri providers omit: POISON CONTROL CENTER and LOCAL RADIO STATION, the latter because Missouri's tornado regime assumes broadcast warning. Note the overlap trap. This block is not the same posting as the emergency numbers at the telephone under 5 CSR 25-400.085(1)(A)11., and it is not the same as the fire-inspector-approved evacuation plan under 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(C)3. A well-built compliance sheet satisfies all three at the telephone, but only 5 CSR 25-400.090(2)(B) reaches the rooms without a telephone, and only 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(C)3. requires fire-inspector approval. An inspector who finds a beautiful laminated card at the phone and blank walls in the basement playroom writes the 5 CSR 25-400.090(2)(B) finding.
• THE DISASTER AND EMERGENCY PLAN ITSELF IS KEPT READILY AVAILABLE — NOT POSTED — AND CONFLATING IT WITH THE POSTED BLOCK IS THE CLASSIC MISSOURI ERROR. 5 CSR 25-400.090(2)(A) requires that "At all times, a copy of the facility's disaster emergency plan is readily available in the office area and in each room used for care of children". AVAILABLE, in the office area and in each care room. The immediately following subsection, 5 CSR 25-400.090(2)(B), is the one that says POSTED. Same rule, same subsection number, two different verbs, and the difference is enforceable: a binder on a shelf in each room satisfies (A) and fails (B); a wall placard satisfies (B) and, if the full plan is not physically present in the room, fails (A). What the available plan must contain is set out at 5 CSR 25-400.090(1)(C): it "shall identify the staff members responsible for implementing the plan and ensuring the safety of the children" and shall include "1. The location of the child's attendance record and emergency information and emergency supplies; 2. Diagrams that identify exit routes from each area of the facility used for child care to a safe location out of the facility and to a safe location within the facility where children and staff members can stay until the threat of danger passes; 3. A list of emergency contacts as set out in subsection (2)(B) below; 4. The disaster and emergency procedures to be followed", enumerated down to "F. Two (2) off-site locations identified as meeting places in case of evacuation" and "H. System of contact for parents of children and notification of parents of the plan to assist in re-unification", plus "5. Lock down procedures" including an announcement by "the director or designee" which "may be made using a pre-selected code word". A written disaster and emergency plan is also a licensing-application deliverable under 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(M), so the department has a copy of yours on file from the outset; that filing does not substitute for the copy in each room. Two drafting inputs the department expects to see reflected, per 5 CSR 25-400.090(1)(B)4., are "The requirements of the Division of Fire Safety and the Department of Health and Senior Services' The ABC's of Emergency Preparedness Ready in 3 Program (2006), which is incorporated by reference" — a 2006 DHSS publication still incorporated by reference into a DESE rule, an artefact of the 2021 transfer worth knowing about before an inspector asks where your plan came from. Finally, the drill evidence is a FILE duty, not a posting: 5 CSR 25-400.090(3)(A) requires that "the facility has on file documentation that, at least every three (3) months, all staff and children at the facility have participated in a disaster or emergency drill based on the facility's disaster and emergency plan."
• TWO SMALLER PHYSICAL DISPLAY DUTIES SIT INSIDE THE FIRE SAFETY RULE AND ARE CHECKED BY THE FIRE INSPECTOR, NOT THE LICENSING REPRESENTATIVE. The first is a permit posting that applies only to some homes but is absolute where it applies. 5 CSR 25-400.086(12)(B) provides: "Facilities with a water heater over two hundred thousand (200,000) British thermal units (Btus) per hour input or larger, or that is heating with a boiler, shall have a valid permit from the Division of Fire Safety posted on the premises. A copy of the permit shall be kept on file at the Division of Fire Safety." Note the split: the ORIGINAL PERMIT is posted on the premises and the COPY lives with the Division of Fire Safety, which is the reverse of the arrangement most providers assume. Note also the trigger — a boiler at any size, or a water heater at 200,000 Btu/hr input or above. Most single-family homes are far below that threshold and the duty never arises; a converted duplex, a home on a shared boiler in a multi-unit building, or a home with a commercial-grade water heater installed by a previous owner can cross it without the provider ever thinking about it. The second is 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(F): "The house numbers shall be plainly visible from the street in case of emergency." It reads like housekeeping and it is a genuine display requirement with a specified audience — the street, not the driveway — and a specified purpose, emergency response. Vinyl numbers on a storm door screened by a shrub, numbers on a mailbox set back from the roadway, or numbers on a garage that faces away from the street are all common failures at the annual fire inspection required by 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A). Everything else in the fire safety rule that produces paper produces FILED paper, not posted paper, and the distinction is stated in the rule each time: 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(J) on flame-treated fresh-cut Christmas trees requires that "Documentation of the treatment shall be on file at the facility and available for review by the fire inspector"; the annual fire-extinguisher certification under 5 CSR 25-400.086(10)(F) requires that "Documentation of the inspection and approval shall be on file at the facility and available for review by the fire inspector"; and the sprinkler provision at 5 CSR 25-400.086(10)(H) requires that "A copy of the test report and approval of the system shall be kept on file at the facility and available for review by the fire inspector." Three certificates, three file duties, zero posting duties. Providers who frame the extinguisher tag on the wall have done something harmless; providers who frame it INSTEAD of filing it have not met the rule.
• MISSOURI DOES NOT REQUIRE YOU TO POST THE INSPECTION OR COMPLIANCE REPORT. THIS IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT NEGATIVE FINDING IN THIS FIELD, BECAUSE A DOZEN OTHER STATES DO AND THE CROSS-STATE MATERIAL AN APPLICANT READS ONLINE ASSUMES IT. The governing sentence is in section 210.252.1 RSMo, effective 28 August 2024: all buildings and premises used by a child-care facility to care for more than six children "shall be inspected annually for fire and safety by the state fire marshal, the marshal's designee or officials of a local fire district and for health and sanitation by the department of elementary and secondary education or the department's designee … Evidence of compliance with the inspections required by this section shall be KEPT ON FILE AND AVAILABLE TO PARENTS of children enrolling in the child-care facility." Kept on file and available — not posted, not displayed, not conspicuous, not near the entrance. The rule side matches. 5 CSR 25-400.055(2) provides that "The provider shall have the following on file and available for review: (A) Evidence of compliance with a fire and safety inspection as conducted by the State Fire Marshal or his/her designee; (B) Evidence of compliance with local, state, or both, sanitation requirements; (C) The child care provider shall conduct a Family Care Safety Registry check for all child care staff members within thirty (30) days prior to the anniversary date as printed on the license; and (D) Documentation as required by the Missouri Secretary of State and state law to verify the legal entity is in good standing, if a family child care home is owned by a legal entity." Four items, one verb, and the verb is FILE. What replaces a posted report in Missouri is publication by the state and disclosure on request. Section 210.203 RSMo provides that "The department of elementary and secondary education shall maintain a record of substantiated, signed parental complaints against child care facilities licensed pursuant to this chapter, and shall make such complaints and findings available to the public upon request", and the department publishes compliance information through its public child care search rather than through a placard in your hallway. The practical consequence for an applicant: build the file, index it, and be able to hand a parent the fire and sanitation evidence within a minute of being asked, because that is the duty the statute actually imposes. Do not manufacture a wall display of your inspection history; it is not required, it does not discharge the file-and-produce duty, and a stale or partial one on the wall can become evidence against you.
• THE DAILY SCHEDULE AND THE MENU ARE NOT POSTINGS IN MISSOURI — THEY ARE A WRITING DUTY AND A PRODUCE-ON-REQUEST DUTY RESPECTIVELY, AND THE RULE TEXT SAYS SO IN TERMS. On the schedule, 5 CSR 25-400.175(2)(A) states the whole of the obligation: "A daily schedule shall be established in written form which shall include activities for all ages of children in care." ESTABLISHED IN WRITTEN FORM. Nothing in 5 CSR 25-400.175, and nothing anywhere else in Chapter 400, requires the schedule to be posted, displayed, given to parents, or visible to anyone. It must exist on paper and it must cover every age group you are licensed to serve, which for a home licensed from six weeks through school age means the written schedule has to show the infant/toddler activities of 5 CSR 25-400.175(2)(C) and the preschool and school-age activities of 5 CSR 25-400.175(2)(B) — including the specific items the rule enumerates, such as "A total of at least one (1) hour of outdoor play for children in attendance a full day unless prevented by weather or special medical reasons" and "A study time for school-age children who choose to do homework, with a separate, quiet work space." A schedule of daily activities is separately a licensing-application deliverable under 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(D), so the department already holds one; the wall is not where it lives. On the menu, the rule is even more explicit about the mechanism. 5 CSR 25-400.190(1)(K) reads: "Menus shall be available to parents upon request." UPON REQUEST — a pull, not a push, and certainly not a posting. The content standard is at 5 CSR 25-400.190(1)(G): "The acceptable food components and serving sizes for meals and snacks are outlined in the following chart for each age group. Menus and amounts served shall be based on this chart", and a sample weekly menu is an application deliverable under 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(E). Two caveats an applicant should hold onto. First, participation in the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program carries its own signage and record obligations administered through the sponsoring agency and USDA, which are conditions of the food-programme agreement and are NOT Missouri licensing rules; a provider who is not in the CACFP has no menu-posting duty at all. Second, posting the schedule and the week's menu by the door is excellent practice and is what many Missouri providers do — but if an inspector cites you, it will be for the absence of the written schedule or the failure to produce the menu on request, never for the absence of a sign.
• THE DISCIPLINE POLICY IS DELIVERED TO EACH PARENT IN WRITING — IT IS NEVER POSTED — AND MISSOURI IMPOSES THE DUTY TWICE, ONCE BY STATUTE AND ONCE BY RULE. The statute is section 210.211.3 RSMo, effective 28 August 2024, whose closing sentence reaches every child care facility in the state, licensed or not: "All child care facilities shall provide the parent or guardian enrolling a child in the facility with a written explanation of the disciplinary philosophy and policies of the child care facility." PROVIDE THE PARENT ENROLLING A CHILD. The rule is 5 CSR 25-400.135(1): "The provider shall establish, implement, and maintain written policies pertaining to the program goals, admission, safe sleep practices for children less than one (1) year of age, care and discharge of children, and shall provide a copy to the parent(s) at the time of enrollment." And the same material is an application deliverable: 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(C) requires that "Written policies provided to parents shall include: 1. Program goals; 2. Admission, care, and discharge of children; 3. Narrative description of child care practices and concepts; and 4. Discipline and guidance policies." Three separate hooks, three separate verbs — ESTABLISH, PROVIDE, SUBMIT — and no posting verb among them. The substantive discipline standards you are writing to are in 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(C), and they are worth quoting because a policy that contradicts them is worse than no policy: "5. Brief, supervised separation from the group may be used based on a guideline of one (1) minute of separation for each year of the child's age … 7. Physical punishment including, but not limited to, spanking, slapping, shaking, biting, or pulling hair shall be prohibited. 8. No discipline technique which is humiliating, threatening, or frightening to children shall be used. Children shall not be shamed, ridiculed, or spoken to harshly, abusively, or with profanity. 9. Punishment or threat of punishment shall not be associated with food, rest, or toilet training. 10. Children shall not be placed in a closet, a locked or unlit room, or any other place which is frightening." The compliance artefact an inspector looks for is therefore a signed acknowledgement in each child's file that the written policy was handed over at enrolment, not a framed statement of philosophy in the entryway. A provider who posts the discipline policy on the wall and never puts a copy in the parents' hands has satisfied nothing, and has done so in the most visible possible way — which is exactly why this pairing recurs in inspection findings.
• THE SAFE SLEEP POLICY IS HANDED TO THE PARENT OF EVERY INFANT AT ENROLMENT AND IS NOT REQUIRED TO BE POSTED ANYWHERE IN A MISSOURI FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME. The statutory base is section 210.223.1 RSMo: "All licensed child care facilities that provide care for children less than one year of age shall implement and maintain a written safe sleep policy in accordance with the most recent safe sleep recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics." Implement and maintain — no display verb. The delivery mechanism is in the rule, and it is a hand-over, not a hang-up: 5 CSR 25-400.135(2)(B)5. requires the policy to "require giving the parent(s) or guardian(s) of each infant in care a copy of the provider's safe sleep policy upon the child's enrollment." Note that the rule requires the POLICY to contain that requirement, which means an inspector reading your policy document can find you non-compliant on its face if the clause is missing, before ever asking whether you actually handed anything over. A written safe sleep policy is also an application deliverable under 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(N) "if licensed to care for children under twelve (12) months of age". The mandatory contents at 5 CSR 25-400.135(2) include "The policy shall list the licensee's expectations regarding how and when caregivers are to be trained on safe sleep", "A requirement that children less than one (1) year of age be placed on their backs to sleep", supervision detail down to "B. Lighting in the nap room" and "D. Prohibitions against the use of any equipment such as a sound machine that may interfere with the caregiver's ability to see or hear a child who may be distressed", and environmental rules that "prohibit smoking in the child care home during the hours children are in care". The one document in this area that some providers wrongly post is the alternative-sleep authorisation. 5 CSR 25-400.175(2)(C)4.E. requires that where an infant's licensed health care provider says otherwise, "the provider shall have ON FILE AT THE FACILITY written instructions, signed by the infant's licensed health care provider, detailing the alternative sleep positions or special sleeping arrangements for such infant", mirrored by section 210.223.2 RSMo. That instruction is a confidential medical record — 5 CSR 25-400.210(9) requires that "All records of children shall be confidential, protected from unauthorized examination, and available to parents upon request" — and taping it to a crib to remind a substitute is a confidentiality problem, not a compliance win. Missouri gives you no safe-sleep sign, no crib card and no wall poster to post. It gives you a policy to write, to give, to train on, and to file.
• MISSOURI DOES NOT REQUIRE A FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME TO POST THE CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT HOTLINE NUMBER — IT REQUIRES YOU TO KNOW IT AND USE IT. This surprises applicants coming from states where the hotline placard is standard issue. The only place the number appears in Chapter 400 is 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(I): "All child care providers and assistants shall acquaint themselves with the child abuse and neglect law and shall make a report of any suspected child abuse or neglect to the Children's Division at the toll-free number 1-800-392-3738 or online at https://apps.dss.mo.gov/OnlineCanReporting/default.aspx." ACQUAINT THEMSELVES and MAKE A REPORT — a knowledge duty and an action duty, addressed to caregivers, not a display duty addressed to the premises. There is no companion sentence anywhere in 5 CSR 25-400 requiring the number to be posted for parents or children to see, and none in sections 210.201 to 210.257 RSMo. Where the hotline does become a documented obligation is in orientation. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(J) requires that within seven days of employment or volunteering and before being left alone with children, caregivers receive a facility orientation, that "documentation verifying completion of the facility orientation is maintained and on file for review by the department for each caregiver", and that the orientation cover, among ten enumerated items, "B. The facility's license and its limitations, if any; C. The facility's written child care practices, including procedures for medication administration, child illness, discipline, and guidance policies; D. The daily schedule; … G. The location of children's records; H. The facility's safe sleep policy, if applicable; I. The facility's disaster emergency plan and the location of emergency information; and J. The mandated responsibility to report any suspected child abuse or neglect to the Children's Division." That list is the honest inventory of what Missouri expects a caregiver to be able to find and do; note how many of those items are things she is told where to find rather than things she reads off a wall. The practical reading for an applicant: including 1-800-392-3738 on your emergency-number sheet under 5 CSR 25-400.085(1)(A)11. is sensible, defensible as one of the "other emergency telephone numbers", and entirely voluntary. Omitting it is not a finding. Failing to have signed orientation documentation for an assistant showing item J was covered is.
• THE PARENT'S RIGHT TO WALK IN UNANNOUNCED EXISTS IN MISSOURI STATUTE AND CARRIES NO POSTING REQUIREMENT — AND NEITHER DOES THE LICENCE-STATUS DISCLOSURE, WHICH IS A SIGNED FORM, NOT A SIGN. Section 210.215 RSMo, unchanged since 28 August 1993, is a single sentence: "Any parent or guardian of a child shall have access to the child care facility in which his child is enrolled and which is licensed pursuant to the provisions of sections 210.201 to 210.245 and shall have access to the providers of care in such facilities during normal hours of operation or when a child of such parent or guardian is in the care of such facility or provider, unless such parent or guardian is subject to a court order restricting access to the child." It creates a right; it does not create a notice. No rule in 5 CSR 25-400 requires you to post that parents may visit unannounced, and no rule requires you to include the statement in your parent handbook, though doing so is good practice and is consistent with 5 CSR 25-400.045(20): "The provider shall permit the department access to the facility, premises, and records during all inspections." The licence-status question is the other place people expect a sign and find a form. Section 210.211.3 RSMo provides: "Every child care facility shall disclose the licensure status of the facility to the parents or guardians of children for which the facility provides care. No child care facility exempt from licensure shall represent to any parent or guardian … that the facility is licensed when such facility is in fact not licensed. A parent or guardian utilizing an unlicensed child care facility shall sign a written notice indicating he or she is aware of the unlicensed status of the facility. The facility shall keep a copy of this signed written notice on file." SIGN and KEEP ON FILE. A licensed family child care home discharges the disclosure by posting its licence under 5 CSR 25-400.045(12); nothing more is required of it. The signed-notice machinery bites on unlicensed and exempt operations. For religious-organisation exempt facilities the parallel regime is section 210.254 RSMo, which requires two copies of a Notice of Parental Responsibility at enrolment, one retained in the facility's files after the parent acknowledges it by signature, and annual filing with DESE "during the month of August" — again filed and signed, never posted. Watch a live cross-reference defect here: section 210.254.1 RSMo still points at "the exempt status recognized in subdivision (17) of subsection 1 of section 210.211", but 210.211 as amended effective 28 August 2024 places exclusive-control religious facilities at subdivision (18), with (17) now reading "Any nursery school as defined in section 210.201." The pointer is stale; the duty is not.
• THE LICENSING RULES THEMSELVES MUST BE AVAILABLE IN THE HOME AND PARENTS MUST BE TOLD THEY ARE — TWO DUTIES, NEITHER OF THEM A POSTING. 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(H) provides: "The provider shall have available a copy of the Licensing Rules for Family Child Care Homes in Missouri. Providers and assistants shall review and be knowledgeable of the rules at the time they begin work, and shall be able to understand and apply the rules which relate to their respective responsibilities." HAVE AVAILABLE — a copy present in the home that a caregiver, a parent or an inspector can pick up, not a document on a wall. The knowledge clause is the operative half: an inspector who finds the book on the shelf and an assistant who cannot say what the ratio or the discipline rules are has found the violation the sentence is really about, and the timing marker "at the time they begin work" ties this back to the seven-day facility orientation of 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(J), item A of which is "Licensing rules". The second duty is owed to parents at enrolment. 5 CSR 25-400.135(3) requires: "The provider shall have available a copy of the Licensing Rules for Family Day Care Homes in Missouri and shall advise the parent(s) at the time of enrollment of his/her child of the availability of the rules for review." ADVISE THE PARENTS OF THE AVAILABILITY — not give them a copy, not post a notice about it, but tell them, at enrolment, that the rules are there to be read. The sensible compliance artefact is a line in the enrolment paperwork the parent initials, filed with the child's record. Notice, in passing, that the two rules do not even use the same name for the same book: 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(H) says "Licensing Rules for FAMILY CHILD CARE HOMES in Missouri" while 5 CSR 25-400.135(3) says "Licensing Rules for FAMILY DAY CARE HOMES in Missouri". The chapter was renamed when it moved to Title 5 in 2021 and the internal references were not all conformed; the department means the same publication in both places, and the compiled chapter you should actually keep on the shelf is the Secretary of State's "Rules of Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Division 25 — Office of Childhood, Chapter 400 — Licensing Rules for Family Child Care Homes". Keeping a printout of the department's summary guide instead of the compiled rules is a common shortcut and a bad one: the guide is not the law, and 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(H) names the rules, not a guide to them.
• WHAT THE INSPECTOR ACTUALLY WALKS THROUGH, AND THE CITATION TRAP THAT MAKES MISSOURI POSTING ADVICE UNRELIABLE. Reduced to a walk-through, a Missouri family child care home has a short, closed list of things on its walls that a rule requires: the licence near the entrance (5 CSR 25-400.045(12)); the provider/owner/manager name-address-telephone block prominently near the licence (5 CSR 25-400.045(13)); the police, fire, ambulance and other emergency numbers at the telephone (5 CSR 25-400.085(1)(A)11.), with the assistants' names, addresses and telephone numbers posted alongside them (5 CSR 25-400.105(3)(B)); the fire-inspector-approved fire and tornado evacuation plan in a central location visible to all occupants, with infant and non-ambulatory instructions (5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(C)3.); the contact-and-evacuation block in EACH room used for child care and beside EACH telephone (5 CSR 25-400.090(2)(B)); and, if the equipment triggers it, the Division of Fire Safety boiler or large water-heater permit on the premises (5 CSR 25-400.086(12)(B)), plus house numbers plainly visible from the street (5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(F)). Everything else in this field is a file, a hand-over or a produce-on-request. Now the trap. The rules live in 5 CSR 25-400 under DESE's Office of Childhood, moved there effective 30 August 2021 and amended effective 30 May 2022; ANY LIVE CITATION TO 19 CSR 30-61 IS A STALE PAGE and any source telling you the Department of Health and Senior Services licenses your home is wrong. But the trap is subtler than a bad website, because the CODIFIED CHAPTER ITSELF still carries its old skin. In the currently compiled text, 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A) directs the fire inspection to determine approval "for overlap care as provided in 19 CSR 30-61.155 Overlap Care of Children"; 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(I) tells you to report a fire to "the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Department of Health, Bureau of Child Care Safety and Licensure"; 5 CSR 25-400.090(3)(B) refers to "fire safety requirements found in 19 CSR 30-61.086"; 5 CSR 25-400.135(2)(A)3. cross-refers to "19 CSR 30-61.175(2)(C)"; and 5 CSR 25-400.175(1)(B)1. says drills "shall meet the requirements of 19 CSR 30-61.086 Fire Safety". Those internal pointers are dead numbers inside a live rule — read them as 5 CSR 25-400.155, 5 CSR 25-400.086 and 5 CSR 25-400.175 and report fires to DESE's Office of Childhood, not to a DHSS bureau that no longer licenses you. Finally, sweep the session law, not just the code: the 2026 General Assembly enacted "Elijah's Law" at section 210.225 RSMo, effective 28 August 2026 (L. 2026 H.B. 2372), requiring that "Before July 1, 2028, each licensed child care provider shall adopt a policy on allergy prevention and response with priority given to addressing potentially deadly foodborne allergies", with DESE to publish a model policy before 1 July 2027 and adoption "required for licensure as a child care provider". It creates a POLICY duty and a licensure condition. It creates no posting duty, and no rule implementing it had appeared in 5 CSR 25-400 as compiled.

Enrollment forms for each child

• SEVEN FORMS — EXACTLY SEVEN — ARE INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE INTO THE FAMILY CHILD CARE HOME RULEBOOK, AND EVERY OTHER PIECE OF PAPER YOU WILL BE ASKED FOR IS EITHER A WRITING YOU AUTHOR YOURSELF OR A FORM BELONGING TO ANOTHER AGENCY. The rulebook is 5 CSR 25-400, Licensing Rules for Family Child Care Homes, promulgated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Division 25 — Office of Childhood. Counting the incorporations in the text as the Secretary of State prints it today, the seven are: the Application for License to Operate a Child Care Facility form, revised 2021 (5 CSR 25-400.045(2)); the Annual Declaration for Licensed Facility form, revised 2021 (5 CSR 25-400.055(1)(A)); the Tuberculosis (TB) Risk Assessment form, revised March 2014 (5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(E)); the Medical Examination Report for Caregivers and Staff form, revised 2021 (5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(G)); the Child Medical Examination Report (Infant/Toddler/Pre-School), revised 2021 (5 CSR 25-400.125(2)(A)); the School-Age Child Health Report form, revised 2021 (5 CSR 25-400.125(2)(E)); and the Child Care Facility Overlap Request form, promulgated 2021 (5 CSR 25-400.155(3)). Two further items are incorporated but are publications, not forms you fill in: the American Academy of Pediatrics' "Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Updated 2022 Recommendations for Reducing Infant Deaths in the Sleep Environment, July 2022" at 5 CSR 25-400.105(5)(A), and the Department of Health and Senior Services' "The ABC's of Emergency Preparedness Ready in 3 Program (2006)" at 5 CSR 25-400.090(1)(B)4. Each incorporation closes with the same freezing clause — "This rule does not incorporate any subsequent amendment or additions" — which means the legally operative text is the 2021 (or March 2014) revision and not whatever DESE happens to be serving from its forms database this morning. Two checks before you trust any Missouri form list. First, if the page you are reading cites 19 CSR 30-61, it is describing a rulebook that ceased to exist when these rules moved out of the Department of Health and Senior Services and into DESE effective 30 August 2021; treat that page as dead. Second, confirm nothing has changed under you: the Missouri Register of 3 August 2026, in its cumulative "Rule Changes Since Update to Code of State Regulations" table, lists only 5 CSR 25-100.330 and 5 CSR 25-200.060 for Division 25 — no Chapter 400 and no Chapter 600 change has taken effect. The Chapter 400 print the Secretary of State serves is footered (3/31/23), and its last substantive amendment was filed 23 September 2022, effective 30 April 2023.
• THE APPLICATION FOR LICENSE TO OPERATE A CHILD CARE FACILITY IS FORM MO 500-3293, AND THE COPY DESE PUBLISHES IS STILL STAMPED (8-21) IN ITS FOOTER — WHICH IS THE 2021 REVISION THE RULE FREEZES. 5 CSR 25-400.045(2) states: "Upon receipt of a completed Application for License to Operate a Child Care Facility form, a licensing inspection shall be made. See Application for License to Operate a Child Care Facility form, revised 2021, incorporated by reference in this rule, as published by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, PO Box 480, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0480 and available by the department at https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/forms. This rule does not incorporate any subsequent amendment or additions. If licensing rules are not met within six (6) months, the application shall be void and another application shall be filed." That last sentence is the sentence that costs money. The six-month clock runs from the filing date, not from your inspection date, and the form itself restates it in the acknowledgments block: "If rules are not met within six months of the filing date, this application shall be void." The form is a single sheet used by all four facility types, so you must tick FAMILY HOME and APPLICANT'S RESIDENCE at the top. It demands the legal name of the facility, the facility and mailing addresses, driving directions, county, phone, e-mail, and whether the facility is currently licensed by any other agency. Under ADMINISTRATION it demands the name, address, telephone and SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER of every owner, of the board president or LLC member, and of the family child care home provider — three separate SSN fields on a form that will sit in a public licensing file, which is why you should never mail it to a general DESE address rather than to your regional Child Care Compliance office. Under PHYSICAL PLANT you declare which floors will be used for child care, the heating source, and whether water and sewage are public or private. Under LICENSE SPECIFICATIONS REQUESTED you state total capacity at one time, how many of those are children under twenty-four months, the age range, and which of the three hour bands you want — 6:00AM–9:00PM (daytime), 9:00PM–6:00AM (nighttime), or 6:00AM–6:00AM (24 hour care) — plus days and months of operation. What you request here becomes the face of the license: 5 CSR 25-400.045(18) provides that "The number and ages of children a family child care home is authorized to have in care at any one time shall be specified on the license and shall not be exceeded", and 5 CSR 25-400.145(1) requires the home to be "specifically licensed to include nighttime care" before offering it on a regular basis. The signature block is signed by the owner, board chairperson, LLC member or designee, and the signer certifies having read and agreed to comply with all statutes and licensing rules. The application is not retained by you; it is filed with the department, and the licensing record is open to public review.
• SIXTEEN SEPARATE SUBMISSIONS RIDE ALONG WITH THE APPLICATION UNDER 5 CSR 25-400.045(4), AND ONLY ONE OF THEM IS A DEPARTMENT FORM. The rule reads: "Prior to the granting of a license, the following shall be submitted by the applicant:" and then lists (A) through (P). They are, verbatim in substance: (A) "A sketch or diagram of the home showing the arrangement of the rooms, including the location of toilet and handwashing facilities, the kitchen, and the doors. The licensing representative and the applicant shall measure the home jointly"; (B) a sketch or diagram of the outdoor play area and placement of equipment, indicating if the area is fenced, again measured jointly; (C) written policies provided to parents covering program goals, admission, care and discharge of children, a narrative description of child care practices and concepts, and discipline and guidance policies; (D) a schedule of daily activities for children; (E) a sample weekly menu; (F) an itemized list of available materials and equipment to be used by children; (G) written policies and procedures which clearly establish job responsibilities and lines of administrative authority; (H) a listing of all household members and assistants; (I) "Sample forms used, other than those supplied by the department"; (J) evidence of compliance with local or state, or both, sanitation requirements; (K) documentation required by the Missouri Secretary of State and state law to verify the legal entity is in good standing if the home is owned by a legal entity; (L) required information for assistants; (M) a written disaster and emergency plan; (N) a written safe sleep policy, if licensed to care for children under twelve months; (O) "A completed safety plan, if a sex offender resides within one thousand feet (1,000') of the family child care home"; and (P) "Other information required by the department to make a determination regarding licensure". Read (I) twice. Missouri deliberately asks to see the paperwork you invented — your own enrollment sheet, your own medication log, your own daily sign-in — because outside the seven incorporated forms there is nothing the department supplies. Read (O) twice as well: the Office of Childhood forms database returns no result for a safety plan form, so the "completed safety plan" is a document you draft and your licensing representative approves, with no template and no revision date. Two of these sixteen items later become annual obligations under 5 CSR 25-400.055(1): the current list of available equipment and the listing of household members and assistants must be resubmitted every year, and the safety plan carries forward — "If the provider has an existing safety plan, a new plan is not required." Item (G) is a hidden trap for a one-person home: written lines of administrative authority are demanded of a family child care home exactly as they are of a corporate centre, and 5 CSR 25-400.025(1) repeats the requirement independently.
• THE WRITTEN PARENT POLICIES ARE A REQUIRED DOCUMENT, A REQUIRED HANDOUT, AND A REQUIRED SIGNED ACKNOWLEDGMENT — THREE OBLIGATIONS, NOT ONE. 5 CSR 25-400.135(1): "The provider shall establish, implement, and maintain written policies pertaining to the program goals, admission, safe sleep practices for children less than one (1) year of age, care and discharge of children, and shall provide a copy to the parent(s) at the time of enrollment." 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(C) makes the same policies a pre-licensure submission and adds "Discipline and guidance policies" to the required contents. Then 5 CSR 25-400.135(6)(E)7 turns the handout into a signature: before a child is accepted for care, the parent must complete written information including "Acknowledgment by the parent(s) that— A. They have received a copy of the provider's policies pertaining to the admission, care, and discharge of children; B. They have been informed that the Licensing Rules for Family Day Care Homes in Missouri are available in the home for their review; C. They and the provider have agreed on a plan for continuing communication regarding the child's development, behavior and individual needs; D. They understand and agree that the child may not be accepted for care when ill; E. They have received a copy of the provider's safe sleep policy when enrolling children less than one (1) year of age; and F. They have been notified that they may request notice at initial enrollment in or attendance at the facility or upon request of whether there are children for whom an immunization exemption has been filed currently enrolled in or attending the facility." Subparagraph F is the one Missouri providers miss. It is not a general privacy notice; it is a specific standing right of every enrolling parent to ask whether unimmunized children are in your home, and your acknowledgment sheet must tell them the right exists. There is no departmental form for any of this. You draft the policy document, you draft the acknowledgment, and both are the "Sample forms used, other than those supplied by the department" that 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(I) makes you hand over at licensure. The admission procedure that surrounds the acknowledgment is itself prescribed by 5 CSR 25-400.135(6): a personal interview with the parent and child "to exchange information and arrive at a mutual decision about admitting a child", a plan for continuing communication, discussion of the plan for care of the ill child, and discussion of the parental plan for when the provider is ill or school is closed. Note that 5 CSR 25-400.135(6)(C) and (6)(E)1 still route you to "19 CSR 30-61.185 Health Care" and "19 CSR 30-61.210 Records and Reports" — chapters that no longer exist. That is not a stale web page; it is the live rule text. Section .135 was moved to Chapter 400 effective 30 August 2021 and never amended thereafter, so its internal cross-references were never renumbered. Read them as 5 CSR 25-400.185 and 5 CSR 25-400.210.
• THE INFANT SAFE SLEEP POLICY IS A WRITTEN INSTRUMENT WITH A STATUTORY CONTENT LIST, AND IT MUST BE HANDED TO EVERY INFANT'S PARENT AT ENROLLMENT. It is required only if you are licensed to care for children under twelve months: 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(N) makes it a pre-licensure submission "if licensed to care for children under twelve (12) months of age". 5 CSR 25-400.135(2) provides that "The provider's infant safe sleep policy shall comply with section 210.223, RSMo, and shall include, but not be limited to: (A) The following safe sleep practices: 1. The policy shall list the licensee's expectations regarding how and when caregivers are to be trained on safe sleep; 2. A requirement that children less than one (1) year of age be placed on their backs to sleep; 3. A requirement that the facility shall receive a written statement from the infant's licensed health care provider stating that the infant requires alternative sleep positions or special sleeping arrangements that differ from those set forth in 19 CSR 30-61.175(2)(C) prior to allowing the infant to be placed in a sleep position that is not on his or her back; and 4. Supervision of infants during nap/sleep times, to include: A. Positioning of staff; B. Lighting in the nap room; C. Physical checks of the child to ensure he or she is not overheated or in distress; and D. Prohibitions against the use of any equipment such as a sound machine that may interfere with the caregiver's ability to see or hear a child who may be distressed". Subsection (2)(B) then adds the environment clauses: firm mattress and tight fitting sheets, free of loose bedding, bumper pads, pillows and soft toys; heads uncovered; no covering cribs or playpens with blankets or bedding; no smoking in the child care home during the hours children are in care; and "5. Shall require giving the parent(s) or guardian(s) of each infant in care a copy of the provider's safe sleep policy upon the child's enrollment." Two documents therefore live in the child's file: your policy, and — only where a doctor has authorised a non-supine position — the "written statement from the infant's licensed health care provider". There is no DESE form for either. The cross-reference to 19 CSR 30-61.175(2)(C) inside the live rule is dead numbering; the surviving text is at 5 CSR 25-400.175. Separately, and often confused with the policy, is the safe sleep TRAINING record required by 5 CSR 25-400.105(5): the provider, assistants and volunteers must complete department-approved training on the AAP recommendations "prior to licensure", every three years thereafter, and within thirty days of employment for anyone hired after initial licensure, with the training documented in the department's professional development system under the caregiver's MOPD ID rather than on paper you keep.
• THE MEDICAL EXAMINATION REPORT FOR CAREGIVERS AND STAFF IS FORM MO 500-3304, IT IS DUE FOR THE PROVIDER AT INITIAL LICENSURE AND FOR AN ASSISTANT WITHIN THIRTY DAYS OF STARTING WORK, AND IT IS NEVER RENEWED. 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(B): "The provider shall have a medical examination report on file at the time of initial licensure." 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(D): "Assistants who are employed or volunteer more than five (5) hours per week shall have a medical examination report on file within thirty (30) days of beginning work in the home." The five-hour threshold matters — an assistant who works four hours a week needs no medical report at all, and the same five-hour line governs the twelve-hour annual training duty at 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(A). 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(F) sets the currency and the signer: "Medical examination reports shall be signed by a licensed physician or registered nurse who is under the supervision of a licensed physician and completed not more than twelve (12) months prior to beginning work in the home. These reports may be transferable to another child care facility for subsequent employment." Read that twice. The examination must be no older than twelve months when work begins; there is no requirement anywhere in Chapter 400 to repeat it annually, and the report follows the worker to her next Missouri child care job. 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(G) incorporates the form and preserves an escape hatch: "The medical examination report form shall be supplied by the department or the provider may use his/her own form if it contains all the information on the department's form. The Medical Examination Report for Caregivers and Staff form, revised 2021, is incorporated by reference in this rule". The form asks the physician to certify that on a stated date "this patient is in good physical and emotional health and free of contagious disease", to record TB clearance, and to state limitations and restrictions — the printed example being "cannot lift children who weigh more than 20 pounds". Watch the signature line on the copy DESE currently serves: it invites completion by "A LICENSED PHYSICIAN, ADVANCE PRACTICE NURSE, REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL NURSE, OR REGISTERED NURSE WHO IS UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF A LICENSED PHYSICIAN", which is broader than the rule's own words. Where the served form and the incorporated rule diverge, the rule governs, and the rule authorises only a licensed physician or a supervised registered nurse. The report is filed at the home, not with the department: 5 CSR 25-400.045(8) requires that medical examination reports "shall be on file at the home and available for review", and 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(I) reserves the department's right to demand a fresh physical or mental examination at any time it "has reason to question the physical or mental health of a provider or assistant".
• THE TUBERCULOSIS (TB) RISK ASSESSMENT FORM IS NOT A DESE FORM AT ALL — IT BELONGS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SENIOR SERVICES, IT IS FROZEN AT THE MARCH 2014 REVISION, AND IT IS THE ONLY INCORPORATED FORM IN CHAPTER 400 THAT PREDATES 2021. 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(E): "Medical examination reports shall include either a Tuberculosis (TB) Risk Assessment form, completed and signed by a health care professional, or a negative tuberculin skin test (TST) completed not more than twelve (12) months before beginning work in the facility. The Tuberculosis (TB) Risk Assessment form, revised March 2014, is incorporated by reference in this rule, as published by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, PO Box 570, Jefferson City, MO 65102 and available by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services at https://health.mo.gov/living/healthcondiseases/communicable/tuberculosis/tbmanual/pdf/RiskAssessmentform.pdf. This rule does not incorporate any subsequent amendments or additions to this publication. If the person has signs or symptoms of tuberculosis, or risk factors for tuberculosis, then testing for tuberculosis shall occur." The structure is an either/or, and choosing the risk assessment rather than the skin test is the cheaper and far more common route: a health care professional signs the assessment, and only a positive risk profile forces an actual test. If a test is chosen, the rule adds three hard consequences. "1. If the person has no documented history of ever receiving a tuberculin skin test (TST), and elects to receive a TST, then a two- (2-) step TST is required. A history of bacilli Calmette-Guerin vaccination (BCG) shall not exempt a person from receiving a tuberculin test." "2. Persons that have a newly positive tuberculin test(s) shall not be allowed to work until a medical evaluation is performed to determine if the person has active contagious tuberculosis." "3. Persons with active contagious tuberculosis shall be excluded from employment until deemed non-infectious by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services or the local public health agency." And "4. All positive tuberculin tests shall be reported to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services or local public health agency as required by 19 CSR 20-20.020." A separate trigger sits at 5 CSR 25-400.125(1)(H): "A child care employee, who is identified as a contact to an active tuberculosis case, shall be evaluated for tuberculosis to determine if the person has active contagious tuberculosis, or be excluded from work." The completed assessment or test result attaches to the medical examination report and lives in the individual's file at the home. Because the incorporation is pinned to the March 2014 revision, a newer DHSS risk assessment sheet downloaded today is evidence of the same clinical judgement but is not the incorporated document; keep the version you were given and do not assume a re-download is an upgrade.
• THE CHILD MEDICAL EXAMINATION REPORT (INFANT/TODDLER/PRE-SCHOOL) IS DUE WITHIN THIRTY DAYS AFTER THE CHILD STARTS, NOT BEFORE — AND A PARENT'S SIGNED RELIGIOUS OBJECTION CANCELS IT ENTIRELY. 5 CSR 25-400.125(2)(A): "The provider shall require, within thirty (30) days following the admission of each infant, toddler, or preschool child, a medical examination report signed by a licensed physician or registered nurse who is under the supervision of licensed physician and completed not more than twelve (12) months prior to admission. The provider may use the department's medical assessment form or the provider may use its own form if it contains all the information on the department's form. The Child Medical Examination Report (Infant/Toddler/Pre-School), revised 2021, is incorporated by reference in this rule". 5 CSR 25-400.045(9) restates the deadline as a licensing condition: "Medical examination reports shall be on file at the home within thirty (30) days following the admission of each infant, toddler, or preschool child". Two limits define the document. 5 CSR 25-400.125(2)(B): "Examination reports shall determine if a child's medical history and current state of health is satisfactory for participation in a child care program." And 5 CSR 25-400.125(2)(C), the exemption most providers never invoke and never document: "Medical examination reports shall not apply to any child if the parent(s) files a signed statement of objection based on religious beliefs." That statement is a writing you must obtain and file; there is no departmental form for it, and its absence — not the missing medical report — is what a compliance inspector will cite. The form itself is listed in the Office of Childhood forms database as MO 500-3303 and asks the physician to certify a date of examination within the last twelve months, to confirm "this child can participate in a child care program", and to complete a PHYSICIAN'S INSTRUCTIONS FOR SPECIALIZED CARE block "only if child requires special care at a child care facility, e.g. special diets, allergies, ear infections, convulsions, diabetes, asthma, behavior problems, hearing or visual impairment". Its footer instruction is unambiguous about custody: "TO BE FILED IN CHILD'S RECORD AT CHILD CARE FACILITY". Two cautions. The copy DESE serves today carries a footer stamp reading MO 500-3033 (8-21) rather than 3303 — a printing error in the number, not a different form; order it by title, not by the stamp. And a completed specialized-care block interlocks with 5 CSR 25-400.135(4): "A child who has a special physical, developmental, or behavioral need shall have on file an individualized plan for specialized care from a professionally qualified source." The physician's instructions are the trigger; the individualized plan is a second, separate document you must then obtain.
• SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN GET A DIFFERENT AND MUCH LIGHTER DOCUMENT — THE SCHOOL-AGE CHILD HEALTH REPORT, FORM MO 500-3313 (8-21), COMPLETED BY THE PARENT AT ENROLLMENT AND NOT BY A DOCTOR. 5 CSR 25-400.125(2)(D): "The parent(s) of a school-age child shall provide a report at the time of enrollment indicating the child's health history, any current health problems, and any restrictions necessary for the child's care." 5 CSR 25-400.125(2)(E) incorporates the form and repeats the substitution licence: "The medical examination report form and the health history report for school-age children shall be supplied by the department or the provider may use his/her own form if it contains all the information on the department's form. The School-Age Child Health Report form, revised 2021, is incorporated by reference in this rule, as published by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, PO Box 480, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0480 and available by the department at https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/forms. This rule does not incorporate any subsequent amendments or additions." Three differences from the infant/toddler/preschool report are worth money to you. First, the timing: the school-age report is due AT enrollment, whereas the medical examination report for younger children is due within thirty days AFTER admission — the school-age child is the stricter deadline, and providers who assume a uniform thirty-day grace get cited. Second, the signer: nothing in 5 CSR 25-400.125(2)(D) or (2)(E) requires a physician or a registered nurse; the parent supplies the history. Third, the currency: there is no twelve-month freshness rule for the school-age report, because there is no examination to be fresh. 5 CSR 25-400.045(9) closes the loop for licensure: "A health report for school-age children shall be on file as required by 5 CSR 25-400.125." Which children count as school-age is a definitional question governed by 5 CSR 25-400.010 and by what your licence permits, and it matters in a second place: 5 CSR 25-400.135(6)(E)6 requires separate written parental permission "for school-age children to leave the home to participate in classes, clubs, or other activities, naming the activity, time of leaving and returning, and the method of transportation to and from the activity", with the concession that "Permission for regular activities such as scouting may be given for the entire school term." The health report and that standing permission are two distinct pieces of paper in the same child's file, and both are retained under 5 CSR 25-400.210(4) for a minimum of one year after the child discontinues attendance.
• THE CHILD'S ENROLLMENT FILE IS ITEMISED BY RULE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE, AND MISSOURI PUBLISHES NO ENROLLMENT FORM — YOU BUILD IT. 5 CSR 25-400.045(10) makes it a condition of licensure: "Enrollment information for each child shall be on file at the home as required by 5 CSR 25-400.135 Admission Policies and Procedures." 5 CSR 25-400.210(2) then sets the identification content: "An individual file shall be kept to identify each child and to enable the provider to communicate with the parent(s), guardian, or legal custodian of the child in an emergency. Records shall include: (A) The child's full name, address, birthdate, and the date care begins and ends; (B) Full name of the parent(s), guardian or legal custodian, home address, employers' name and address, work schedule, and home and work telephone numbers; (C) Name, address, and telephone number of another individual (friend or relative) who might be reached in an emergency when the parent(s), guardian, or legal custodian cannot be reached; (D) Name and phone number of the family physician, or hospital, or both, to be used in an emergency; (E) Name of the individual(s) authorized to take the child from the home; and (F) Field trip and transportation authorization." 5 CSR 25-400.210(3) adds the health layer to the same file: the medical examination report or school-age health report; "Written parental authorization for medications and a record of medications administered"; "Information concerning any accident or injury to the child while at the family child care home or any emergency medical care"; and "Any significant information learned from observing the child." 5 CSR 25-400.135(6)(E) supplies what the parent must write: information on the child's personal development, behaviour patterns, habits and individual needs; "Instructions for action to be taken if the parent(s) or physician designated by the parent(s) cannot be reached in an emergency and permission for emergency medical care"; immunization status; permission for field trips, transportation to and from school, and other transportation; the school-age activity permissions; and the seven-part acknowledgment. Retention and access are hard numbers. 5 CSR 25-400.210(4): "Individual children's records shall be retained a minimum of one (1) year after the child discontinues attendance." (7): "All enrollment records, medical examination records, and attendance records shall be filed in a place known to caregivers and shall be accessible at all times. Records shall not be in a locked area or removed from the home during the hours the home is open and operating." (9): "All records of children shall be confidential, protected from unauthorized examination, and available to parents upon request." A separate form is owed for one narrow case. 5 CSR 25-400.135(7): if you care for children related to you who do not live in your home, "the parent(s) shall complete and sign a form which is supplied by the department", on file before those children are accepted, containing each child's name, address, birth date and date of admission, each child's relationship to the provider, and the parents' names, addresses and telephone numbers. The Office of Childhood forms database returns no such form by title; ask your compliance inspector for it in writing rather than assuming it does not exist.
• THE BACKGROUND SCREENING PAPERWORK IS THE ONE AREA WHERE THE RULES INCORPORATE NO FORM AT ALL — 5 CSR 25-600 CONTAINS ZERO INCORPORATIONS BY REFERENCE, AND EVERY DOCUMENT IN THE PROCESS IS EITHER AN UNFROZEN DESE FORM OR A DHSS FORM. The route into the system is MO 500-3299, Comprehensive Background Check Notification, footered (Rev 08-23) and reposted by the Office of Childhood in June 2026. Its instructions state that "To request an eligibility determination for current or prospective child care staff member(s) in accordance with Section 210.1080, RSMo, the child care provider must complete this form in its entirety and submit to the background screening unit", that the staff-member section "also includes household members age 18 or older (applies only to licensed family child care homes and registered six or fewer homes)", and that "Once the background screening unit processes the information, the unit will inform you by email of the fingerprint instructions if the individual(s) needs to complete the fingerprint process." That sentence is the answer to a question applicants ask constantly: there is no separate fingerprint packet form to download. Fingerprinting is scheduled after MO 500-3299 is processed, on instructions issued by e-mail to OCBackgroundChecks@dese.mo.gov's correspondents. The form is completed and signed by the owner, board chairperson or designee, collects each staff member's legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, personal e-mail address, and the states of residence over the past five years, and is submitted as a PDF by e-mail — not filed at the home. The second document belongs to the Department of Health and Senior Services: the Family Care Safety Registry Worker Registration Form, completed by the worker herself, mailed with a photocopy of her Social Security card and a $15.00 registration fee by check or money order payable to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, or submitted online. Section 210.906 RSMo fixes the deadline at fifteen days: every child-care worker hired on or after 1 January 2001 "shall complete a registration form within fifteen days of the beginning of such person's employment." A third DHSS form, the Employer Background Screening Request, is what a provider uses to obtain screening results at no charge on a worker already registered, and may be mailed together with that worker's Worker Registration Form. Where the results live is regulated, twice. 5 CSR 25-400.045(7) and 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(Q) both provide that "Background screening information received by the provider shall be retained in the individual's file in a confidential manner and available for review", and 5 CSR 25-400.210(8) adds that "A copy of qualifying background screening results shall be kept on file for child care staff members, as required by 5 CSR 25-600.020 General Requirements." Two recurrence rules govern the paper thereafter: 5 CSR 25-600.020(5), "Criminal background checks shall be completed for each child care staff member every five (5) years", and 5 CSR 25-400.055(2)(C), which requires the provider to "conduct a Family Care Safety Registry check for all child care staff members within thirty (30) days prior to the anniversary date as printed on the license" — an annual FCSR sweep sitting on top of a five-yearly comprehensive check.
• IMMUNIZATION PAPERWORK IS GOVERNED BY A DIFFERENT DEPARTMENT'S RULE, ITS FORMS ARE FROZEN AT REVISIONS FROM 2010 TO 2013, AND A HOME LICENSED FOR FEWER THAN TEN CHILDREN IS OUTSIDE IT. 5 CSR 25-400.185(4)(A) opens with the threshold: "No child shall be permitted to enroll in or attend any day care facility caring for ten (10) or more children unless the child has been adequately immunized against vaccine-preventable childhood illnesses specified by the department in accordance with recommendations of the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP)." The Department of Health and Senior Services' Day Care Immunization Rule, 19 CSR 20-28.040, repeats the same limit: "No child shall enroll in or attend a public, private, or parochial day care center, preschool, or nursery school caring for ten (10) or more children unless the child has been adequately immunized according to this rule." A family child care home may be licensed for up to ten children under 5 CSR 25-400.105(2)(A); if your licence says nine, the day care immunization rule and its annual report do not reach you — but 5 CSR 25-400.135(6)(E)4 still requires the enrollment file to carry "Information indicating that the child has completed age-appropriate immunizations, is in the process of completing immunizations, or is exempt from immunization requirements". Four DHSS forms are incorporated by 19 CSR 20-28.040, each with its own frozen date. Form Imm.P.14, incorporated "as published June 2012", "shall be completed and placed on file with the child's immunization health record for each child with immunizations in progress", and the rule warns that "Failure to meet the next scheduled appointment constitutes noncompliance with the day care immunization law, and action shall be initiated immediately by the administrator to have the child excluded from the facility." Form Imm.P.12, incorporated as published June 2012, is the medical exemption, signed by an MD or DO or designee, and "The medical exemption need not be renewed annually." Form Imm.P.11, incorporated as published July 2010, is the parent or guardian exemption, "signed by the parent or guardian and placed on file with the immunization record of each child with a parental exemption", and — the detail that catches providers — "The parental exemption must be renewed annually." Form Imm.P-32 is the annual summary: each administrator caring for or licensed for ten or more children "shall complete an annual summary report showing the immunization status of each child enrolled and submit to the Department of Health and Senior Services no later than January 15 of each year", electronically through the department's online system or by mailing the Imm.P-32 form, which is incorporated "as published October 2013". 5 CSR 25-400.185(4)(D) states the same duty in DESE's own words: "An annual summary report shall be made by January 15 showing the immunization status of each child enrolled, using forms provided by the department." Note the vintage of the containing rule: the Secretary of State's current print of 19 CSR 20-28 is footered (9/30/15) over Jason Kander's name, and the last amendment to .040 was filed 30 March 2015, effective 30 October 2015. It is old, and it is nonetheless the law.
• FIRE SAFETY AND SANITATION PRODUCE EVIDENCE YOU KEEP, NOT APPLICATIONS YOU FILE — WITH ONE EXCEPTION NO LICENSING RULE MENTIONS. 5 CSR 25-400.045(5) makes fire compliance a precondition: "Prior to the granting of a license, the provider shall meet the requirements of 5 CSR 25-400.086 Fire Safety." 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A) sets the annual inspection: "The Missouri Division of Fire Safety shall inspect the facility annually for the capacity specified on the license application and the fire inspection request." The exception is the Division of Fire Safety's own form MO 815-F0068, FIRE DEPARTMENT NOTIFICATION, whose instructions state flatly: "This form is required for licensing and must be completed and on file at the facility before the State Fire Inspector arrives to conduct the inspection." You complete the upper block — facility name, address, phone, capacity requested, administrator, projected date of opening — and your local fire department or fire district completes the lower block. It is a document no Chapter 400 rule names and no Office of Childhood forms page lists, and an applicant who has not obtained it will lose an inspection slot. Around it sit records the fire inspector reads on site, all of them writings you generate: the monthly fire drill and quarterly disaster drill log required by 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(C), which demands "a written record at the facility of the date, type of drill, time required to evacuate the building, and number of children present during the drill"; the posted evacuation/emergency plan "approved by the fire inspector", which "shall include special instructions for infants and nonambulatory children"; annual fire extinguisher documentation under 5 CSR 25-400.086(3)(F), where extinguishers "shall be inspected and approved annually by a fire extinguisher company. Documentation of the inspection and approval shall be on file at the facility"; flame-resistance documentation for any fresh-cut Christmas tree under (2)(J); a membership receipt where the home is served by a volunteer or membership fire department under (2)(P), which requires "A copy of the membership or receipt for membership shall be on file at the facility"; and, where elevated carbon monoxide is found, written verification from a heating and air conditioning company that all gas-fired appliances are in safe working order. Do not follow 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(I) literally when reporting a fire: it directs you to notify "the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Department of Health, Bureau of Child Care Safety and Licensure", a bureau that has not regulated Missouri child care since 30 August 2021. Sanitation generates no applicant form either. 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(J) requires "Evidence of compliance with local or state, or both, sanitation requirements"; DESE now runs its own sanitation inspectors for licensed homes; and section 210.252.1 RSMo commands that for facilities caring for more than six children "Evidence of compliance with the inspections required by this section shall be kept on file and available to parents of children enrolling in the child-care facility." Filing it is not enough — a parent may demand to see it.
• TRANSPORTATION AND FIELD TRIPS REQUIRE WRITTEN PARENTAL CONSENT ON FILE, BUT MISSOURI PUBLISHES NO CONSENT FORM AND DEMANDS NO TRIP-BY-TRIP PERMISSION SLIP FOR ORDINARY OUTINGS. 5 CSR 25-400.200(1) states the whole of it: "(A) The provider shall be responsible for the care, safety and supervision of children on field trips or at any time they transport children away from the family day care home. (B) Written parental consent shall be on file at the home for field trips and transportation. (C) Parents shall be informed when field trips are planned. (D) Short, unscheduled walks may be taken without parental notification. These unscheduled outings shall be discussed with the parent(s) at the time of enrollment." Subsection (D) is the concession providers overlook: a walk around the block needs no notice, provided you told the parent at enrollment that such walks happen. The standing consent is collected once, at admission, under 5 CSR 25-400.135(6)(E)5 — "Permission for field trips, transportation to and from school, and other transportation" — and it is then indexed in the child's identification record by 5 CSR 25-400.210(2)(F), "Field trip and transportation authorization". A second, narrower permission is required for school-age children who leave the home for classes, clubs or other activities, and 5 CSR 25-400.135(6)(E)6 requires it to name "the activity, time of leaving and returning, and the method of transportation to and from the activity", while allowing a single term-long permission for regular activities such as scouting. One further document travels with the vehicle rather than sitting in a file. 5 CSR 25-400.200(3)(B): "Identifying information regarding the name of the provider, the names of the children and the names, addresses and telephone numbers of each child's parent(s) shall be carried in the vehicle." That sheet must be current for the children actually aboard, and it is the item a compliance inspector asks to see if she meets you at the kerb. Nothing here is a departmental form. There is no DESE field trip permission slip, no transportation authorization form, and no driver record form: 5 CSR 25-400.200(2)(A) requires only that the driver "shall be no less than eighteen (18) years of age and shall have a valid driver's license as required by Missouri law", and the rule imposes no obligation to keep a copy of that licence or a driving abstract on file. The head-count discipline at 5 CSR 25-400.200(3)(L) — counts before leaving the home, after entering the vehicle, during the trip, after bathroom stops, on returning to the vehicle and on arriving home — and the vehicle sweep at (3)(M) are operational duties with no prescribed log, though a written count sheet is the only practical way to evidence them. Note the vintage: 5 CSR 25-400.200 was merely moved into Chapter 400 effective 30 August 2021 and was never amended; its authority line still reads "section 210.221.1(3), RSMo Supp. 1993".
• OVERLAP CARE IS THE ONE ONGOING PERMISSION THAT HAS ITS OWN INCORPORATED FORM — MO 500-3307, CHILD CARE FACILITY OVERLAP REQUEST, FOOTERED (Rev 11-21) — AND IT MUST BE RE-FILED EVERY TIME YOUR HOURS MOVE. 5 CSR 25-400.155(3): "Overlap care shall not be provided until a Child Care Facility Overlap Request form has been submitted, including the hours overlap care will be provided, and written approval has been received from the department. The Child Care Facility Overlap Request form, promulgated 2021, is incorporated by reference in this rule, as published by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, PO Box 480, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0480 and available by the department at https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/forms." 5 CSR 25-400.155(4) adds the re-filing trigger: "Any changes in the hours of overlap care shall require a new overlap request form be submitted and approved." The substantive limits it operates under are at 5 CSR 25-400.155(1), (2) and (6): the number in care "shall never be more than one-third (1/3) over the licensed capacity of the home at the time of overlap"; "The overlap period(s) shall not exceed two (2) hours total in any twenty-four- (24-) hour child-care day", divisible into smaller blocks; "Overlap care of children under two (2) years of age shall not be permitted"; and "Overlap approval shall not be granted to facilities licensed exclusively for before- and after-school child care programs." The form is shared across facility types, and this creates a trap on its face: it offers an INFANT/TODDLER row with three from/to hour ranges alongside a PRESCHOOL/SCHOOL AGE row, but for a family child care home the infant/toddler row is unusable — the rule forbids overlap under two outright. Tick FAMILY HOME under FACILITY TYPE, complete the preschool/school-age hours only, and return it "to your Assigned Compliance Inspector or Regional Compliance Office", which is where the form directs it rather than to the Jefferson City post box named in the rule. The agreements block you sign restates the one-third cap, the prohibition on providing overlap before written approval, DESE's right to place restrictions on the request, the re-approval duty for any change of hours, and 5 CSR 25-400.155(5)'s requirement that "All procedures for admitting children shall be followed if a provider chooses to enroll children for overlap care" — meaning every overlap child needs the full enrollment file, medical or health report and parent acknowledgment described elsewhere in these rules. Do not confuse overlap with the separate emergency school-closing allowance at 5 CSR 25-400.165, which needs no form and no prior approval but does require its own written record: "The provider shall maintain a written record including the date of the emergency school closing, the reason for the closing and the number of children in care on that date", and its one-third excess "shall not be in addition to the one-third (1/3) excess attendance allowed for overlap care".
• AT RENEWAL YOU OWE ONE FORM AND FOUR ATTACHMENTS, THIRTY DAYS EARLY, AND FOUR MORE ITEMS THAT ARE MERELY HELD READY. The form is MO 500-3291, Annual Declaration for Licensed Facility, footered (8-21). 5 CSR 25-400.055(1): "The provider shall submit the following to the department on an annual basis, at least thirty (30) calendar days prior to the anniversary date as printed on the license: (A) An Annual Declaration for Licensed Facility form, revised 2021 and incorporated by reference in this rule ... indicating the licensee's intent to continue operating a licensed family child care home and agreement to comply with all statutes and department licensing rules ...; (B) A current list of available equipment; (C) A listing of household members and assistant(s); and (D) A completed safety plan if a sex offender resides within one thousand feet (1,000') of the facility. If the provider has an existing safety plan, a new plan is not required." 5 CSR 25-400.055(2) then names what you keep rather than send: "(A) Evidence of compliance with a fire and safety inspection as conducted by the State Fire Marshal or his/her designee; (B) Evidence of compliance with local, state, or both, sanitation requirements; (C) The child care provider shall conduct a Family Care Safety Registry check for all child care staff members within thirty (30) days prior to the anniversary date as printed on the license; and (D) Documentation as required by the Missouri Secretary of State and state law to verify the legal entity is in good standing, if a family child care home is owned by a legal entity." The Declaration itself repeats this list in a DOCUMENTS block and adds an item the rule does not impose on family homes: "Evidence of compliance with local building and zoning requirements, if applicable.(Group Home/Center only)". Ignore that line — it is marked for group homes and centres, and 5 CSR 25-400.085(1)(C) leaves zoning to you as a matter of your own diligence rather than a filing: "It shall be the responsibility of the child care provider to determine any applicable local zoning regulations." The signature block is signed by the owner, board chairperson, LLC member or designee, and by signing you acknowledge that "The licensing record is open to the public for review, if requested." Note what is not owed annually: no new medical examination report for the provider or any assistant, no new criminal background check unless five years have elapsed under 5 CSR 25-600.020(5), no new child medical examination reports, and no fresh application. And note the separate mid-year instrument you will eventually need — MO 500-3295, Request for Revision, used to change address (not location), age range, capacity, hours, days or months of care, facility name, the number of children under age two, or approved child care space. Its signature block carries a warning worth reading before you tick a box: "By signing this form, I understand that I am requesting a revision of my child care facility that may cause my facility to lose any grandfathered provisions, approved variances, or approved capacities that may currently apply."
• NOW THE NEGATIVES, BECAUSE A FALSE REQUIREMENT COSTS YOU AS MUCH AS A MISSING ONE. Missouri does NOT require a family child care home to file an injury or incident report with the department. 5 CSR 25-400.185(5)(B) says only that "Information regarding the date and circumstance of any accident or injury shall be noted in the child's record", and 5 CSR 25-400.210(3)(C) repeats it as a file-content rule. There is no departmental incident form, no reporting deadline, and no notification duty to the Office of Childhood for an ordinary injury — the duties that do run outward are the child abuse or neglect report to the Children's Division under 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(I), the communicable disease report to the local health department under 5 CSR 25-400.185(1), and the fire report under 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(I). Missouri does NOT publish an attendance form: 5 CSR 25-400.210(5) and (6) require that "Daily child attendance records shall be maintained and kept on file a minimum of one (1) year" and that "Daily attendance records for all caregivers shall be maintained and kept on file a minimum of one (1) year", with no prescribed format — the MO 500-3282 Child Attendance Record by Family Unit in the Office of Childhood forms database is a Childhood Finance subsidy billing document, not a licensing form, and using it to satisfy .210(5) is a category error. Missouri does NOT incorporate any form into its background screening chapter: 5 CSR 25-600.010 through .050 contain no incorporation by reference of any kind, so MO 500-3299 can be revised by DESE at will and the current revision is the operative one — the opposite of the Chapter 400 forms, which are frozen. Missouri does NOT require a medical examination report to be renewed for a provider or an assistant, and does NOT require a criminal background check more often than every five years. Missouri does NOT require a separate staff personnel form: 5 CSR 25-400.045(4)(L) asks for "Required information for assistants" and 5 CSR 25-400.055(1)(C) for a listing of household members and assistants, both in free form. Missouri does NOT require, for a family child care home, the Center Director/Group Child Care Home Provider Approval Request (MO 500-3290) — that form belongs to centres and group homes and no family home provider owes it. Finally, Missouri does NOT require a fingerprint packet form; fingerprint instructions are issued by e-mail after MO 500-3299 is processed. What Missouri does require and no form covers: the facility orientation documentation for every caregiver under 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(J), which must be "maintained and on file for review by the department for each caregiver" within seven days of employment or volunteering and before being left alone with children; the first aid and CPR certification documentation under 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(S); and the clock-hour training record, which under 5 CSR 25-400.105(4)(E)2 is not paper at all — "All clock hour training records shall be recorded in the department's professional development system. A summary of training from the professional development system will serve as documentation of training hours completed", against a MOPD ID number obtained from the department.

What's specific about getting licensed in Missouri

Missouri's real trap isn't the headline '10-child' cap — it's the sliding under-two rule stacked on top of it. With one caregiver, the number of children under age 2 you may keep DROPS as your total rises: 4 infants if you have 4 kids total, but only 2 infants once you fill the house to 7–10. A solo provider dreaming of a full house of 10 can legally take at most 2 under-2s. Compounding this, 'licensed for 10' is only true for 18 hours of any 24-hour day — for the other 6 hours you're capped at one-third (about 3). And unlike some states, your OWN children under age 5 count against the 10 (only up to two related children age 5+ are exempt). Finally, since Aug 2021 the program lives at DESE's Office of Childhood under 5 CSR 25-400, so the DHSS/Division of Family Services forms and '19 CSR 30-61' citations still floating around online are stale.

How long it takes and what it costs in Missouri

Timeline: Realistically about 2–4 months from finishing the online orientation to holding a license: submit the application, then run background screening (fingerprint results and FCSR can take a few weeks), medical/TB exams, the Division of Fire Safety inspection, sanitation/zoning sign-off, and the on-site licensing inspection. Corrections after the fire or sanitation visit add time. Hard limit: all requirements must be met within 6 months of application or it becomes void (5 CSR 25-400.045(2)).

Cost: The licensing rule (5 CSR 25-400) does not set a state application or license fee — confirm the current fee (if any) with the DESE Office of Childhood. Plan for out-of-pocket items instead: Family Care Safety Registry registration and fingerprint-based background screening (registry registration has historically been about $14–15 plus a separate fingerprinting-vendor fee — confirm current amounts with the Missouri State Highway Patrol/FCSR vendor), an age-appropriate CPR + first aid course (roughly $60–110 depending on provider), and the medical exam/TB assessment for the provider and any assistants. Exact figures vary — confirm with DESE Office of Childhood and the screening vendor.

Source: PRIMARY SOURCES ACTUALLY OPENED DURING RESEARCH, FIELD BY FIELD (not summarised from memory). [cpr_first_aid_required] 5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(S) — "The provider shall have documentation on file at the home of CURRENT CERTIFICATION IN AGE-APPROPRIATE FIRST AID AND CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION (CPR) TRAINING", the training to be certified by a nationally recognized organization and approved by the department. This rule text, read during the preservice_training research on the Secretary of State's current print of chapter 400, is what establishes the value `true`. [required_forms] https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/AdRules/csr/current/5csr/5c25-400.pdf — Secretary of State's current print of 5 CSR 25-400, Licensing Rules for Family Child Care Homes; footered (3/31/23) over John R. Ashcroft. Extracted with pdftotext and read in full. Source of every verbatim quotation of 400.025, 400.045, 400.055, 400.085, 400.086, 400.090, 400.105, 400.115, 400.125, 400.135, 400.145, 400.155, 400.165, 400.185, 400.200, 400.210 and 400.220, and of the seven incorporations by reference (Application for License revised 2021; Annual Declaration revised 2021; TB Risk Assessment revised March 2014; Medical Examination Report for Caregivers and Staff revised 2021; Child Medical Examination Report (Infant/Toddler/Pre-School) revised 2021; School-Age Child Health Report revised 2021; Child Care Facility Overlap Request promulgated 2021) plus the two incorporated publications (AAP Sleep-Related Infant Deaths July 2022; DHSS ABC's of Emergency Preparedness Ready in 3, 2006). https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/AdRules/csr/current/5csr/5c25-600.pdf — Secretary of State's current print of 5 CSR 25-600, Child Care Comprehensive Background Screening; footered (4/30/22). Read in full.

Established the negative finding published in element 11 and element 17: Chapter 600 contains NO incorporation by reference of any form. Source of 600.010(2) and (4), 600.020(1)-(5), 600.030(1), 600.040 and 600.050. https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/AdRules/moreg/2026/v51n15Aug3/v51n15.pdf — Missouri Register, Volume 51 Number 15, 3 August 2026. Its cumulative "Rule Changes Since Update to Code of State Regulations" table lists, for Division 25, only 5 CSR 25-100.330 and 5 CSR 25-200.060. This is the check that no amendment to Chapter 400 or Chapter 600 has taken effect, and it is why the (3/31/23) print is the operative text as at 26 August 2026. Also confirms Executive Order 25-15 at 50 MoReg 360, 28 January 2025. https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/AdRules/csr/current/19csr/19c20-28.pdf — Secretary of State's current print of 19 CSR 20-28, Immunization; footered (9/30/15) over Jason Kander. Source of 19 CSR 20-28.040 Day Care Immunization Rule verbatim: the ten-or-more-children threshold, the Imm.P-32 annual summary due by January 15 (incorporated as published October 2013), Imm.P.14 in-progress form (June 2012), Imm.P.12 medical exemption (June 2012, need not be renewed annually), Imm.P.11 parental exemption (July 2010, must be renewed annually), and the varicella statement.

Last amended filed 30 March 2015, effective 30 October 2015. https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/forms — Office of Childhood Forms Database, queried live (title filters: application, school age, license, attendance, safety plan, immunization, related, injury) and paged 1-5. Established the form numbers: MO 500-3293 Application for License to Operate a Child Care Facility; MO 500-3291 Annual Declaration for Licensed Facility; MO 500-3303 Child Medical Examination Report (Infant/Toddler/Preschool); MO 500-3304 Medical Examination Report for Caregivers and Staff; MO 500-3307 Child Care Facility Overlap Request; MO 500-3313 School-Age Child Health Report; MO 500-3299 Comprehensive Background Check Notification; MO 500-3295 Request for Revision; MO 500-3290 Center Director/Group Child Care Home Provider Approval Request; MO 500-3282 Child Attendance Record by Family Unit (Childhood Finance, subsidy).

Queries for a safety plan form, a related-children form and an immunization form returned nothing — the basis for the negative statements in elements 03, 10 and 17. https://dese.mo.gov/sites/g/files/zuston521/files/media/pdf/2026/04/mo500-3293-application-for-license-to-operate-a-child-care-facility_0_AOD_1.pdf — full text of the Application; footer stamp "MO500-3293 (8-21)"; source of the identifying-information, administration (three SSN fields), physical plant, licence specifications and acknowledgment blocks quoted in element 02, including "If rules are not met within six months of the filing date, this application shall be void." https://dese.mo.gov/sites/g/files/zuston521/files/media/pdf/2021/08/mo500-3291-annual-declaration-for-licensed-facility_1.pdf — full text of the Annual Declaration; footer stamp "MO500-3291 (8-21)"; source of the DOCUMENTS checklist quoted in element 16, including the group-home/centre-only building-and-zoning line and "The licensing record is open to the public for review, if requested." https://dese.mo.gov/sites/g/files/zuston521/files/media/pdf/2026/04/mo500_3304_medical_exam_report.pdf — full text of the Medical Examination Report for Caregivers and Staff;

source of the TB CLEARANCE options, the LIMITATIONS/RESTRICTIONS wording, and the signature line naming "A LICENSED PHYSICIAN, ADVANCE PRACTICE NURSE, REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL NURSE, OR REGISTERED NURSE WHO IS UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF A LICENSED PHYSICIAN" — broader than the rule text, the divergence flagged in element 06. No footer revision stamp was recoverable from this PDF, so none is asserted. https://dese.mo.gov/sites/g/files/zuston521/files/media/pdf/2026/04/mo500-3303-child-medical-examination-report_3_AOD.pdf — full text of the Child Medical Examination Report; source of the specialized-care block and "TO BE FILED IN CHILD'S RECORD AT CHILD CARE FACILITY".

The footer of the served PDF extracts as "MO 500-3033 (8-21)" while the forms database indexes the same document as MO 500-3303; element 08 reports this as a printing error in the number and instructs ordering by title. https://dese.mo.gov/sites/g/files/zuston521/files/media/pdf/2021/08/mo500-3313-school-age-child-health-report_0.pdf — School-Age Child Health Report; footer stamp "MO500-3313 (8-21)". https://dese.mo.gov/sites/g/files/zuston521/files/media/pdf/2022/04/mo500-3307-child-care-facility-overlap-request-1.pdf — full text of the Child Care Facility Overlap Request; footer stamp "MO 500-3307 (Rev 11-21)"; source of the INFANT/TODDLER vs PRESCHOOL/SCHOOL AGE hour rows, the return-to-inspector instruction, and the AGREEMENTS block quoted in element 15. https://dese.mo.gov/sites/g/files/zuston521/files/media/pdf/2026/06/MO_500-3299_Comprehensive_Background_Check_Notification_FINAL.pdf — full text of the Comprehensive Background Check Notification; footer stamp "MO 500-3299 (Rev 08-23)"; source of the instruction that the screening unit "will inform you by email of the fingerprint instructions", the household-members-18-and-over note limited to licensed family child care homes and registered six-or-fewer homes, and the OCBackgroundChecks@dese.mo.gov submission address.

This is the evidence for the finding that Missouri has no separate fingerprint packet form. https://dese.mo.gov/sites/g/files/zuston521/files/media/pdf/2025/08/MO_500_3295_Request_for_Revision_form.pdf — full text of the Request for Revision; source of the revision checkboxes and the grandfathering warning quoted at the end of element 16. https://health.mo.gov/providers/family-care-safety-registry/forms — DHSS Family Care Safety Registry forms page, read 26 August 2026. Source of the Worker Registration Form (mailed with photocopy of Social Security card and $15.00 registration fee by check or money order payable to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, or online) and the Employer Background Screening Request Form used by providers to obtain results at no charge on an already-registered worker. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.906 — section 210.906 RSMo; source of the fifteen-day registration deadline quoted in element 11. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.252 — section 210.252 RSMo verbatim; source of the "more than six children" annual fire/safety and health/sanitation inspection duty and of "Evidence of compliance with the inspections required by this section shall be kept on file and available to parents of children enrolling in the child-care facility."

Amendment history through A.L. 2024 S.B. 1111. https://dfs.dps.mo.gov/documents/forms/MO_815-F0068.pdf — Division of Fire Safety form MO 815-F0068, FIRE DEPARTMENT NOTIFICATION; source of "This form is required for licensing and must be completed and on file at the facility before the State Fire Inspector arrives to conduct the inspection." This form is named by no licensing rule and appears in no Office of Childhood forms list; element 13 publishes it as the exception. https://dfs.dps.mo.gov/programs/inspections/childcare.php — Division of Fire Safety child care page, read 26 August 2026. Used only to confirm the plan-review/framing-and-wiring/final/annual inspection sequence. NOTE: this live 2026 state page asserts that family day care homes "are all either licensed or registered with the Department of Health and Senior Services", which has been false since 30 August 2021. It is cited here as an example of the stale-page signal, not as authority. https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/child-care/inspection-process — Office of Childhood inspection process page; established that DESE now runs its own environmental sanitation inspectors for licensed facilities, and that licensed facilities receive at least one annual fire inspection, one annual sanitation inspection and at least two Child Care Compliance inspections. https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/child-care-licensing-rule-revision-executive-order-25-15 — Office of Childhood page on Executive Order 25-15, read 26 August 2026. Progress table ends at a task force meeting of 11 February 2026 and informational sessions in March-April 2026; the page links to the Secretary of State's 5c25-400.pdf as the rulebook "under review".

Confirms that the announced rewrite (79 family-child-care-home rules flagged, an 11.6 per cent reduction) has NOT been proposed in the Missouri Register and has changed nothing yet. No element asserts any change from it. CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF, STATED EXPLICITLY AS METHOD REQUIRES: the brief warned that "any live citation to 19 CSR 30-61 is a signal of a stale page." That is right about web pages and wrong about the rulebook. The Secretary of State's current print of Chapter 400 itself carries live cross-references to the repealed numbering, because several sections were merely MOVED into Chapter 400 effective 30 August 2021 and never amended afterwards: 5 CSR 25-400.135(2)(A)3 cites "19 CSR 30-61.175(2)(C)"; 5 CSR 25-400.135(6)(C) cites "19 CSR 30-61.185 Health Care"; 5 CSR 25-400.135(6)(E)1 and (6)(E)4 cite "19 CSR 30-61.210" and "19 CSR 30-61.185"; 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A) cites "19 CSR 30-61.155 Overlap Care of Children"; and 5 CSR 25-400.090(3)(B) cites "19 CSR 30-61.086". Elements 04, 05 and 13 say so and tell the reader how to renumber them. A second live-text anachronism: 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(I) still directs fire reports to "the Department of Health, Bureau of Child Care Safety and Licensure".

UNVERIFIED: the exact current revision stamp printed in the footer of MO 500-3304 (Medical Examination Report for Caregivers and Staff) — the stamp did not survive text extraction; only the April 2026 repost date is known, and no revision date is asserted in element 06. UNVERIFIED: the footer stamp of MO 500-3295 (Request for Revision) — none recovered; none asserted. UNVERIFIED: the existence and title of the department-supplied form required by 5 CSR 25-400.135(7) for related children who do not live in the provider's home. The rule commands "a form which is supplied by the department", but no such form appears in the Office of Childhood forms database under any title searched. Element 10 reports the requirement and the gap, and tells the applicant to request the form from the compliance inspector in writing. UNVERIFIED: whether the Division of Fire Safety issues a separate "fire inspection request" form distinct from MO 815-F0068. 5 CSR 25-400.086(2)(A) refers to "the fire inspection request" as a document, but the DFS child care page's Documents/Forms section could not be retrieved (the server returns 403 to direct requests and the proxy stripped the link list).

No element asserts such a form exists. UNVERIFIED: the precise definitional boundary of "school-age" in 5 CSR 25-400.010 — the definitions section was not quoted in these elements and element 09 states only that the question is governed by that rule and by the licence. [required_postings] https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/AdRules/csr/current/5csr/5c25-400.pdf — Secretary of State's compiled chapter "Rules of Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Division 25—Office of Childhood, Chapter 400—Licensing Rules for Family Child Care Homes", John R. Ashcroft, compilation footer (3/31/23); HTTP 200, content-length 883210, Last-Modified: Tue, 02 May 2023 22:03:56 GMT.

Source of every verbatim quotation of 5 CSR 25-400 in this field, including the licence posting at .045(12), the name/address/telephone block at .045(13), capacity on the licence at .045(18), emergency numbers at the telephone at .085(1)(A)11., the fire/tornado evacuation plan posting and house-number visibility at .086(2)(C)3. and .086(2)(F), the boiler/water-heater permit posting at .086(12)(B), the file-only fire documentation at .086(2)(J), .086(10)(F) and .086(10)(H), the per-room posting and plan-availability duties at .090(2)(B) and .090(2)(A), the drill documentation duty at .090(3)(A), the assistants posting at .105(3)(B), the rules-availability and hotline knowledge duties at .105(1)(H) and .105(1)(I), the orientation documentation at .105(1)(J), the parent policy hand-over and safe sleep policy at .135(1), .135(2) and .135(3), the written daily schedule at .175(2)(A), the discipline standards at .175(1)(C), the alternative-sleep instructions on file at .175(2)(C)4.E., the menus-on-request rule at .190(1)(K), and the confidentiality/availability of child records at .210(9)-(10). https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/AdRules/csr/current/5csr/5c25-300.pdf — compiled Chapter 300, License-Exempt Child Care Facilities.

Established the contrast used in element 06: 5 CSR 25-300.070 requires that "An emergency plan for fires and tornadoes shall be posted conspicuously", and 5 CSR 25-300.090 requires emergency numbers "posted near the telephone". Also 5 CSR 25-300.020(6), confirming the religious-organisation Notice of Parental Responsibility is KEPT ON FILE, given to the parent in two copies and filed annually with the department — never posted. https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/AdRules/csr/current/5csr/5c25-500.pdf — compiled Chapter 500 (group child care homes and child care centers). Established the centre/home contrast in element 06: 5 CSR 25-500.087 requires the evacuation plan to be "posted conspicuously" AND the fire-inspector-approved plan to be "posted in each area of the facility used for child care", where the family-home rule requires only one central location. Also confirms the same licence-posting sentence at 5 CSR 25-500 and the same .090(2)(B) per-room block for centres. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneChapter.aspx?chapter=210 — Revisor of Statutes index to RSMo chapter 210, read to sweep the licensing block section by section for posting duties added by statute rather than rule.

Current effective dates recorded there: 210.201 (8/28/2024), 210.203 (8/28/2022), 210.211 (8/28/2024), 210.215 (8/28/1993), 210.221 (8/28/2025), 210.223 (8/28/2022), 210.225 (8/28/2026), 210.245 (8/28/2022), 210.252 (8/28/2024), 210.254 (8/28/2022), 210.275 (8/28/2024). No other section in the block carries a 2025 or 2026 effective date. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.211 — effective 28 Aug 2024 (A.L. 2024 S.B. 727 merged with S.B. 1111). Established the licence-status disclosure at 210.211.3 (signed written notice kept on file, not a sign), the universal written discipline-philosophy hand-over in the same subsection, the related-children written notice at 210.211.4, and the renumbering that makes the religious exclusive-control exemption subdivision (18) rather than (17). https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.215 — effective 28 Aug 1993. Establishes the parent/guardian right of access during normal hours of operation and, decisively for this field, imposes NO notice or posting duty. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.221 — effective 28 Aug 2025 (A.L. 2025 S.B. 150). Establishes what the posted licence must specify under 210.221.1(1) and the temporary-licence regime at 210.221.2; contains no posting duty of its own. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.223 — effective 28 Aug 2022. Safe sleep policy: "implement and maintain a written safe sleep policy"; alternative sleep positions require written instructions provided to the facility.

No display verb anywhere in the section. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.225 — "Elijah's Law", effective 28 Aug 2026, L. 2026 H.B. 2372. Allergy prevention and response policy required of each licensed child care provider before 1 July 2028; DESE model policy before 1 July 2027; adoption "required for licensure". Creates a policy and licensure condition, no posting duty. Quoted in element 17. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.203 — effective 28 Aug 2022. Complaint records held by DESE and "available to the public upon request" — the statutory substitute for a posted complaint history. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.245 — effective 28 Aug 2022. Penalty scale quoted in element 02 and the officer-liability sentence that explains the near-licence identification block. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.252 — effective 28 Aug 2024 (A.L. 2024 S.B. 1111). The decisive negative finding: evidence of compliance with the annual fire/safety and health/sanitation inspections "shall be kept on file and available to parents of children enrolling in the child-care facility".

Kept and available, not posted. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.254 — effective 28 Aug 2022. Religious-organisation Notice of Parental Responsibility: two copies at enrolment, one retained after signature, filed with DESE annually during August. Also the source of the stale internal pointer to "subdivision (17)" noted in element 15. https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=210.1080 — effective 28 Aug 2026, read in full to check for a background-screening posting duty. There is none; the section is entirely about checks, eligibility and records. CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF, STATED EXPLICITLY AS THE METHOD REQUIRES. The brief listed as items to cover the inspection/compliance report, the daily schedule, the menu, the discipline policy, the safe sleep policy, the abuse/neglect hotline number, parent notification of the right to visit unannounced, a licence-exempt status sign, and fire safety notices. The text in hand shows that MISSOURI REQUIRES NONE OF THOSE TO BE POSTED in a licensed family child care home. Inspection evidence is filed and produced on request (section 210.252.1 RSMo; 5 CSR 25-400.055(2)); the daily schedule need only be "established in written form" (5 CSR 25-400.175(2)(A)); menus are "available to parents upon request" (5 CSR 25-400.190(1)(K)); the discipline policy and the safe sleep policy are handed to parents at enrolment (section 210.211.3 RSMo; 5 CSR 25-400.135(1) and (2)(B)5.); the hotline appears only as a caregiver knowledge-and-report duty (5 CSR 25-400.105(1)(I)); the access right in section 210.215 RSMo carries no notice; and the licence-exempt disclosure is a signed written notice kept on file (section 210.211.3 RSMo), which in any event does not apply to a licensed home.

The only fire-safety item that is posted is the evacuation plan itself, plus the boiler/large-water-heater permit and street-visible house numbers; every fire-safety certificate is a file duty. Capacity and age range are posted only because they are printed on the licence (5 CSR 25-400.045(18)); there is no separate capacity placard requirement. UNVERIFIED: The Secretary of State's index of currently effective Title 5 rules at https://www.sos.mo.gov/adrules/csr/current/5csr/5csr.asp could not be opened — the SoS site returns HTTP 403 behind a Cloudflare interactive challenge for .asp paths from this environment, although the /CMSImages/ PDF paths served normally. The chapter PDFs above were therefore retrieved by direct, undated, non-versioned file name (5c25-400.pdf, 5c25-300.pdf, 5c25-500.pdf), which is the file the index points at rather than a date-stamped snapshot, and the server's Last-Modified header of 2 May 2023 corroborates the (3/31/23) compilation footer and indicates no republication since. It remains unconfirmed by the index itself that no later compilation of Chapter 400 exists.

UNVERIFIED: https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/family-child-care-home-licensing-checklist (the DESE Family Child Care Home Licensing Checklist) and https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/child-care/inspection-process both returned HTTP 403 to every request from this environment. Nothing in this field is sourced to a DESE page, checklist or guide; the statements about "what the inspector actually checks" are drawn from the rule text's own verbs and file/produce duties, not from a departmental checklist. Per the method rule that the agency's manual is not the law, this is a limitation on colour rather than on the legal content. UNVERIFIED: Whether DESE has promulgated any rule in 5 CSR 25-400 implementing section 210.225 RSMo (Elijah's Law) since the chapter was last compiled. None appears in the compiled chapter; the statute's own deadlines (model policy before 1 July 2027, provider adoption before 1 July 2028) make it unlikely, but the Missouri Register was not swept for a pending proposed rule. UNVERIFIED: Child and Adult Care Food Program signage obligations (element 11 mentions them only to exclude them). These flow from the USDA/FNS agreement and the sponsoring agency, not from Missouri licensing rules, and no federal or sponsor document was opened during this task.

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