Mississippi State Department of Health
Mississippi counts to six. A child care facility is a place providing shelter and personal care for six or more children under thirteen who are not related to the operator within the third degree, for any part of the twenty-four-hour day, whether or not it operates for profit. That definition sits in the Mississippi Child Care Licensing Law and the State Department of Health repeats it word for word at the head of its home chapters. Five or fewer unrelated children need no license, though a provider may take a voluntary Child Care Family Home license for that size. Six to twelve children in the operator’s home is a licensed child care facility under Chapter 2.
| Tier | Children | Age limits | Your own kids |
|---|---|---|---|
| Child Care Family Homems license child care family home 5 or fewer | up to 5 |
| Count |
| Child Care Facility for 12 or Fewer Children in the Operator's Homems license facility 12 or fewer operators home | up to 12 |
| See rule |
Age limits and totals for every tier, with row-level citations, live on the Mississippi home daycare ratios page.
The count excludes children related to the operator within the third degree computed according to the civil law, which reaches out to nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and great-grandchildren. The regulations do not restate the list; they adopt the statutory phrase.
The definition reaches care for any part of the twenty-four-hour day and applies whether the place is organized for profit or not. A free arrangement for six unrelated children is a facility.
Mississippi publishes its Code only through a viewer that blocks automated reading. Every figure here comes from the MSDH regulations, which carry the statutory definition verbatim in two chapters, and the statute is recorded as a gap rather than quoted from memory.
Chapter 2 gives a facility of twelve or fewer in the operator’s home one caregiver for every four children under one year, eight one-year-olds, twelve two-year-olds, fourteen three-year-olds, sixteen four-year-olds, twenty children five through nine, and twenty-five children ten through twelve, with mixed groups taking the ratio of the youngest child.
Five, counting only children under thirteen who are not related to you within the third degree. Six or more make a child care facility under the definition MSDH carries in 15 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 11, Subpt. 55.
No. Chapter 3 licenses child care family homes for five or fewer children, and MSDH describes it as available to homes that want it; the licensing trigger in the law starts at six.
Twelve or fewer children in the operator’s own home under Chapter 2. Above twelve the program is licensed as an ordinary child care facility under Chapter 1.
One caregiver for every four children under one year, and one for every eight one-year-olds, per the Chapter 2 staffing table.
A misdemeanor with a fine of not more than one hundred dollars for a first offense and not more than two hundred dollars for each later offense, worded the same in both home chapters.
DaycareRules is an informational reference about home child care licensing rules in the United States. It reprints thresholds, capacity limits, ratios and citations from state statutes and regulations, together with the date each state was last verified. Nothing on this site is legal advice, and rules change. Confirm with your state licensing agency before acting on any number printed here.