Montana DPHHS Child Care Licensing
Montana keeps its line at six. MCA 52-2-721(7) says a person who provides day care in a private residence for six or fewer children is not required to obtain a family day-care registration certificate and is exempt from the chapter, on one condition: the person does not receive state child care payments under 52-2-713. From seven children on a regular basis, ARM 37.96.102 requires registration or a license. The registered home comes in two sizes, a family child care facility for three to eight children and a group child care facility for nine to fifteen. Care for sixteen or more is a child care center and is licensed rather than registered.
| Tier | Children | Age limits | Your own kids |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relative Care Exempt (RCE) providerregistration rce | see rule |
| See rule |
| Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) providerregistration ffn | up to 6 |
| Count |
| Family child care facility (family day-care home)registration family group | 3 to 8 |
| Count |
| Group child care facility (group day-care home)registration family group | 9 to 15 |
| Count |
Age limits and totals for every tier, with row-level citations, live on the Montana home daycare ratios page.
The six-child exemption falls away the moment the provider receives or wants to receive state child care assistance. Montana offers two voluntary registrations for exactly that case: a Family, Friend and Neighbor provider for up to six children from separate households, and a Relative Care Exempt provider for a sibling group or no more than two children from separate households.
MCA 52-2-703(2) defines day care as care by an adult other than a parent of the children, so a provider’s own children are not day care for the six-or-fewer line. Once a certificate is held, 52-2-721(3) counts the applicant’s own children in the total the certificate allows.
Regular basis means day care for children of separate families for daily periods of less than twenty-four hours within three or more consecutive weeks. Care that is irregular, meaning under six hours a day or no more than three consecutive weeks at a time, does not trip the seven-child registration line.
Every rule in ARM 37.96 carries effective May 1, 2025 and history MAR Notice 37-1044. The older ARM 37.95 chapter is marked repealed on the state rules site, and DPHHS handbooks dated 2021 still cite it.
Six or fewer in a private residence, as long as you take no state child care payments, per MCA 52-2-721(7). Your own children are outside that count because care of your own children is not day care under 52-2-703(2).
A family child care facility is a private residence registered for three to eight children on a regular basis. A group child care facility is registered for nine to fifteen. Both are registration certificates, not licenses, per MCA 52-2-703 and 52-2-721.
Three children under two years old with one staff member in a mixed age group at eight to one. ARM 37.96.106(5)(a) requires at least two staff members with the group whenever more than three children under two are present.
A Family, Friend and Neighbor provider cares for no more than six children from separate families, or a sibling group of any size, and registers voluntarily in order to receive state child care payments, per ARM 37.96.101(13).
At sixteen children. MCA 52-2-703(3) and 52-2-721(1)(a) make care for sixteen or more a day-care center that must be licensed.
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.