Texas child care regulations are set and enforced by the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) under Chapter 42 of the Texas Human Resources Code, which requires the agency to write and enforce minimum standards protecting children’s health, safety, and well-being any time they are in someone else’s care.1Texas Health and Human Services. Minimum Standards Those rules cover four tiers of operations, and they touch nearly every part of the day: who can be in the building, how many adults must be in the room, what a crib looks like, how deep the pool can be before a lifeguard is required, and what happens when something goes wrong.2Texas Health and Human Services. Child Care Regulation
The Four Permit Types
Texas sorts child care into four permit categories based on where the care happens and how many children are involved. Oversight scales up with capacity.3Texas Health and Human Services. 2100, Types of Child Care Permits
- A licensed child care center cares for seven or more children under 14, for less than 24 hours a day, at a site that is not the operator’s home. It faces the most detailed standards.
- A licensed child care home runs from the caregiver’s residence and may serve up to 12 children total, including the caregiver’s own. The primary caregiver must be at least 21.
- A registered child care home also operates from the caregiver’s residence, limited to six unrelated children during the school day, with up to six additional school-age children after school, but never more than 12 combined. The caregiver must be at least 21.
- A listed family home is the least regulated. A caregiver at least 18 may serve up to three unrelated children in the caregiver’s own home, with a total of no more than 12 including related children. Listed homes are not routinely inspected and must post a notice stating they are neither licensed nor registered and have limited minimum standards.
The tier a provider chooses drives everything that follows, from inspection frequency to which safety rules apply.
Staffing Ratios by Age
Ratios and group-size caps are the most concrete of the minimum standards, and they change sharply with age. For licensed centers serving 13 or more children, the limits are:4Texas Health and Human Services. Minimum Standards for Child-Care Centers – Section 746.1601
- Birth to 11 months: 1 caregiver per 4 children, group of 10 maximum
- 12 to 17 months: 1 per 5, group of 13
- 18 to 23 months: 1 per 9, group of 18
- 2 years: 1 per 11, group of 22
- 3 years: 1 per 15, group of 30
- 4 years: 1 per 18, group of 35
- 5 years: 1 per 22, group of 35
- 6 to 13 years: 1 per 26, group of 35
These ratios apply all the time, including naps and outdoor play. Smaller centers licensed for 12 or fewer children use a blended system in which two caregivers together may supervise a mixed-age group that never exceeds 12.5Texas Health and Human Services. Minimum Standards for Child-Care Centers – Section 746.1705 Comparing what you see on a walk-through with the number the rule requires is one of the most direct checks a parent can make.
Background Checks for Anyone Around the Children
Every person with direct access to children at a Texas child care operation has to clear a background screening before they start. That includes a fingerprint-based criminal history check or a name-based Texas criminal history check, a Central Registry check for prior findings of child abuse or neglect, and a National Sex Offender Registry check. Anyone who has lived outside Texas also gets out-of-state criminal, abuse registry, and sex offender registry checks.6Justia. Texas Administrative Code 745.609 – What Types of Background Checks Are Required Fingerprints run through the Texas Department of Public Safety’s vendor, IdentoGO.7Texas Health and Human Services. Fingerprinting
Checks are not permanent. Operations must submit renewal requests every five years for fingerprint-based checks and every two years for name-based Texas criminal history checks. A new check is also required when a person’s state of residence changes or when a role change triggers the fingerprint requirement.8Texas Health and Human Services. Background Check Rules – Section 745.621
Some offenses permanently bar someone from being present at a child care operation while children are in care. The absolute-bar list includes murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, injury to a child, indecency with a child, trafficking of persons, and aggravated assault, among others. There is no risk evaluation and no appeals path for those offenses.9Texas Health and Human Services. Licensed or Certified Child Care Operations Criminal History Chart
Caregiver Training Hours
Caregivers at licensed centers must complete pre-service training before they take responsibility for a group of children. That is a foundation in child development and how care settings work, and it sits apart from the ongoing annual hours.10Texas Health and Human Services. Center-based Child Care FAQs
After that, every caregiver has to log 24 clock hours of annual training relevant to the ages of the children they serve. At least six hours must cover core competencies such as child growth and development, guidance and discipline, age-appropriate curriculum, or teacher-child interaction. At least one hour a year must address recognizing and reporting child abuse and neglect. Caregivers working with children under 24 months add another hour focused on safe sleep, prevention of shaken baby syndrome and abusive head trauma, and early brain development. Remaining hours cover emergency preparedness, communicable disease prevention, medication administration, food allergy response, building safety, and hazardous materials.11Texas Health and Human Services. Minimum Standards for Child-Care Centers – Section 746.1309
Facility Health and Safety Rules
Indoor and Outdoor Space
Licensed centers must provide at least 30 square feet of indoor activity space per child. Outdoor activity space requires 80 square feet per child using it at a given time, and the total outdoor area must fit at least 25 percent of the center’s licensed indoor capacity. A fence or wall at least four feet high must enclose the outdoor space. Centers serving only children age five and older are exempt from the fencing rule.12Texas Health and Human Services. Minimum Standards for Child-Care Centers – Sections 746.4201, 746.4301, 746.4305
Safe Sleep
Cribs must have a firm, flat mattress that fits snugly in the frame, with no added foam pads. Sheets must fit tightly. Slats can be no more than 2⅜ inches apart, and each crib must meet federal safety standards under 16 CFR Parts 1219 or 1220. Cribs must be sanitized before a different infant uses one.13Legal Information Institute. Texas Administrative Code 746.2409 – What Specific Safety Requirements Apply to Cribs
Water Safety
Pool ratios are much tighter than classroom ratios. For children under two, the ratio is one adult per child. A certified lifeguard must be on duty at all times when children are swimming in more than 18 inches of water, and the lifeguard generally cannot count toward the caregiver ratio if non-center swimmers are also in the pool. Life-saving devices at poolside, locked machinery rooms, visible pool bottoms, and drain grates that cannot be removed without tools are all required.14Texas Health and Human Services. Minimum Standards for Child-Care Centers – Sections 746.2105, 746.2109, 746.5001
Immunizations
Children enrolled in Texas child care facilities must meet immunization requirements set by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Three exemptions exist: medical reasons, active military status, and personal beliefs, which include religious objections. A personal-belief exemption requires an official affidavit submitted to the facility.15Texas Department of State Health Services. School and Childcare Vaccine Requirements
Substance-Free Premises
No one may consume alcohol or non-prescribed controlled substances at a child care center, during transportation, or on field trips. Smoking and vaping are prohibited on the premises, on playgrounds, in vehicles, and during any field trip. Anyone whose behavior or health poses an immediate threat to children must not be present during operating hours.16Justia. Texas Administrative Code 746.3703 – How Can I Ensure the Safety of the Children from Other Persons
Liability Insurance
Licensed operations, registered child care homes, and listed family homes must carry at least $300,000 in coverage per occurrence for negligence resulting in injury to a child on the premises or in the provider’s care. Proof of coverage goes to Child Care Regulation (CCR) each year by the anniversary of the permit’s issuance date. The one exception is a listed family home that cares only for related children.17Legal Information Institute. Texas Administrative Code 745.249 – What Are the Liability Insurance Requirements For centers, proof of insurance is a precondition to receiving the permit at all.18Texas Health and Human Services. Become a Child Care Center-Based Provider
Inspections, Deficiencies, and Enforcement
CCR staff conduct unannounced inspections during operating hours, watching daily routines and checking staffing ratios, training records, background checks, and safety conditions.19Texas Health and Human Services. 4100, Inspecting Child-Care Operations Licensed centers and licensed homes are inspected at least once a year. Registered child care homes get an unannounced visit at least every two years. Listed family homes are inspected only when someone files a complaint.20Texas Health and Human Services. What Are CCR Reports, Inspections and Enforcement Actions
When an inspection finds a violation, CCR issues a deficiency and posts it to the operation’s public online record. Any provider can be looked up on the Search Texas Child Care portal for inspection reports and deficiency history.21Texas Health and Human Services. Child Care
HHSC’s response scales with severity and pattern:22Texas Health and Human Services. CCR Enforcement Actions
- A plan of action is available to providers who accept responsibility and can correct the problem, but only if the operation has not had one for similar deficiencies in the previous 12 months.
- Probation applies when a provider has repeatedly failed to identify risk or make lasting fixes but will still comply with HHSC-imposed conditions. Operation continues under heightened oversight.
- Administrative penalties are financial and can be imposed for background check violations or certain high-risk rule breaks.
- Adverse actions are the strongest step: denial of an application, refusal to renew, revocation of a permit, or emergency suspension when children would be at risk if the operation continued.
Providers who lose their permits through adverse action appear in the involuntarily closed operations database, which is publicly searchable. Revocation does not require a long escalation history; HHSC can move directly to denial or revocation when the risk warrants it.
Filing a Complaint
Anyone can report concerns about a child care provider through the Search Texas Child Care portal’s online reporting form.23Texas Health and Human Services. Make a Report – Search Texas Child Care To report anonymously or talk with a CCR employee directly, contact the local CCR office. Reports trigger an investigation, and any resulting deficiencies join the operation’s public record.
ADA Obligations for Providers
The Americans with Disabilities Act applies to privately run child care centers, home-based programs, government-run centers, and before-and-after school programs. Religious organizations are exempt. Providers must make an individualized assessment for each child with a disability rather than applying blanket exclusion policies.24ADA.gov. Equal Access to Child Care
That can mean adjusting a toilet training timeline, training staff in de-escalation, or allowing a caregiver to help with medical needs such as administering insulin. Physical barriers must be removed when doing so is readily achievable, meaning easy to accomplish without significant difficulty or expense. A provider may exclude a child only when that child poses a direct threat of serious harm that no reasonable modification can address, and that finding must rest on current medical evidence rather than assumptions about a diagnosis.24ADA.gov. Equal Access to Child Care