Home daycare in Seattle
A licensed home daycare in Washington is a program run in the provider’s own home. The state’s word for it is a “family home.” The person who holds the license lives there. That is what makes it a family home and not a small center, and most of what is different about it follows from that.
Shortlist lists 1,532 licensed family homes in the Seattle area, beside 855 centers. 598 of the homes are in Seattle’s 27 ZIP codes. The rest are in Renton, SeaTac, Bothell, Bellevue, Lynnwood and other nearby places. As of October 9, 2026, 1,396 of the 1,532 family homes (91%) had no website on file.
How many children, and how old
Washington sets a family home’s size by the licensee’s years of experience in licensed child care, and by whether a qualified assistant is working:
| The licensee’s experience | Working alone | With a qualified assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Less than a year | Up to 6 children, birth to 12. No more than 3 under age 2. | No larger size in the rule. |
| One to two years | Up to 8 children, ages 2 to 12. No more than 4 under age 3. | Up to 9 children, birth to 12. No more than 4 under age 2. |
| Two years or more | Up to 10 children, ages 3 to 12, or 12 if all are school age. | Up to 12 children, birth to 12. No more than 6 under age 2. |
Every child 12 or younger on the premises counts toward that number, including the provider’s own children and the children of staff. Twelve is the most the state will license a family home for. A separate state waiver can allow 13 to 16.
On the guide, each home carries a size word. In the Seattle area they split like this, by the number of children each home is licensed for:
- 393 homes (26%) are small: 3 to 6 children.
- 404 homes (26%) are mid-size: 7 to 11 children.
- 735 homes (48%) are full-size: 12 children, the most a home can hold without a waiver.
A typical Seattle-area center is licensed for 70.
Who the provider is
To be licensed, the provider must be at least 18, have a high school diploma or equivalent, and finish the state’s preservice training. They then have five years from licensing, or until August 1, 2030 if that is later, to earn an early childhood education initial certificate. The state does not require any prior child care experience to open a home. It limits a new provider’s size instead, as the table shows.
Everyone who lives in the house and is 13 or older must have a cleared state background check, along with all staff and volunteers. The check is renewed every five years.
What a day is like
One group, mixed ages. A home licensed for birth to 12 may care for a baby and a 10-year-old together. The state requires the home’s written curriculum philosophy to address every age group it serves.
The same paperwork as a center. Every licensed program must give families its written policies, the parent handbook. It has to include the program’s days and hours, its closure dates and holidays, its fees, its expulsion policy, and its policy for ending care. It answers most practical questions, so it is worth reading before you enroll.
When the provider is away. The licensee must be on site for at least half of the program’s weekly hours, or name someone with the same qualifications to be there. A home can stay open while the licensee is out if it has a written plan. If the licensee will be away for more than 10 operating days in a row, they must tell the state and every family in writing at least two business days ahead, with a plan that names who is in charge. Nothing in the state’s licensing rules requires a home to arrange backup care when it closes for the provider’s own sick days or vacation.
One person is also the business. In the state’s 2026 survey, family home providers statewide said they spend 23.5 hours a week, on average, running the business beyond the hours they care for children. 951 providers answered, and the most common answer was 10 hours or fewer (403 of them).
What it costs
The state’s 2026 market rate study surveyed licensed programs between October and December 2025. Full-time monthly prices in King County:
| Age | Family homes, middle half | Family homes, median | Centers, median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infant | $1,600 to $2,382 | $2,000 | $2,400 |
| Toddler | $1,600 to $2,250 | $1,935 | $2,374 |
| Preschool | $1,516 to $2,130 | $1,870 | $1,600 |
At the median, homes cost $400 a month less than centers for infants and $439 less for toddlers. For preschoolers, the home median is $270 higher than the center median. These are King County figures, not Seattle’s alone. Statewide, only 29% of family homes answered the survey, against 66% of centers, and the center figures are weighted by enrollment while the family home tables are not labeled that way.
1 of the 1,532 family homes had a full-time price that Shortlist could find published as of October 9, 2026, so ask each home for its rates and what they include.
What the state checks
Family homes are licensed and inspected by the same state agency as centers, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), under one set of rules written for both. By the agency’s own policy, a licensor visits every licensed program at least once each state fiscal year (July to June). The visits are unannounced and are meant to happen while enrolled children are there.
Shortlist shows each home’s state record on its page. On the Washington DCYF reports Shortlist has read for 2,362 of the 2,387 programs in the Seattle area, as of October 9, 2026, inspectors cited at least one rule at 3,080 of 4,837 visits to family homes (64%). For centers it was 1,853 of 2,821 (66%). Across all programs, the rules cited most often are safety requirements, training requirements and storage of hazardous and maintenance supplies. Each home’s page shows what was cited there and the level the state gave it.
The state’s open licensing data lists centers and school-age programs, not family homes. Shortlist lists each home by its ZIP code.
Tradeoffs, with the evidence
Group size and illness. A federal study that followed 1,364 children from 1991 found higher rates of colds and other upper respiratory infections, stomach illness and ear infections among children in child care arrangements with more than six children. A home licensed for 6 or fewer never has more than six children in care. A home licensed for 12 can.
Home or center. The same study found that, when quality was similar, children with more time in centers had somewhat better language and thinking skills through age 3 and somewhat better early letter and number skills at age 4½. By 4½ they also showed somewhat more behavior problems, as their caregivers reported them. It found that family features were stronger and more consistent predictors of a child’s development than any aspect of child care. Its findings were published in 2006.
Continuity. In a home, your child is with the licensee for at least half of each week, unless someone equally qualified stands in. If that provider is sick, takes a vacation or closes the business, care stops unless the home has other qualified staff.
Where homes are. Within Seattle’s ZIP codes, the ZIPs with the most family homes are 98108 (127 of the 598), 98118 (110) and 98126 (81). The south end, 98108, 98118, 98126 and 98178, holds 376 of the 598.
Questions to ask on a visit
- How many children are enrolled on the busiest day, counting your own children?
- Who else lives here? Has everyone 13 and older cleared the state background check?
- Is there an assistant? On which days and at what hours?
- How many days were you closed last year for illness or vacation? How much notice do families get?
- If you are away for more than 10 days, who runs the program?
- May I read the parent handbook, including the expulsion and termination policies?
- If you close the program for good, how much notice will families get, and what happens to my deposit?
- Where do the babies sleep, and where do the older children nap?
Licensed or not
Some home care in Washington doesn’t need a license: care by relatives, care by a friend or neighbor who isn’t doing it on a regular schedule as a business, and parents trading care with each other. Someone who cares for other families’ children in their home on an ongoing, regular schedule as a business does need one. Unlicensed care has no state inspection record, so Shortlist can’t show one.
Sources
- Washington Administrative Code chapter 110-300: 110-300-0001 (one set of standards for centers and family homes), 110-300-0015 (licensee absence), 110-300-0100 (licensee qualifications), 110-300-0305 (curriculum), 110-300-0355 (capacity), 110-300-0358 (capacity waiver), 110-300-0450 (parent handbook).
- RCW 43.216.010, definitions and exemptions, as certified July 15, 2026.
- DCYF form 15-949, Family Home Child Care Resident and Staff Background Checklist, rev. 05/2026.
- DCYF policy POL 10.1.8, Conducting Child Care Monitoring Visits, effective January 1, 2026.
- DCYF, 2026 Washington State Cost of Quality Child Care and Market Rate Study (June 17, 2026): Tables 16, 53 to 55, 57 to 59 and 63, and the survey summary.
- NICHD, The NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development: Findings for Children up to Age 4½ Years (2006).
- DCYF Licensed Childcare Center and School Age Program Providers, data.wa.gov.
- Shortlist’s Seattle-area directory and the Washington DCYF inspection reports behind it: figures counted on October 9, 2026; the list of homes as it stands today.