Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Early Care Regulation
Child Care Certification Policy Manual
As explained in Certification Policy Module 1– Introduction and Overview, pursuant to s. 48.65 (1), Stats., (1) No person may for compensation provide care and supervision for 4 or more children under the age of 7 for less than 24 hours a day unless that person obtains a license to operate a family or group child care center from the Department of Children and Families (DCF). If an individual intends to provide care for 4 or more children under age 7 who are not related to the provider, s/he is not eligible for certification and should be referred to the DCF regional licensing office.
Care in the child’s home (in-home care) is exempt from the licensing law. When the certification is approved in the child’s home (referred to as certified "in-home" care), group size rules do not apply, however, the operator may not bring any other children to be cared for in the home.
| Licensed Family Child Care | Certified Family Child Care | |
| Allowable number of children in family child care | 4 or more children under age 7 with group max of 8 |
3 or fewer children under age 7 with a group max of 6 |
A computer based training (CBT) titled Allowable Number of Children is available on the certification web page. Prospective and certified child care providers should be encouraged to view the training to learn more about the licensing law and allowable number of children in certified child care.
The same CBT is posted in the Partner Training Team (PTT) Learning Center and must be completed by all new certification workers prior to attending an in-person training. Certification workers can access the PTT Learning Center here.
Note: If you have never used the PTT website before you will need to complete and submit a Learning Center Registration Profile form. Submission of this form is required before you will be able register for trainings posted in the PTT website. If you have used PTT in the past you do not need to resubmit the form.
This page last updated 12/13/2018.