True story: A homeschool program was meeting at a church one day a week. They provided nursery care and a preschool for younger siblings of the homeschool students enrolled in the program. The church also had a preschool program operating as a licensed daycare. One day while a state inspector was visiting the church’s preschool, he noticed another group of young children in another hallway.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Well, those are the children involved in a homeschool program that meets here,” was the reply.
The inspector visited the homeschool program to ask a few questions to determine if the homeschool program was running an unlicensed daycare!
Is your homeschool program running an unlicensed daycare? Should your homeschool preschool be licensed?
It pays to take a little time to check your state laws regarding allowable exemptions from being licensed.
I checked out the laws regarding childcare or daycare licensing in my state of Ohio.
Some examples of programs which do not require licensure (in Ohio):
• Care provided in a child’s own home;
• Programs which operate two weeks or less a year;
• Programs where parents remain on the premises (unless at the parent’s employment site);
• Specialized training in specific subjects, such as art, drama, dance, swimming, etc.
• Programs which operate one day a week for no more than six hours.
So a homeschool program in Ohio might qualify to run a childcare program without being licensed if the parents remain on the premises or the program operates only one day a week for less than 6 hours. The other criteria of specialized training may apply as well, but a lot of homeschool programs do not specialize; they offer a variety of educational classes.
Check out your state laws regarding daycare licensing. Every state is different!
Carol Topp, CPA
