I am actually a provider in Indiana but, I have a friend that is asking me about providing child care because she is considering doing it out of her home.

Does anyone know the max # of children you can keep in the state of KY as a legal unlicensed provider?

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I might be wrong, but I don't believe KY allows for legally unlicensed care; not for childcare homes anyhow... there are a few provisions that allow it, but they fall under religious/educational rules; all the providers I have ever known have had to be licensed/certified by the "cabinet" before taking on any children

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Here are the licensing rules for Kentucky from the front page of Daycare.com

https://www.daycare.com/kentucky/

It says providers in Kentucky require a license after 4 kids but they also have "certification" too so I'd contact the agency for that state to be sure.

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Without being licensed or certified, the max you can have is 3 children. After that you need to be certified (up to 10) or licensed. If you have 3 children or less, you can become registered in order to take state payments.

In KY there are three categories of home based child care: registered homes, certified homes, and type II centers.

Registered homes: 3 unrelated children or less.

Certified homes: Up to 6 children plus up to 4 related children. (10 max)

Type II center: 7-12 children, including related children.

A home can also be a type I center if the child care space is separate from the living space and and there are 13 or more children.

I don't family child care (I work in a center), but if I remember correctly, there are less regs for certified than registered and less regs for registered than centers.

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