Start a Daycare in Indiana – Licensing – Regulations – Laws
Indiana Daycare Licensing
A Daycare Center can be a lucrative venture especially in the state of Indiana where the need for daycare services is highly in demand. There are many reasons why people put up daycare centers. They may be in it for financial gain while others set up a center to fulfill their social responsibility of caring for other people’s children.
In Indiana, there are basically three types of daycare providers: the daycare centers, the daycare homes, and the daycare ministry. These are classified according to the sections of their laws. In this state, their laws can be very stringent in setting up centers that provide daycare services. This is to ensure the public, the parents and their children that they will receive the best daycare services with the safety and welfare of the children in mind.
The article below gives you details on the process in putting up a daycare center in Indiana and the legal requirements that goes with it. The procedures in putting up a daycare center is strictly implemented according to law. You must comply to certain licensure requirements before you are issued a certification. These includes the filing and submission of an application, being assessed by the division, undergoing a criminal history check, and undergoing training for basic first aid.
Once you are issued a license to operate, you still have to follow state rules, formulate and implement your own center rules to streamline your operations. The state of Indiana has very harsh laws imposed against sex and violent offenders towards children. Your center’s license can be revoked if it is involved in this kind of criminal act.
By knowing all the rules and regulations in setting up a daycare center in Indiana, and by strongly abiding by them, you can achieve success in running your operations
Licensing Procedures for Daycare Centers
In becoming a registered or licensed daycare provider, it will all depend on the which category your center will fall under as defined by the Sections of the state’s provisions.
A Licensed Daycare Center is defined by Sec. 28.4 as a “daycare center”. This defines the center as a place that provides daycare services to at least 1 child in a nonresidential place while the child’s parents are not around, for regular compensation and for not over 4 hours in a day but not less than 24 in a 10 day consecutive period in every year, not including weekends and holidays.
A Licensed Daycare Home is defined in Sec. 28.6 as a “daycare home” that is within a residential place wherein at least 6 children receive daycare services while their parents are not present, for regular compensation, and for a maximum of 4 hours and but lower than 24 hours in a 10 days straight in one year. The children provided for should not include the children of wherein the provider is their parent, stepparent, guardian, custodian or relative, is 14 years of age and above, and has no need for daycare.
The Unlicensed Registered Daycare Ministry is defined in Sec. 28.8 as a daycare center operated by a religious organization that is exempted from the federal income tax law under IRC Section 105.
Daycare center license
To assure the public and the parents of the children that the Center is licensed and operated by people that were issued the license, the Center must comply with the following terms of this license:
The license cannot be transferred to another organization, sponsor or person.
The validity of the license is only for the address that is shown on this license.
Only the areas that were approved and licensed by the division can be utilized by the authorized day care center.
The center should file for their application and get a new license before doing any of the following activities: expanding their services, changing the age of the children they will serve, and increasing the capacity of their license.
Required Application
The moment the Center signs an application, they are officially giving the Division the authority to investigate the center for its initial licensure, its renewal or in its request for the change of ownership or the facility’s address.
The center should file for an application under these conditions:
- Before their initial licensure
- Within at least 60 days before their current license expires
- When the center voluntarily withdraws their license application and intends to reapply
- If over a year has passed since the center has filed their initial application and the daycare center has not achieved the sufficient standards to be qualified for their provisional license
- There was a change in the address of the daycare center
- There was a change in the name, corporate status or ownership of the center
Checking the Criminal History and the Required Actions
If there is enough evidence that the director or owner of the center has committed a crime, that is enough reason to terminate or deny their license. The Center will also be listed in any of the national or state registry that protects children from sex and violent offenders.
If there is evidence that the Center denied employment or dismissed an employee for a crime they committed, then they are required to be listed in any of the national or state registry that protects children from sex and violent offenders.
If the criminal history check of the owner, employee, volunteer or director reveals that they have committed any of the offenses listed below, that is enough reason to deny or revoke their license, deny their employment, or the dismissal of the employee.
The Offenses Are:
- Adoption schemes
- Adulterating controlled substances, drugs or preparations
- Assisting or aiding filling of fraudulent claims
- Allowing the establishment to be utilized for illegal acts
- Any crime that will involve a violent act or even just the threat of the violent act
- Armed robbery
- Assault
- Arson
- Attempted robbery, armed robbery or burglary
- Attempts in committing a criminal sex conduct
- Attempts in committing murder or homicide
- Attempts to kidnap
- Bribery
- Battery
- Burglary
- Concealing a stolen property
- Child abuse, exploitation, or neglect
- Any degree of criminal sex conduct
- Embezzlement
- Torture or cruelty to any person
- Extortion
- Fraud
- Filling false claims
- Kidnapping
- Homicide
- Larceny by trick
- Larceny by conversion
- Mayhem
- Manslaughter
- Murder
- Obtaining property thru false pretenses
- Murder
- Poisoning
- Negligent homicide
- Offenses that involve narcotics, controlled substances or alcohol that results to a felony conviction
- Receiving stolen property
- Prostitution or any related crimes
- Unlawful delivery or manufacture of drugs or its possession with the intent to deliver and manufacture drugs
- Robbery
Method of Assessment
The program or application in question should be reviewed if they meet the assessment criteria that qualifies them under the definition of a daycare center:
Building Structure:
- A nonresidential building means that the property is not used as a personal residence but is designed to be a commercial structure that will be required to comply with the applicable building and fire safety codes.
Service to be provided:
- A child or more whose guardians or parents are not present in the premises shall be taken cared for in the center. The program for child care shall be followed.
- The program should operate for over 4 hours in a day but not lower than 24 hours in any single day.
- The program must have operated for continuously 10 days in every year, not including weekends and holidays.
Compensation
- The regular fees for the care of the children will be charged and paid for by their guardians, parents or by a third party.
In order to determine if the program is fit to be issued a license, the consultant needs to interview the staff of the facility or one of the parents of the children under their care.
- If the compensation is in question, the consultant will collate and take into review the sign-in / sign-out or attendance sheets, CCDF billable hours if the Center operates as LLEP, and must interview the guardians or parents of the children under their care to confirm the data they have gathered
Enrollment policies
During enrollment, the director should discuss with the parents and give them the written information of the following:
(1) Names of people legally responsible for the daycare center.
(2) Program description
(3) Policy on children left past the closing time.
(4) Emergency medical care provisions
(5) Provisions for the treatment of illness.
(6) Policy on field trips, visits or excursions outside the premises.
(7) Policy on the daycare center’s neglect and abuse reporting responsibilities.
(8) Policy on releasing a child to an impaired or intoxicated person.
(9) The center’s discipline policies.
(10) The statement that the child is released only to the parent, an authorized person by the parent, or legal guardian with proper identification.
(11) The statement that persons who bring or pick up the child will be responsible in notifying a staff member of the arrival or departure of the child and that person should sign their child in and out, by their name and the time of arrival and their departure.
(12) The statement on the importance of the health examination of the child, including immunizations updates.
Children’s Admission Records
The written admission application of every child that is signed by their parents will be kept as a file in the daycare center before their admission. It must include:
1. Full name, sex and address of the child.
2. Parent’s name, sex and address.
3. Child’s birthdate, supported by the child’s birth certificate copy or by other legal proof of their age.
4. Information on the child’s emotional, social, physical and cognitive development.
5. Copy of relevant court orders affecting the child enrolled.
6. Place of work and work hours of parent, employer’s telephone number and address.
7. Named, phone number and address of child’s dentist and doctor.
8. Name, phone number and address of person to contact in case of emergencies and illness if parent cannot be notified.
9. Name, phone number and address of person to contact other than parent who is authorized to pick up the child.
10. Admission date.
Worker Qualifications
Members of the teaching staff should be at least 18 years old and has finished high school or its equivalent. When working with infants or toddlers, the teacher should not be younger than 21, a high school graduate or its equivalent, and has 1 year of experience.
Provider/Child Ratio
In the state of Indiana the following provider/ child ratios are for the Center-based Care in the state: Infants (1:4); Toddlers and 2 years old (1:5); 3 years old(1:10); 4 years old (1:12); 5 Years old (1:15); and 6 years old and above (1:20).
The following ratios show the number of Family daycare in Indiana State:
From birth to 24 months, the ratio is 1:6 wherein 2 out of the 6 children are already walking and are at least 16 months old.
From birth to 6 years old, the ratio is 1:10. 3 out of the 10 children are walking and under 16 months old.
For ages 3 to 10 years old, the ratio is 1:12.
For all ages, the ratio is 1:12. The highest capacity a daycare center can accommodate is 1:12. During the school year, there is an additional of 3 children who are at least in Grade 1.
Reporting Neglect or Child Abuse
The center should keep all information that they have obtained in reference to the suspected neglect or abuse of the child confidential at all times.
In their first 2 weeks of employment, the staff should have a documented training on how to recognize and report neglect and child abuse. The director should update this training yearly. This ensures that all employees are aware of the signals of neglect and child abuse and the procedures in reporting it.
The center should not hire an individual identified by the division and was reported to the center as the substantiated perpetrator of neglect and child abuse. This is to protect the child from getting harmed.
The center should create written rules in reporting the suspected neglect or child abuse and this includes staff training.
The director and the staff should not question the children and the suspects beyond the intention of gathering information in order to report suspected neglect and child abuse to the child protective services. This is to ensure that the employee responds properly to the suspected child abuse.
The staff should immediately report suspicions of neglect and child abuse. “Immediately” means within the hour the neglect or abuse was discovered. If the suspected neglect or abuse happened while the child was in the care of the daycare center, or the center receives complaints from anyone about the possible neglect or child abuse of a child done by the staff member, the center or its director should immediately call the law enforcement agency or an institutional abuse hotline to report their suspicions of neglect or abuse. The number to call is 1-800-800-556 . If the incident happened when the child was not in the care of the daycare center, the staff should immediately report it to county child protective services at 1-800-800-5556.
Even if the staff reports their suspicions to their director or supervisor, they are still responsible for reporting it directly to the child protective services.
The center must terminate the volunteer or employee once the investigation of the child protective services proves the neglect or abuse. The immediately investigation of the incident minimizes the occurrence of further risk to the children under the Center’s care.
Reporting Communicable Disease
If the staff suspects that the child has a communicable disease, then the director should call the child’s guardian or parent.
If over 1 child is diagnosed with the communicable disease, the center should:
- immediately call the children’s parents and all employees who were exposed by putting a notification in a visible place in the center, or by giving a notice to the parents and employees
- The center should call any or all of the following: Local Health Department, Daycare Health section of the division, or health consultant of the daycare center
First Aid Training Basics
All the caregivers and employees of a daycare center should have the basic training in first aid in the manner that follows:
1. Before opening the daycare center, at least one caregiver should have recent training or their expiration date is not more than 3 years from training date of the basics in administration of first aid. They should be on duty all the time. In addition, toddler and infant staff should have recent training in first aid basics.
2. The training for the other employees should be completed within 6 months of their employment and very 3 years thereafter.
3. The basic training for first aid should include rescue breathing and the first aid for choking. It should be consistent with the training given by the National Safety Council for First Aid Training Institute or American Red Cross.
4. The instruction for first aid should include but is not limited to:
Hemorrhage; Choking; Poisoning; Shock; Head Injuries; Artificial respiration; and Seizures.
5. Written records of the current certificates of training for first aid should be kept in the daycare center for not less than 3 years.
Contact Information
Child Care Licensing Agency
Division of Family Resources
Bureau of Child Development – Licensing Section
402 West Washington Street, Room W-386
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Phone: (317) 232-1144
Toll Free: (877) 511-1144
Fax: (317) 234-1513
Child Care Subsidy Agency
Indiana Family and Social Services Administration
Division of Family Resources
402 W. Washington Street, W-392
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Phone: (317) 234-3313
Toll Free: (800) 441-7837
Fax: (317) 233-6093
Head Start – State Collaboration Office
Bureau of Child Development
Division of Family and Children
402 West Washington Street, Room W386
Indianapolis, IN, 46204
Phone: (317) 233-6837
Fax: (317) 233-6093
Child Care Food Program Agency
Division of School and Community
Indiana Department of Education
State House, Room 229
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2798
Phone: (317) 232-0850
Fax: (317) 232-0855
State Child Care Resource & Referral Contact
3901 N. Meridian St., Suite 350
Indianapolis, IN 46208
Phone: (317) 924-5202
Toll Free: (800) 299-1627
Fax: (317) 924-5102
Office of Child Support Enforcement
Child Support Bureau
Department of Child Services
402 West Washington Street Rm W360
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2739
Phone: (317) 233-5437
Fax: (317) 233-4932
Child Abuse Reporting
In Indiana, to report cases of suspected child abuse call Toll-Free: (800) 800-5556. (In-state only)
For information on national child abuse call the Childhelp®, 800-4-A-CHILD (800-422-4453), or your local CPS agency.
Starting a Daycare in Indiana
IN Family & Social Services Administration
Division of Family and Children
Bureau of Child Development – Licensing Section
402 W. Washington Street, Room W-386
Indianapolis, IN 46204
For center-based child-care call: 317-232-4469
For Family Child Care call: 317-232-4521 or 317-234-2100
For ministries call: Phone: 317-233-5414
Fax: 317-234-1513
Web site: http://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/learnmore/
Requirements http://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/become/
