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How to Open a Daycare in Long Beach: State Family Child Care Licensing, the City’s Zoning Rules and the Business License

Checked against the city's pages: October 2026 By Dana Castellano 8 min read

Photo by Gautam Arora on Unsplash

On this page

In brief

A Long Beach daycare is licensed by the state, which sorts providers into Family Child Care Homes and Child Care Centers, and regulated by the city’s zoning code, which sorts them by headcount and uses different cut-offs. A state-licensed family day care home with 14 or fewer children in the provider’s home is exempt from the city business license and tax.

  • The state’s small home is 6 children (8 with conditions) and its large home 12 (14 with conditions); the city’s small home is 8 or fewer and its large home 7 to 1423.
  • Small family daycare homes are an allowed accessory use in the city; large ones are allowed if five conditions are met, and neither is a home occupation5.
  • A center must provide 75 square feet of outdoor play area per child on the site; in residential districts no similar facility may be within one-half mile6.
  • Daycare or pre-school is permitted in the eight commercial districts of the city’s use table and conditional in the CS district7.
  • The state’s orientation fee is $25 per person for homes and $50 for other categories, as of October 20268.

Two sets of rules apply at once, and they do not use the same words. The California Department of Social Services licenses the care; the city’s Title 21 decides where it may happen, and the city business license applies to centers and not to state-licensed homes. This page lays out the state’s categories, the city’s, the zoning rules for each, and the license. The section pillar, How to Start a Business in Long Beach, covers the steps every business shares.

The short answer

If you are… Do this
Running care in your own home Get the state Family Child Care Home license; the city treats the home as an accessory use and exempts it from the business license at 14 or fewer children45
Opening a center in a commercial building Confirm the district allows daycare or pre-school, meet the outdoor play and spacing rules, then follow the build-out sequence67
Taking more than 6 children in a state small home Landlord consent and written parent notification are required2
Unsure which category you fall in Compare the state and city counts in the table below before choosing a headcount23
Six steps for opening a daycare in Long Beach: choose a home or a center, check the zoning, attend the state orientation, complete build-out and Fire steps for a center, pass the state pre-licensing inspection, and handle the city license, from which state-licensed homes of 14 or fewer children are exempt.
The state and city steps for a Long Beach daycare. Orientation fees as of October 2026, from the state's fee page; the license exemption is from the city code.

The state license

The state program “licenses both Child Care Centers (CCCs) and Family Child Care Homes (FCCHs)”. Centers “are usually located in a commercial building” and homes “are in a licensee’s home”1. The steps include “In-person and online orientations” and “Pre-licensing inspections”1. The orientation fee “is $25.00 per person for Family Child Care Homes and $50,00 for all other licensing categories”, as the page prints it, and a $25 change-of-capacity fee applies; the application and annual fee amounts are not stated on the pages used here8.

The state’s capacity categories for family child care homes2:

Category Capacity
Small family child care home 4 infants only, or 6 children (no more than 3 infants); optional 8 (no more than 2 infants, at least 2 school-age children)
Large family child care home 12 children with a qualified assistant aged 14 or older (no more than 4 infants); optional 14 (no more than 3 infants)

“Landlord consent and written parent notification are required when caring for more than 6 children” in a small home and “more than 12 children” in a large one2.

The city's categories, and where they differ

Title 21 defines a “small family daycare home” as “a home providing accessory daytime care of eight (8) or less children, including those children of the daycare provider under ten (10) years of age”3. A “large family daycare home” means “seven (7) to fourteen (14) children” on the same terms9. A “daycare center” “includes all daycare uses not qualifying as a child daycare home”, and a day nursery, preschool or nursery school is the same thing10.

Official pages disagree The state’s small home is 6 children, or 8 under the optional conditions; its large home is 12, or 142. The city’s small home is 8 or fewer, and its large home starts at 739. Under the city’s definitions as written, a home with 7 or 8 children fits both. The pages used here do not say which set of rules governs a home of 7 or 8 children; Planning, at (562) 570-6194, can say.

Zoning for homes

Section 21.51.230 states: “Small family daycare homes are an allowed accessory use. Large family daycare homes are an allowed accessory use, provided: A. The prime daycare provider shall reside in the residence; B. The daycare provider shall obtain the required State licenses; C. No sign shall be displayed other than those signs allowed for all residences …; D. All required parking for the residential use shall be maintained …; E. The use shall comply with all City noise regulations”5. The code adds: “Neither small nor large family daycare homes are home occupations”5. The home-occupation limits in Home-Based Businesses in Long Beach therefore do not govern a daycare home.

Zoning for centers

In the city’s commercial-district use table, daycare or pre-school is permitted in all eight neighborhood, community and regional commercial districts (CNP, CNA, CNR, CCA, CCP, CCR, CCN and CHW) and is a conditional use in the CS district7. Downtown’s PD-30 and the industrial zones have separate tables that this page does not cover. A conditional use permit is $17,330.88 as of October 202611.

Section 21.52.249 sets conditions for child daycare centers6:

Condition Text
Outdoor play “A minimum of seventy-five (75) square feet of outdoor play area per child shall be provided on the site”
Spacing “In residential districts, no other similar facility may be located and operating within one-half (1/2) mile (2,640 feet) of the proposed site”
Hours “between six o’clock (6:00) a.m. and seven-thirty (7:30) p.m.”
Loading Adequate off-street loading

Source:6. The Planning Bureau answers use questions at (562) 570-6194; its Business License Zoning Review is $213.92 as of October 20261112.

Build-out, Fire and occupancy

A center follows the commercial build-out path: plans go to the Permit Center at 411 West Ocean Boulevard, where Building and Fire review them, and the city’s guides end with a request for approval of use and occupancy and then the business license1213. The Fire Department says an inspection is required “when your business produces conditions hazardous to life or property and when your business is a place of assembly (occupancy of 50 or more people)”14. The pages used here do not state the fire or building classification a child care center falls under, and do not say whether the state’s pre-licensing inspection precedes the city’s occupancy sign-off. The sequence is in The Commercial Build-Out Sequence in Long Beach.

The city license

The code exempts state-licensed family day care homes from the license and tax: “fourteen (14) or fewer children” in the provider’s home (Code 3.80.327)4. The exemption is from the license, not from the zoning rules above.

A center is licensed. The city’s online-eligible list includes “Day Care/Preschool”15. The 2026-27 rate table’s main classifications are Contractors, Home-based business, Independent contractors, Manufacturing, Professionals, Recreation and entertainment, Retail, Services and Wholesale, with no daycare line, so the table does not say which classification a center takes16. In most cases the Division issues a license “upon receipt of the application and payment”; where inspections come first, “this takes two weeks or less” for most businesses17.

The steps, in order

  1. Choose the state category, home or center, and the headcount, using the table above12.
  2. Check the zoning: Section 21.51.230 for a home, Table 32-1 and Section 21.52.249 for a center567.
  3. Attend the state orientation and apply to the state18.
  4. For a center, run the build-out sequence at the Permit Center12.
  5. Pass the state’s pre-licensing inspection1.
  6. Obtain the city license if the business is a center1517.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a business license for a home daycare in Long Beach?

Not for a state-licensed family day care home with 14 or fewer children in the provider’s home; the code exempts it from the license and tax4.

How many children can a family child care home have in California?

A small home is 6 children (no more than 3 infants), or 8 under the optional conditions; a large home is 12 with a qualified assistant, or 142.

Is a home daycare a home occupation in Long Beach?

No: “Neither small nor large family daycare homes are home occupations”5.

How much outdoor space does a Long Beach daycare center need?

“A minimum of seventy-five (75) square feet of outdoor play area per child” on the site6.

How far apart must daycare centers be?

In residential districts, no similar facility may be within one-half mile (2,640 feet) of the proposed site6.

Where is a daycare center allowed?

Daycare or pre-school is permitted in the eight commercial districts of the use table and conditional in the CS district7.

Sources

  1. How to Become Licensed — California Department of Social Services, Child Care Licensing. Accessed 2026-10-02.
  2. Capacity Requirements for Family Child Care Homes — California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing. Accessed 2026-10-02.
  3. Long Beach Municipal Code, Section 21.15.490, Child care, small family daycare home — Municode. Accessed 2026-10-02.
  4. Long Beach Municipal Code, Chapter 3.80 Business License Tax — Municode. Accessed 2026-09-30.
  5. Long Beach Municipal Code, Section 21.51.230, Child care, large and small family daycare homes — Municode. Accessed 2026-10-02.
  6. Long Beach Municipal Code, Section 21.52.249, Child daycare centers — Municode. Accessed 2026-10-02.
  7. Long Beach Municipal Code, Chapter 21.32 Commercial Districts (Table 32-1) — Municode. Accessed 2026-09-30.
  8. Licensing Fees — California Department of Social Services. Accessed 2026-10-02.
  9. Long Beach Municipal Code, Section 21.15.480, Child care, large family daycare home — Municode. Accessed 2026-10-02.
  10. Long Beach Municipal Code, Section 21.15.720, Daycare center — Municode. Accessed 2026-10-02.
  11. Planning Bureau Fee Schedule, revised October 1, 2026 (FY27 fees version) — City of Long Beach, Community Development. Accessed 2026-09-30.
  12. Permit Center — City of Long Beach, Community Development. Accessed 2026-09-30.
  13. Retail Permitting Guidelines brochure, November 2024 — City of Long Beach, Building and Safety. Accessed 2026-09-30.
  14. Fire Department FAQs — City of Long Beach, Fire Department. Accessed 2026-10-02.
  15. Eligible Online Business License Types — City of Long Beach, Financial Management. Accessed 2026-09-30.
  16. Business License Rates Effective July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027 — City of Long Beach, Financial Management. Accessed 2026-09-30.
  17. Business License Application Instructions — City of Long Beach. Accessed 2026-09-30.