Arizona — statewide
Arizona Department of Health Services
In short
Arizona Department of Health Services issues 3 permits we publish for Arizona — statewide, last verified 2026-09-03. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.
What this agency issues
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food Establishment Permit | Arizona Department of Health Services | $144–$1,015 a year, set by the county board of health — there is no state fee | 1 year from issue | 2026-09-03 |
| Food Handler Cardonly if it applies to you | Arizona Department of Health Services | No fee | 3 years in the counties that require one | 2026-09-03 |
| Child Care Facility License | Arizona Department of Health Services | $330–$2,575 a year, banded by licensed capacity | no fixed expiry — the license runs from issue subject to the annual fee | 2026-09-03 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
About each permit
Food Establishment Permit
The state writes the rules and the counties issue and price the permits — the health department's own licensing menu has no food establishment category at all. The two big counties do not even measure the same thing. Maricopa bands by seating and a four-level risk class, from $373 for a small low-risk operation to $1,015 for a ten-seat-plus class four, and repriced its whole schedule on 19 August 2026, so anything cached before that is wrong. Pima bands by risk class and floor area instead, from $144 to $930, and offers fee reductions of up to a quarter for an active managerial control plan, calorie counts, a food bank programme or a trans-fat-free menu. Plan review is a further $728 to $919 in Maricopa and $480 in Pima. The counties are not even on the same food code — Maricopa adopts the 2017 edition and Pima the 2013.
Food Handler Card
No state fee and no state card — Arizona's statute does not require a food handler card at all. What it does is standardise the training to a named national standard and make a card reciprocal between counties if a county chooses to require one. Maricopa does require one of every food-handling employee, valid three years and bought from a private accredited provider rather than from the county, which charges only for a five-dollar limited-use certificate issued as a disability accommodation. Pima does not require one of every employee: it requires a person in charge on the premises and at least one accredited food protection manager per establishment, and sells an optional thirty-dollar county certificate that it warns is not itself accredited. The one place state law does mandate cards is for a mobile food vendor's employees.
Child Care Facility License
Three bands — $330 up to ten children, $1,330 to fifty-nine and $2,575 above — and this replaced a very different structure in August 2025, when the department converted a three-yearly fee of $1,000, $4,000 or $7,800 into an annual one. Any source quoting those older figures is out of date. The license itself never expires; what keeps it alive is paying the annual fee, and a half-payment plan is available with the balance due within a hundred and twenty days of the anniversary. Licensing starts at five children — four or fewer is below the threshold entirely, and an unsubsidised four-child home needs no state license or certificate at all. A residential group home of five to ten children is certified by the same department at $330, and a subsidised family provider caring for four or fewer is certified free by the economic security department for three years.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Arizona — statewide
- Phone
- (602) 542-1025
Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.
Sources
Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- Arizona Administrative Code title 9, chapter 5, rule R9-5-206 — annual child care facility fees by capacity (Internet Archive capture of the official code, 17 October 2025)Arizona Secretary of State · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Arizona Revised Statutes section 11-269.12 — food handler certificates are a county option, standardised and made reciprocal by the stateArizona State Legislature · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Arizona Revised Statutes section 36-136 — the state writes the food rules and local boards of health enforce themArizona State Legislature · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Arizona Revised Statutes section 36-187 — county boards of health adopt the schedule of permit feesArizona State Legislature · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Arizona Revised Statutes section 36-882 — annual child care licensure fees and the validity of a licenseArizona State Legislature · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Maricopa County Environmental Health Code chapter I — environmental health operating permit fee schedule, revised 19 August 2026Maricopa County Environmental Services Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
- Pima County Health Department — consumer health and food safety fee schedulePima County Health Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-03
Other Arizona statewide offices
Arizona jurisdictions
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