Broward County Childcare Licensing and Enforcement Section (Consumer Protection Division)

Child Care Facility License (county self-licensing)

Broward County licenses its own child care facilities and family child care homes directly, rather than deferring to the state Department of Children and Families, under the county-licensing option in §402.306, Fla. Stat. This makes Broward one of five Florida counties that self-license — Broward, Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Pinellas and Sarasota — a corrected count from an earlier four-county telling that predates Hillsborough's own opt-in; Broward's own self-licensing status is the same under either count. Any child care facility or family child care home operating in Broward must hold this county license rather than a state DCF license. Reported annual fees are about $41.44 for a Family Child Care Home, and about $149.15 for a Child Care Facility not affiliated with a public school or $165.72 for one that is; the Child Care Licensing and Enforcement Section sets the late-renewal fee amount. This is a real, material requirement unique to counties that self-license — Miami-Dade, by contrast, does not self-license and defers to state DCF.