Kansas Office of Early Childhood, Child Care Licensing

Child Care License

Kansas licenses both family child care homes, capped at twelve children, and larger child care centres, preschools and school-age programmes, as a genuine requirement rather than an optional registration — but the state charges nothing for the license itself. 2025 House Bill 2045 rewrote the fee statute so that, from 1 July 2025, 'there shall be no annual fee for a license to conduct a child care facility', and because that statute's license fee is the one paid when the license is applied for and annually thereafter, the old capacity-based charge of $75 plus $1 a child is gone at application and renewal alike. The same Act moved licensing from the health department to the Kansas Office of Early Childhood on 1 July 2026 and repeats the rule there: for any day care facility, there shall be no annual fee. What still costs money is the background check — the applicant or licensee pays $48 for each fingerprint-based check its owners, staff and adult household members need, a charge the health department resumed on 1 January 2026 and which carries over to the new office as its rule until revised. The Act also lets the office set a fee of up to $35 for an amended license, and keeps a $75 late fee for a license not renewed within 30 days of expiring.