Maryland State Department of Education, Office of Child Care

Child Care Centre License

No fee at all — Maryland charges nothing to license a child care centre or to register a family child care home, and there is no capacity-based fee schedule of the kind several states use. Capacity here governs staff ratios, not price. The evidence is thorough: the regulations contain only enforcement penalties, the education article contains no fee provision, the application forms have no remittance line, and the state's own licensing portal puts the application cost at zero. What does cost money is not the state's: a criminal background check whose price varies by locality, and local fire and health inspections. An initial license runs two years and then converts on application to a continuing license that never expires, maintained by documentation every two years and annual training records. Family child care sits under its own chapter, large family homes under another, and a religious organisation may operate on a letter of compliance instead.