Virginia Department of Education, Child Care Licensing

Child Day Programme License

Among the cheapest child care licenses anywhere: $28 for two years up to twelve children, rising through $70, $140, $210 and $280 to $400 above two hundred. A programme running less than twelve weeks in a year pays $50 or $110 instead. Two changes have made most published guidance wrong. Licensing moved from Social Services to the Department of Education in 2021, so anything citing 22VAC40- is repealed; and from 1 February 2026 the Code no longer says family day home at all, but home-based child care. The threshold for a home is five to twelve children excluding the provider's own and any living there, with one to four needing only voluntary registration and an all-relatives home exempt — but no more than four children under two, whatever the count. A licensed home falls in the smallest band, so it pays the same $28. The band is on licensed capacity, so a two-hundred-child centre pays $280 and a two-hundred-and-one-child centre pays $400.