What permits do you need to open a childcare centre in Guilford County?

Child Care Sanitation Inspection (Children's Environmental Health)

A childcare centre in Guilford County is inspected for sanitation by the county's Children's Environmental Health staff, and the Guilford County FY2027 adopted budget fee schedule carries no fee for child care sanitation evaluation or child care plan review on any line. The statutory mechanism explains why rather than leaving it as a gap. G.S. 130A-39(g) permits a local board of health to impose a fee for services 'except where the imposition of a fee is prohibited by statute or where an employee of the local health department is performing the services as an agent of the State', and the programmes it then names as fee-eligible are wastewater systems, public swimming pools, tattooing and wells under G.S. 87-97 — child care sanitation is not among them. The county performs this work as the State's agent, so there is no county charge to publish. What a childcare operator does pay the county sits elsewhere on this page and is easy to overlook: Guilford County Emergency Services charges $75 for a daycare fire inspection, Guilford County Inspections treats 'Daycare in Residence' and 'Family Care Home' as trade-fees-only permits at $75 per trade, a new educational, assembly or institutional building carries a $1,000 base plus $0.20 per square foot, and a centre kitchen needs the food service plan review and the $120 annual State food establishment permit fee. Licensing the facility itself is a State function: G.S. 110-90(1) charges the Secretary of Health and Human Services with the child care licensing programme, run through the Division of Child Development and Early Education. The amounts in G.S. 110-90(1a) — $52 for 12 or fewer children, $187 for 13-50, $375 for 51-100 and $600 for 101 or more — sit under a column headed 'Maximum Fee' in a subdivision providing that 'The amount of the fee may not exceed the amount listed in this subdivision', so they are statutory ceilings on a fee the Division sets and are not published here as the license fee. Contact: 336-641-3771.

New Commercial Building Permit — Educational, Assembly or Institutional

A childcare centre or a fitness studio built new in Guilford County's permitting area is usually classified as an educational, assembly or institutional structure, and that classification carries the county's highest commercial base fee: $1,000 plus $0.20 per square foot, on the 'New Educational, Assembly or Institutional Structures' lines of the Guilford County FY2027 adopted budget fee schedule, adopted June 25, 2026. The contrast with the business, mercantile or retail band matters when comparing sites and uses, because the two bands are shaped differently: a retail building pays a $100 base plus $0.25 per square foot, so on a 4,000 square foot building it costs $1,100 against $1,800 for the same floor area classed as assembly, while at larger floor areas the lower per-square-foot rate in the assembly band narrows the gap. The occupancy classification is a building-code question settled by the design and the use, not something the applicant selects for price, so a childcare or studio operator should establish it early with the designer and with Permitting. On top of this come the applicable trade permits at $75 each and the $75 Inspections plan review fee that is new in FY2027. A childcare centre will also face Guilford County Emergency Services' $75 daycare fire inspection and its fire building and site plan reviews priced by floor area, Guilford County Planning site plan review and, for many childcare uses, a $500 special use permit plus a $26 recording fee; a studio with a pool adds Environmental Health pool plan review and an operation permit. Scope is unincorporated Guilford County plus Jamestown, Oak Ridge, Pleasant Garden, Sedalia, Stokesdale, Summerfield, Whitsett and the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority. Permitting: 336-641-3707.

Fire Protection System Plan Reviews

Each fire protection system on a Guilford County commercial project is reviewed and charged on its own, so the total depends on how many systems the building has rather than on its size alone. The Guilford County FY2027 adopted budget fee schedule, adopted June 25, 2026, prices water-based system review at $125 per riser, fire alarm review at $125, $200 or $300 by floor area, tank review at $100 per tank, AES review at $100 and hazardous materials review at $200 per system, with industrial ovens, emergency radio systems, spray and dipping operations, smoke control, solar, gates and barricades and pyrotechnic magazines each at $100 per system; all are unchanged across the FY2025, FY2026 and FY2027 columns. Which lines apply is industry-specific in a way that is easy to underestimate. A restaurant or coffee shop with a commercial kitchen hood typically picks up a water-based suppression review per riser plus an alarm review. An auto-repair shop doing paint or refinishing work picks up the spray and dipping review and, where it stores fuel or waste oil above or below ground, a tank review per tank and potentially the $200 hazardous materials review. A fitness studio or childcare centre in a larger building picks up the alarm review at the higher floor-area band. The hazardous materials review is the one outlier priced above $100, at $200 per system. These reviews are charged in addition to the fire building plan review of $100 to $1,000 by floor area and the fire site plan review of $50 to $500, and in addition to the Guilford County Inspections plan review fee of $75. Acceptance testing of the installed systems is a further set of charges, recorded separately here. The Fire Division's scope excludes the areas inside the city limits of Greensboro and High Point.

Fire Daycare Inspection

A childcare centre in Guilford County's fire jurisdiction pays Guilford County Emergency Services $75 for its daycare fire inspection. The figure is on the 'Daycare Inspection' line of the Guilford County FY2027 adopted budget fee schedule, adopted June 25, 2026, at $75.00 in each of the FY2025, FY2026 and FY2027 columns, and the schedule prices Foster Care Inspection and Group Home Inspection identically at $75.00 each. This is a named, specifically priced inspection rather than part of the routine inspection cycle, which is why it is a separate record: the schedule's routine inspection ladder charges nothing for a first visit and then $100, $200 and $300 for second, third and fourth visits, while the daycare inspection carries its own $75 regardless. For a childcare operator this is one of several county charges that sit around a State license. Guilford County Inspections treats 'Daycare in Residence' and 'Family Care Home' as trade-fees-only permits at $75 per trade with no base fee; a purpose-built centre falls in the educational, assembly or institutional band at a $1,000 base plus $0.20 per square foot; a centre kitchen needs Environmental Health food service plan review and the $120 annual State food establishment permit fee; and many childcare uses need a $500 special use permit plus a $26 recording fee from Guilford County Planning. County child care sanitation inspection itself carries no county fee, for the statutory reason recorded on its own entry on this page. The Fire Division's scope excludes the areas inside the city limits of Greensboro and High Point, where the city fire department inspects instead.

Child Care Centre License

Four bands — $52 up to twelve children, $187 to fifty, $375 to a hundred and $600 above that — and the division charges exactly the statutory maximum in every one, so the bands cannot move without an act of the legislature. A family child care home pays the same $52 as the smallest centre. Banding is on the licensed capacity printed on the license rather than on how many children actually attend, measured on 1 October, with invoices emailed in early November and payable online only, in full. Religious-sponsored facilities operating under a letter of compliance are exempt, as are state, public school and community college facilities. Non-payment can revoke the license, on top of a ten per cent late fee and interest. The license itself does not expire — only a temporary license does, after six months.

Shared with other businesses in Guilford County

• Food Service Plan Review — New Facility — Guilford County Division of Public Health — Environmental Health, $250 per plan review, county-only, for a new facility (adopted FY2027 fee schedule line 'Food Service - Plan Review / New Facility', unchanged at $250.00 across FY2025, FY2026 and FY2027), one-off, before construction; the food establishment permit that follows does not expire, and G.S. 130A-248(d) requires the State fee to be reassessed annually for permits that do not expire. Also required for restaurants and coffee shops; what it involves is set out on the restaurants page.
• Special Use Permit — Guilford County Planning & Development, $500 per case, county-only, plus a $26 recording fee for up to 15 pages — the Planning and Development fee schedule effective 1 July 2026 itemises '$500.00 Per Case / Plus Recording Fee' with footnote 1 setting the recording fee at $26, and the adopted FY2027 budget fee schedule states the same total as a bundled 'Special Use Permit/Case + Recording Fee $526.00', one-off, per case; the permit attaches to the approved use and the recording fee covers recording the order. Also required for veterinary clinics, auto repair shops, fitness studios, restaurants and retail stores; what it involves is set out on the auto repair shops page.