Licensed home based services (family day care)
Maximum number of children in each home
A carer in a licensed home based care service must care for no more than seven children in a home, no more than four of whom are not yet school children. In deciding how many children a carer is caring for, the carer's own children who are school children are not counted (section 92 of the Child Care Act 2002). For the purposes of this section, 'school child' includes a child who is not yet attending school but is enrolled to attend a school in that year.
Emergency care
The Child Care Act 2002 (the Act) provides for emergency care (section 33).
Under the Act, a care provider will not be breaching the maximum number of children cared for in their home if 'emergency care' 8 is being provided (section 94 of the Act).
As a safeguard, the total number of children receiving emergency care must not be more than one child or sibling group, and the emergency care can occur for no more than one hour in a day. In addition, emergency care cannot have been provided on the previous day to that child or sibling group. The Child Care Regulation 2003 also imposes record keeping requirements in relation to emergency care.
Last updated: 23 June 2008.