How to Start a Childcare Center in Georgia: Everything You Need to Know
If you want to open a childcare center in Georgia, the licensing path has a lot of pieces, and the order you tackle them in matters. Do things out of order and you pay for it in time and money.
I ran a childcare center here in Georgia for over 21 years. This guide walks you through every requirement in the order you'll actually run into it, based on DECAL's current rules.
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In Georgia, a program caring for seven or more children for pay is a Child Care Learning Center, licensed through DECAL (the Department of Early Care and Learning). Here's what that path looks like, one step at a time.
Step 1: Line up a qualified Director
Every center needs a Director who is responsible for running the program day to day, physically on-site. If your Director is ever off-site during operating hours, someone else has to be officially designated to take over, with full access to your records.
Your Director has to be at least 21 and meet one of 13 credential and experience combinations DECAL accepts. The most common are:
A CDA plus six months of qualifying childcare experience
A Technical Certificate of Credit (TCC) in Early Childhood Education, Infant and Toddler, or Program Administration, plus six months of experience
A Bachelor's or Master's degree in Early Childhood Education or Child Development, which waives the experience requirement
Other accepted options include an Associate's degree or Technical College Diploma in Early Childhood Education with six months of experience, a Paraprofessional Certificate with six months of experience, a Bachelor's degree in another field with three months of experience, and five years as an on-site center Director plus the 40-hour course. Whatever your Director holds, keep a copy of it in their file.
Here's the part that catches people off guard. Before your license is issued, your Director also has to complete a 40-hour director's training course approved by DECAL. You cannot open without it.
Schedule that course the same week you decide to open a center. Waiting until the month before opening day is how launch dates slip.
Step 2: Plan your teachers and aides
Your Director isn't the only person with qualifications to meet. If your center is licensed for 19 or more children, every group needs a designated lead teacher who is at least 18 and holds one of the same credentials as your Director. Most lead teacher credentials don't require any experience. The one exception is a Bachelor's degree in another field, which needs three months.
Good candidates don't always have the credential yet. You can still hire them as a lead teacher if they enroll in a credential program within six months of being hired and finish within 18 months of enrolling. Keep that written plan in their file, because your inspector will ask for it.
Caregivers and aides work under the lead teacher. In a center of 19 or more children, aides can be as young as 16, but a 16 or 17 year old can never be left solely responsible for a group. In a center of 18 or fewer children, aides have to be at least 18 and have a high school diploma, a GED, or three months of qualifying childcare experience.
When I hired, I would take an inexperienced person with a great attitude over an experienced person with a "meh" personality every single time. Credentials can be earned. Character can't be trained.
Step 3: Attend DECAL's licensing orientation
Before you submit your license application, you're required to attend a DECAL orientation of up to 16 hours. It covers the application process and the regulations for centers.
If you already hold a Child Care Learning Center license and you're opening another center, you don't repeat orientation within two years of completing your last one. Opening more than one center at once? One orientation covers all of them.
Keep your certificate of completion. It goes in with your application.
Before you sign a lease: get four approvals lined up
This is the mistake I see cost people the most. Georgia requires anyone building a new center, or making structural changes to a building, to get approval from four places. Line them up before you sign a lease or start any renovation:
DECAL
Your local zoning office, which decides whether childcare is an allowed use for that property
The fire marshal, who checks fire code
Your city or county building or permitting department, which handles building permits and issues your Certificate of Occupancy
All four. Not just one.
I knew a provider who signed a lease on a space and found out afterward it was zoned for retail, not childcare. She had to go back to the city, request a rezoning, and wait months before she could even start her build-out. Meanwhile, rent was due every month.
Call zoning first. Search "[your county] zoning office" and ask this before you fall in love with a building.
Example Script: "Hi, I'm looking at a property at [address] and I'm planning to open a licensed childcare center for about [number] children. Can you tell me if childcare is a permitted use at that address, and if not, what the process is to get approval?"
Step 4: Build your staffing plan around Georgia's ratios
Georgia sets ratios by age group, and they decide how many staff you need for every room you open. Your payroll budget starts here.
| Age group | Staff to child ratio | Max group size |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1, or non-walkers under 18 months | 1 to 6 | 12 |
| 1 year olds who walk | 1 to 8 | 16 |
| 2 year olds | 1 to 10 | 20 |
| 3 year olds | 1 to 15 | 30 |
| 4 year olds | 1 to 18 | 36 |
| 5 year olds | 1 to 20 | 40 |
| 6 and older | 1 to 25 | 50 |
Mixed-age rooms. In a center of 19 or more children, the ratio is based on the youngest age group that makes up more than 20 percent of the room. In a center of 18 or fewer, the youngest child under three sets the ratio. If everyone in that group is three or older, the age of the majority sets it. Maximum group sizes don't apply to centers of 18 or fewer, but the ratios still do.
Separate space for under threes. In centers of 19 or more children, kids under three have to be kept in separate physical areas from older children, except during early morning arrival and late afternoon departure. A child who turns three during the school year can also stay with the two year olds through the end of that year, with the parent's agreement. Plan your floor plan around this rule before you sign anything. Restructuring a room after you open is expensive and slow.
Step 5: Prepare for the inspection
Your inspector works from the same list every time. That's good news, because you can walk your own space against it before DECAL ever shows up.
Indoor space. You need 35 square feet of usable indoor space per child. Kitchens, bathrooms, closets, hallways and offices don't count. Ceilings have to be at least 7 feet high, and any basement area more than 25 linear feet from a window can't be used for care.
Bathrooms. Toilet and sink counts scale with your capacity. You need one of each for 1 to 12 children, two for 13 to 25, three for 26 to 50, and one more for every additional 25 children. If you have children in potty training, at least one of those has to be a flush toilet. Potty chairs don't count toward the total. Budget for this early. It affects your build-out cost more than most people expect.
Fire and building safety. You need fire marshal approval, including a Certificate of Occupancy where one is required, before you accept a single child. Doors to rooms not approved for childcare stay latched or locked. Unused outlets within a child's reach need protective caps, and heaters and cooling equipment have to sit where kids can't touch them.
Hazardous materials. Cleaning supplies and chemicals go in a locked area children can't get to. That includes commercial buckets that hold three gallons or more.
First aid kits. Every building and every transport vehicle needs a stocked kit, stored where staff can grab it fast and kids can't reach it. DECAL requires each kit to hold at least:
Gauze pads, adhesive tape and band-aids in assorted sizes
Scissors, tweezers and a thermometer
Antiseptic cleansing solution, antibacterial ointment and an insect-sting treatment
Rubber gloves, protective eyewear and a face mask
Triangular bandages and a cold pack
A first aid manual
CPR and first aid coverage. Whenever children are on-site, at least half of your caregiving staff must hold current CPR and first aid certification, and every classroom needs at least one certified staff member in the room. New direct care staff have 45 days from hire to get certified, and your Director has to hold current certification at all times. You manage this every shift, not once at hiring. Build it into your schedule.
Toys and equipment. Everything has to be safe and used the way the manufacturer intended. Skip anything with sharp edges or toxic paint, and leave launching toys like dart guns out entirely. For children under three, toys can't have small parts and need to be easy to disinfect daily. Anchor any furniture or TV that could tip over.
Outdoor play. Centers of 19 or more children need 100 square feet of outdoor play space for every 3 children in capacity. Smaller centers need 100 square feet per child. Whatever your total, every child outside at a given moment needs 100 square feet, so rotate groups when you need to. Either way, the playground needs a fence at least 4 feet high, and climbing or swinging equipment needs a cushioned surface underneath, not bare ground.
Step 6: Pay your license fee and clear background checks
Center license fees scale with your licensed capacity. Your license is valid for one year and renews annually. Pay on time. DECAL can add a late fee of up to $250, and a fee left unpaid 30 days past the due date gets your license revoked.
| Licensed capacity | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| Up to 25 children | $50 |
| 26 to 50 children | $100 |
| 51 to 100 children | $150 |
| 101 to 200 children | $200 |
| More than 200 children | $250 |
Every Director, teacher and aide needs a current, satisfactory Comprehensive Records Check Determination before they're ever present with children in care. The clearance date has to fall within the 12 months before their hire date. Anyone who leaves the childcare field for six months or longer needs a new check, and every staff member gets rechecked at least once every five years.
While you wait on a comprehensive check, you can bring someone on as a Provisional Employee once they have a satisfactory fingerprint check. Until their full clearance comes back, they have to be supervised at all times by someone who already has one.
These checks take real time. Start them as early as you can, especially if you're hiring a full staff before opening day. A great hire you can't put in a classroom yet still costs you.
Step 7: Stay licensed after you open
Getting licensed is the starting line. After your first year, every supervisory and caregiving staff member owes 10 hours of training annually. At least two of those hours have to be in language and literacy, and at least two in child development or health and safety topics.
No more than two of the ten hours can be business topics. New direct care staff also complete a health and safety orientation within their first 90 days. Centers have one more requirement. Within the first year, your Director and whoever is primarily responsible for food prep each owe four hours of training in nutrition and safe food handling.
If you're already running a center, this is where I see owners slip. It rarely happens at launch. It happens a year or two in, when staff turnover means someone's training hours quietly lapse and nobody notices until the inspector does.
So track training hours per staff member, not just for the center as a whole. A simple spreadsheet with each person's completed hours and renewal dates is enough. Review it once a month.
Your next step
That's the full licensing path, start to finish. Opening a center is a bigger lift than a home program, and it's completely doable one step at a time.
DECAL updates its rules from time to time. Before you build your budget or timeline around any number here, confirm it with DECAL or a licensing consultant.
Licensing is only part of the work. You still need your business setup, your policies, a marketing plan and a budget that holds up. When you're ready for the whole business side, that's exactly what I teach inside the Childcare Startup Academy.
If you'd rather watch, check out the video version of this post here.
Source: Rules for Child Care Learning Centers, Ga. Comp. R. and Regs. 591-1-1, effective July 1, 2025.