What is a Child Care Center?

Child care facilities in Maryland are not regulated the same way across the board.  Instead, these facilities, which are overseen by the Maryland Department of Education, are broken into different categories. 

In this state, three categories of child care exist: Family Child Care Homes, Letter of Compliance facilities and Child Care Centers.

Each of these categories is regulated by its own code and has its own set of items that get reviewed during their required inspections. 

So you can better understand the state system, here is a breakdown of what defines each type of facility.

CHILD CARE CENTERS

According to the state, child care centers are "professionally staffed facilities which generally serve large groups of children.

While centers vary greatly in size, each one must remain within the maximum child capacity established for it by OCC.

This means that no more than a specified number of children may be present in a given center at one time. Centers operate for part or all of a day at least twice a week on a regular basis."