Daycare Center or Family Home: PA's Kinds of Care in Berks
Pennsylvania certifies centers, group homes and family child care homes. What each allows in Berks: how many kids, how many adults, what the subsidy pays.
Pennsylvania certifies three kinds of child care, and a home daycare and a daycare center can both hold the same certificate of compliance from the Department of Human Services. That certificate is the state's license to run a child care program; the state says certified or licensed and means the same thing. What differs between a child care center, a group child care home and a family child care home is how many children each may take, how many adults must be present, and what the state's subsidy will pay. Once you know those numbers, you can compare any program under daycares in Berks County and ask the same questions at either door.
Pennsylvania certifies three kinds of child care.
Anyone who runs a program for four or more children unrelated to them needs a certificate of compliance.
A child care center cares for seven or more children unrelated to the operator. A group child care home cares for more than six and fewer than thirteen (fewer than sixteen if every child is in fourth grade or older) and can be in a residence or other premises. A family child care home is a home other than the child's own home where four, five or six children unrelated to the operator are cared for. Between seven and twelve children the two definitions overlap, and a program's certificate names which kind it holds. The three are also in our childcare guide's section on the kinds of care.
How many children and adults each kind allows.
Two numbers matter here: the staff-to-child ratio, how many children one adult may care for, and the group size, the most children allowed in one group. The table below is the state's rule for centers and group homes by age: the most a program of either kind may do, not a recommendation.
| Age group | Children per adult, center or group home | Most in one group at a center | Most in one group at a group home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infant (under 1) | 4 | 8 | 12 |
| Young toddler (1 to 2) | 5 | 10 | 12 |
| Older toddler (2 to 3) | 6 | 12 | 12 |
| Preschool (3 until kindergarten) | 10 | 20 | 12 |
| Kindergarten to third grade | 12 | 24 | 12 |
| Fourth grade and up | 15 | 30 | 15 |
A mixed-age group at either kind takes the youngest child's numbers for both columns.
At a group home the cap is twelve at every age (fifteen if all are in fourth grade or above) because the whole home holds no more than twelve children unrelated to the operator at once, fifteen for a home serving only older school-age children. Read it as the most a program may do, then ask how many children and adults would be in your child's room. A group home may have a single staff person on duty at times when six or fewer children are present, unless the children's ages call for a second or third adult under the table above.
A family home has no ratio table, only three numbers. It may have no more than six children at any one time who are unrelated to the operator or the staff person; the operator's own related children (or the staff person's, but not both) don't count toward the six. Counting related and unrelated children together, it may have no more than five infants and toddlers at once, and no more than two of them may be infants; toddler here means ages one to three. The operator may be the only adult. While preparing a meal or using the restroom, the operator may supervise by a monitor or mirror, staying on the premises.
Does a relative or a neighbor need a certificate?
Not always. Care for one, two or three unrelated children needs no certificate, whoever the caregiver is, so a neighbor in Fleetwood who watches your child and two others needs no certificate. A neighbor who watches four, five or six unrelated children is running a family child care home and needs the certificate, so ask to see it. Care by a relative needs no certificate at any number, and the law's relatives are a parent, child, stepparent, stepchild, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, half brother, half sister, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew (a nonprofit center's or group home's rules add a stepbrother, stepsister or first cousin).
Child Care Works, the state's subsidy that pays part of the bill for working families, keeps a shorter list. It pays a relative who cares for three or fewer children, not counting the relative's own, and that relative has to be a grandparent, great-grandparent, aunt, uncle or sibling, 18 or older, living at a different address from the child. The relative also passes state police and child-abuse clearances and a federal criminal history clearance that costs $24.95.
Who inspects each kind, and what a parent can see.
Every kind gets at least one unannounced inspection a year and is subject to complaint inspections. A family home also gets an announced inspection before its first certificate. A certificate at any kind runs up to 12 months.
What the inspector writes, and the state's regional child care office to call about a particular program's record, are in how to check a daycare's inspection reports. At any of the three kinds, a parent of a child in care may come in without notice, anywhere children are, whenever children are in care, unless a court order on file limits that parent's access. In a family home, weapons and firearms must be kept in a locked cabinet, ammunition locked separately, and the operator must tell parents when weapons, firearms or ammunition are present.
A family home's operator must be at least 18 with a high school diploma or GED. Staff at every kind must be 18 or older (or 16 and enrolled in an approved training program), complete the state's ten health and safety training topics within 90 days of hire, safe sleep and pediatric first aid and CPR among them, and take at least 12 hours of training a year. At a family home, someone trained in pediatric first aid and CPR must be present whenever children are in care.
Keystone STARS, the state's quality rating from one to four, covers all three kinds: every program whose certificate is a regular one, meaning it meets the rules, gets STAR 1, and a family or group home can climb to STAR 4. The state's online provider search, the one how to check a daycare's inspection reports walks through, filters by kind and by STARS rating.
What each kind usually costs in Berks County.
Two Berks programs that post an infant rate charge $275 and $320 a week for full-time care as of 2026. The figure the state publishes by kind is the subsidy's ceiling: Child Care Works pays a provider up to a daily amount that differs by kind and age.
| Age group | Center | Group home | Family home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infant (under 1) | $55.14 | $43.59 | $37.62 |
| Young toddler (1 to 2) | $50.82 | $39.91 | $36.37 |
| Older toddler (2 to 3) | $48.70 | $35.08 | $36.83 |
| Preschool (3 until kindergarten) | $44.76 | $34.55 | $36.27 |
The most Child Care Works pays a provider for one full-time day in Region 13 (Berks and Schuylkill counties), in effect since January 1, 2025. The uneven steps between columns are the chart's own.
Worked to a five-day week, the infant ceiling is about $276 at a center and $188 at a family home; for a young toddler it's about $254 and $182. In the state's own survey of this region, about half of centers and most family and group homes charged more than the infant ceiling, so the number to budget from is the program's own rate. Statewide, a year of full-time infant care runs $14,910 at a center and $10,994 at a family child care home; the Berks center rates by age are in what daycare costs in Berks County.
The subsidy pays at any of the three kinds; the parent picks the provider, who has to agree to take part. Whether your own family qualifies for help paying is a question for the Early Learning Resource Center, the office that handles Child Care Works for Berks families, and how Child Care Works works in Berks County is the place to start.
What to ask a center or a family home on your next visit.
Start with the paperwork: ask to see the certificate of compliance, how many children are in care and what ages, whether there's a substitute or back-up caregiver, whether all adults there have had background checks, and whether CPR and first aid certifications are current.
Then ask where children nap and how they make sure babies sleep on their backs. Ask whether you can visit anytime. Ask what they do if a child is sick and what they'd do in an emergency. Ask for the written contract that lists the cost and every fee, and for the policy on days they close. Then go back to daycares in Berks County and compare the answers.
Home daycare vs daycare center: questions parents ask.
Can one adult watch six children alone in a family home?
Yes. A family child care home may have no more than six children at any one time who are unrelated to the operator or the staff person, no more than five infants and toddlers at once, and no more than two of them infants. The six counts only unrelated children; the operator's own may be there as well, and the infant and toddler caps count everyone. The operator may be the only adult.
Is a family child care home licensed the same way a center is?
Yes. Both hold a certificate of compliance from the Department of Human Services and both get at least one unannounced inspection a year. The difference is the numbers: a center cares for seven or more children unrelated to the operator, a family home for four, five or six.
Does Child Care Works pay for a family home?
It does, at any of the three kinds, up to the daily ceiling for that kind and age. Whether your family qualifies is a question for the Early Learning Resource Center.
A certified family home and a center answer to the same office, under rules written for their size. Take the tables' numbers and the questions above to both visits and write the answers down side by side.
Sources
- 55 Pa. Code Chapter 3270 (child care centers) / Chapter 3280 (group child care homes) / Chapter 3290 (family child care homes): the definitions of the three kinds, who needs a certificate and who doesn't, the staff-to-child ratios and group sizes, the family home's six-child, five-under-three and two-infant limits, staff age and training, the yearly certificate, the inspections, parent access, and the firearms rule.
- 55 Pa. Code Chapter 20, Licensure or Approval of Facilities and Agencies: the regular certificate of compliance, what a certificate lists, and the complaint inspections.
- Human Services Code, 62 P.S. § 1001: the statute's definitions of a child care center, a family child care home and a relative.
- Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, "Early Learning Provider Requirements" and "Child Care Regulations": that four or more unrelated children means a certificate is required, the plain-language definitions of the three kinds, and that certified and licensed mean the same thing.
- Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, "Child Care Works": that the parent picks a center, group home, family home or relative; which relatives may be paid, the three-or-fewer rule, and the clearances and the $24.95 fee.
- Office of Child Development and Early Learning, "Maximum Child Care Allowance (MCCA) Daily Rates" (effective January 1, 2025) and ELRC Announcement 24-04: the Region 13 daily ceilings by kind of program and their effective date.
- Pennsylvania 2025 Child Care Market Rate Survey, Summary Report (April 2026) and the full report (June 2026): the share of Region 13 (Berks and Schuylkill) providers of each kind charging at or below the infant ceiling.
- Child Care Aware of America, "Child Care in America: 2024 Affordability Analysis", Tables I and II: the Pennsylvania annual prices for center-based and family child care by age, drawn from the state's market-rate survey.
- Pennsylvania Key, "Keystone STARS Performance Standards" (effective July 1, 2022): that every program with a regular certificate is STAR 1 and that family and group homes take part.
- COMPASS Child Care Provider Search (read October 23, 2026): the Provider Type and STARS filters.
- Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, "5 Steps to Selecting a Child Care Provider" and Child Care Aware of America, "Family Child Care Home Checklist": the questions to ask on the phone and on a visit.
- Riverview Christian Early Learning Center, pricing (effective August 25, 2025) and Flying Hills Preschool, 2026-2027 tuition rates (effective August 24, 2026): the two posted full-time infant rates, $320 and $275 a week.