• Regulations guide the establishment of a home day care.children image by Renata Osinska from Fotolia.com
  
  A home day care is a home in which child day care is offered to four children or more that is different from the child's home and by people who are not relatives of the children. The purpose of day care is to present a nurturing environment to children, especially when their parents have to be at work or are otherwise engaged. There are various regulations guiding the establishment of a home day care facility.
  
  

Background Check

• Those applying to operate a home day care must complete a background check.children playing image by L. Shat from Fotolia.com
  
  When applying for a certificate or license to operate a day care facility or to have unsupervised access to children in child care, the applicant has to submit a completed background check form and fingerprint card if it is required. A fingerprint card might be required if the applicant has resided in a state for less than three years. This is to enable the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct a background check. This rule applies to all the people who will have prolonged contact with the children, such as volunteers, interns, contracted providers and those residing on the premises of a licensed facility who are age 16 or older. All of these people have to complete a background check form in which they will state if they have any pending criminal charges, if they have ever been convicted of a crime or any other contrary act which has been defined under the regulation. Anyone who fails any of these tests is not allowed to be on the premises of a licensed child day care facility. The purpose of background checks is to determine the character of potential child care givers in order to eliminate or greatly reduce the risk of exposing children to care givers who have been convicted of crimes.
  
  

Day care Safety

• There must be two exits at either end of a home day care facility.exit image by Joseph Pierce from Fotolia.com
  
  When a part of the home used for a child day care is used for other things which might constitute a hazard, there must be a firewall between the day care and the other business. Such a business could be furniture-making shop or automotive repair shop. There must be two exits at either end of each level of a child day care facility and one of these exits has to be a working door or window that opens directly to a public street which has been inspected and approved for emergency escape or rescue. There must be a sprinkler system throughout the building which fulfils the standards of the National Fire Protection Association. The locks in the bathroom must be designed in such a way that the lock can be opened from the outside in case of an emergency and all the closets must have latches that can be opened from the inside.
  
  

Fire Evacuation Plan

• There must be a written fire evacuation plan.fire prevention image by Jim Parkin from Fotolia.com
  
  Regulations require those operating a home day care to have a written fire evacuation plan. All the exit routes, including doors and windows, must be identified and mapped out. Such a plan must be placed at conspicuous points so that staff and parents can clearly see them. This plan has to include the process to follow when a fire has been discovered, from the evacuation of the building to the arrival of the fire department.