You run a business out of your house, and the agency that licensed you never mentioned insurance.

Washington's opt-out is a real, current form and its body is two checkboxes. DCYF form 15-894, "Liability Insurance Notice for Family Home Child Care," revised 10/2019, reads in full: "I am informing you of my insurance status. [ ] I do not carry liability insurance. [ ] I do carry liability insurance and I will notify you of changes to my insurance coverage," followed by a licensee signature and a parent or guardian signature (Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families, form 15-894, revision 10/2019, file last modified November 2, 2024). A licensed Washington family child care provider can operate entirely uninsured by ticking the first box and getting a signature.

What the day actually looks like, and where it goes wrong

The business is your house. The nap room is a bedroom. The playground is the back yard, and it has whatever was already back there when you started: a trampoline, a hot tub, a structure the previous owner built. Your own children are in the mix, and in Oregon they count toward capacity if they are nine or younger. Somebody else lives in the house, and the state has screened them, because Oregon's Central Background Registry reaches every resident aged 18 or over and requires enrolment before that person can even reside there (OAR 414-210-0310).

Now think about what a claim looks like against that. A toddler gets a finger in a door hinge. A four-year-old goes home with a bruise nobody can explain and a parent calls the licensor. A child is released to the wrong adult at pickup because two people share a first name. Somebody slips on your front step at drop-off. A parent's phone gets stolen out of the entryway. You drive three children to a library programme and get rear-ended. An adult who lives in the house is accused of something.

None of those are unusual. What is unusual about this business is that all of them happen inside a residence that is insured as a residence, and the person running it usually found that out after the fact.

The second structural feature is that the operation changes shape as it grows, and the change is invisible from outside. An Oregon registered home is a solo licence: a maximum of 10 children, of which six may be preschool age or younger and only two under 24 months, and Division 210 sets no duties or qualifications for assistants and carries no volunteer rule of its own (OAR 414-210-0400, effective July 1, 2025). An Oregon certified home can reach 16, is approved room by room on measured floor area, and has express rules for the duties and qualifications of assistants and for volunteers (OAR 414-360-0800, 414-360-0320, 414-360-0340 and 414-360-0360, updates effective January 1, 2026). Same house. Different business.

What each coverage actually does for a family child care provider

Here is the program in the order the exposures show up, with what each piece is for and where each one runs out.

General liability is the base, and it answers for bodily injury and property damage to other people arising out of your premises and your operations. That is the slip at drop-off, the parent's damaged property, the injury on the play structure. It is written on a commercial form, and for a home-based provider it is either bought as a standalone policy or attached to the house through an endorsement. Those aren't the same instrument and the comparison page works through why.

Professional liability for the care itself is the piece most providers don't know is a separate question. Washington's legislature drew the distinction in 1986 when it defined "day care insurance" as coverage against legal liability "against loss, damage, or expense incident to a claim arising out of the death or injury of any person as the result of negligence or malpractice in rendering professional service by any licensee" (RCW 48.88.020(2)). Read that against a premises trigger. A supervision failure is not a slip and fall, and the allegation in a wrong-pickup claim is not that your step was icy. The liability page separates the two triggers.

Abuse and molestation coverage responds to allegations of abuse or molestation, usually by endorsement and often with its own limit, its own trigger and its own definition of who is an insured. No state licence in the Northwest requires it. Contracts increasingly do, and Oregon's Preschool Promise grant process names sexual abuse and molestation specifically. The abuse and molestation page covers where it is demanded and what to check.

Auto is the one exposure all three states legislated. Every one of them has a transport rule, and the wording differs enough to change whether a personal auto policy satisfies it. See driving children in your care.

Property on the business side. Cribs, mats, cots, high chairs, art supplies, outdoor equipment and the fenced play area are business property in a residence. A home policy treats property used for a business differently from a couch, usually with a limit far below what a fully equipped home program is carrying. Idaho is the only Northwest state that puts this in the licensing rules at all, by asking for "fire and liability" rather than liability alone.

Workers compensation becomes a live question the moment somebody works for you rather than with you. An Oregon registered provider working alone is one situation. A certified home with assistants is another, and so is a Washington family home running a qualified assistant to reach the higher capacity tier. Ask the state workers compensation agency directly about your specific arrangement; the answer turns on employment facts rather than on your child care licence.

What you probably do not need. If you have no employees, no vehicle used for the children, and no contract asking for it, you aren't solving anything by buying an employment practices policy or a cyber policy for a home program that keeps paper files in a locked drawer. Spend the money on the limit and the abuse and molestation question instead.

The gaps that actually get these claims denied

This is the section a brochure skips, so it is the one worth reading twice.

The business-use problem in the home policy. Home policies are written for a residence. Liability arising out of a business conducted from that residence is generally limited or excluded, which is precisely why endorsements and separate commercial policies exist. Nothing in the licensing process in any of the three states makes anyone raise it with you, and in Washington a provider can lawfully sign a form telling parents she has no coverage at all without anyone explaining what that means.

Who is an insured. A policy names somebody. If the registration is in your name and the policy is in your husband's, or the operation has become a business entity and the policy still names you individually, that mismatch is discovered at the claim. It is also worth asking specifically whether assistants, volunteers and the adults who live in the house are insureds, because the licensing agency has already decided they are part of the operation. Oregon's registry requires background enrolment before someone 18 or over can reside in the home, stay overnight more than 14 consecutive days, work there, or volunteer (OAR 414-210-0310).

Care, custody and control. This is the standard exclusion for damage to property in your care rather than injury to a person, and it comes up when a parent's stroller, car seat or phone is damaged or goes missing. It is a different problem from a child's injury and it is usually solved, if at all, by a different part of the policy.

Defence costs. Ask whether defence is paid inside the limit or in addition to it. It varies by form. On a small limit, a defended allegation that never pays a dollar of indemnity can still consume most of what you bought. We won't tell you how a policy you haven't shown us handles it, because that is a form-level answer and forms differ.

The abuse and molestation gap. Where the coverage exists at all, it commonly carries its own sublimit and its own trigger, and the trigger is often the date the claim is made rather than the date of the alleged conduct. That distinction decides whether a policy you cancelled two years ago responds to an allegation about that period.

Attractive nuisance stacking. The trampoline, pool or play structure that was fine for a family becomes a business exposure the day you take a child for money. Oregon's certified rules approve outdoor space room by room, which means there is a written record of exactly what the regulator approved, and a plaintiff's lawyer can read it.

The certificate you cannot produce. If a subsidy grant, a landlord or an employer partnership asks for evidence of coverage at named limits and your program sits on a homeowners endorsement, the certificate may not exist in the form they want. That is not a coverage failure, it is an instrument failure, and it shows up on a deadline.

What drives eligibility and price

We don't publish premium figures for a business type. Any number that would mean anything comes from your own operation, and an industry average is not that. What the underwriter is actually reading is this:

• Capacity and age mix. Infants are the single biggest mover. Oregon's registered rules cap you at six children preschool age or younger with only two under 24 months, and forbid any child under six weeks in a registered home other than the provider's own (OAR 414-210-0400).
• Licence category. Registered, certified, licensed, or under the licensing floor entirely. It tells the underwriter the operation's shape faster than anything else on the application.
• Payroll and helpers. Whether anyone is paid, and whether they are employees or not.
• The premises. Pool, hot tub, trampoline, play structure, stairs, dogs, and the approved outdoor space if you are certified.
• Transport. Whether you drive children at all, in what, and how often.
• Loss and licensing history, including complaints and any enforcement action.
• Contract requirements. A grant, a landlord or a partnership can set limits your licence never mentions.

Carrier appetite is the yes-or-no that comes before the price. We can tell you quickly whether an operation is straightforward or awkward to place. We cannot promise coverage, placement or eligibility before a market has looked at it.

Licensing and the paperwork that generates insurance questions

The three states differ enough that each has its own page. In short:

• Oregon. Two home categories under the Department of Early Learning and Care: registered (OAR 414-210, capacity 10) and certified (OAR 414-360, up to 16 on measured floor area). No liability insurance requirement of any kind, and no duty to tell parents whether you carry coverage. Oregon family child care insurance.
• Washington. A licence is triggered by one unrelated child under WAC 110-300-0010(3). Capacity is gated on years of experience. Insurance is an either/or with a lawful opt-out. Washington family child care insurance.
• Idaho. Six children or fewer is not licensed at all. At seven, a rule asks for proof of fire and liability coverage with no limit stated. Idaho family child care insurance.

Two paperwork routes generate most of the insurance questions we see. The first is a licence renewal, where Washington asks for proof or the signed notice. The second is a contract: a subsidy grant, a landlord, a school district partnership or an employer arrangement. On the subsidy side the honest answer is that most programmes ask for nothing, which almost nobody says out loud. The subsidy contract article goes through what we found in each of the three states.

Exposure, coverage, and where it usually breaks

How a market check usually plays out

We are independent, so we aren't defending one carrier's appetite. On a new placement we take the licence category, the capacity and age mix, the premises detail and the transport answer, put it in front of the markets that write this class, and compare what comes back on the same facts. On an existing setup we read your home policy and any endorsement against what you actually do, which is where the business-use wording and the named insured usually surface. Where a policy is bound, it is paid in full or financed, whichever suits the cash flow. Nothing here is a quote, and none of it guarantees coverage, placement or eligibility.

Questions to ask, and documents to send

Ask any agent, including us:

• Where in my home policy is the business-use wording, and what does it actually say?
• Is the professional service covered, or only the premises?
• Who is a named insured, and does that reach assistants, volunteers and the adults who live here?
• Is abuse and molestation on the policy, at what limit, and on what trigger?
• Do defence costs come out of the limit?
• What happens if I am driving children and I am at fault?
• What limit does the policy carry for business property, and is that enough for the equipment I own?
• If a grant or a landlord asks for a certificate, can this policy produce one?

Send us: your registration, certification or licence and its category; your licensed capacity and age mix; whether anyone works for or volunteers with you; any vehicle you use for the children; your current homeowners or renters declarations page and any daycare endorsement; any contract or grant naming insurance; and five years of losses if you have them.

By state

Richard Sweet, owner of Vantage Point Risk and an independent insurance advisor. Last reviewed August 10, 2026. How we review this.