North Dakota Childcare Square Footage Requirements (2026)

A family child care must provide a minimum of thirty-five square feet (3.25 square meters) of indoor space per child (excluding bathrooms, pantries, passageways to outdoor exits, furniture/appliance areas, and off-limits space) and a minimum of seventy-five square feet (6.97 square meters) of outdoor play space per child, unless the provider supplies seventy-five square feet of separate indoor recreation space per child, which exempts it from the outdoor requirement (NDAC 75-03-08-14(1)).

NDAC 75-03-08-14(1)

A family child care may serve no more than seven children at any one time, of which no more than three may be under twenty-four months of age, plus up to two additional school-age children

NDCC 50-11.1-02(7), 50-11.1-03(1), and 50-11.1-02.1

a license is triggered at four or more children twenty-four months and under, or six or seven children through age eleven.

NDCC 50-11.1-02(7), 50-11.1-03(1), and 50-11.1-02.1

The provider's own children under age twelve count toward the total, while the provider's own children, foster children, or grandchildren over age eleven are exempt (NDCC 50-11.1-02(7), 50-11.1-03(1), and 50-11.1-02.1).

NDCC 50-11.1-02(7), 50-11.1-03(1), and 50-11.1-02.1

North Dakota sets no separate group-size cap and instead regulates staffing through age-based minimum staff-to-child ratios expressed in decimal form (.25 for children under eighteen months, .20 for eighteen to thirty-six months, .14 for thirty-six months to four years, .10 for four to five years, .08 for five to six years, and .05 for six to twelve years), with licensed capacity caps of seven children for family child care, thirty for group child care, and more than thirty for a child care center (NDAC 75-03-09-09 and NDCC 50-11.1-03(1)-(3) and 50-11.1-02).

NDAC 75-03-09-09 and NDCC 50-11.1-03(1)-(3) and 50-11.1-02

How much indoor space per child does North Dakota require?

A family child care must provide a minimum of thirty-five square feet (3.25 square meters) of indoor space per child (excluding bathrooms, pantries, passageways to outdoor exits, furniture/appliance areas, and off-limits space) and a minimum of seventy-five square feet (6.97 square meters) of outdoor play space per child, unless the provider supplies seventy-five square feet of separate indoor recreation space per child, which exempts it from the outdoor requirement (NDAC 75-03-08-14(1)).

Does North Dakota require outdoor play space too?

A family child care must provide a minimum of thirty-five square feet (3.25 square meters) of indoor space per child (excluding bathrooms, pantries, passageways to outdoor exits, furniture/appliance areas, and off-limits space) and a minimum of seventy-five square feet (6.97 square meters) of outdoor play space per child, unless the provider supplies seventy-five square feet of separate indoor recreation space per child, which exempts it from the outdoor requirement (NDAC 75-03-08-14(1)).

What space is excluded when calculating capacity in North Dakota?

Most states exclude hallways, bathrooms, kitchens, offices, and storage from the usable indoor activity space used to compute capacity. Confirm the exact exclusions in the cited North Dakota rule above.