Family child care in New Jersey: registration, the food program, parent receipts and your home's time-space percentage

Registration in New Jersey

The DCF Office of Licensing says family child care providers care for five or fewer children under 13 in their own homes and may choose to become voluntarily registered through the Child Care Resource and Referral agency in the county where they live or work. The Manual of Requirements for Family Child Care Registration (N.J.A.C. 3A:54) fills in the details:

• Size: no fewer than three and no more than five children at any one time, for at least 15 hours a week (3A:54-1.2). Up to eight at a time only if the additional children live with the provider and are under six (3A:54-6.1).
• Term: three years. The renewal packet is sent no later than 90 days before expiration, and the provider sends materials back no later than 45 days before (3A:54-5.4, 5.7).
• Fee: $25, non-refundable, when the certificate is issued (3A:54-5.6).
• Records: daily attendance, accidents and injuries, visitors and volunteers, and a signed statement from each parent that they received the Information to Parents statement, kept at least one year after care for each child ends (3A:54-5.11).

The Child and Adult Care Food Program

In New Jersey the Department of Agriculture administers CACFP. A day care home takes part by signing an agreement with a sponsoring organization (NJDA fact sheet). Tier I homes are in low-income areas or have a provider whose household income is at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty guidelines; other homes are tier II, and a tier II provider can ask the sponsor to identify children whose meals are reimbursed at tier I rates. Homes can claim up to two meals and one snack, or two snacks and one meal, per eligible child per day. Your sponsor sets the menu and claim records it needs and when claims are due.

Food on your tax return

Publication 587 lets family daycare providers use standard meal and snack rates instead of tracking actual food costs for eligible children, at most one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner and three snacks per child per day. For 2025 the rates are the CACFP rates in effect on December 31, 2024; in most states $1.66 for breakfast, $3.15 for lunch or dinner and $0.93 for a snack. To use them, keep each child's name, dates and hours of attendance, and the type and quantity of meals and snacks served. CACFP reimbursements are taxable only to the extent they exceed your food expenses for eligible children. Food isn't a home expense, so it stays out of the time-space math.

The time-space percentage

Most providers use the same rooms for daycare and family life. Publication 587 allows a deduction for that space anyway, if you're in the business of providing daycare and have applied for, been granted, or are exempt from a license, certification, registration or approval under state law. A rejected application or revoked authorization doesn't meet the test. The math has two parts:

1. Space: square feet used regularly for daycare divided by the home's total.
2. Time: hours the space is used for daycare divided by the hours in the year (8,760, or 8,784 in a leap year).

Shared costs such as rent, mortgage interest, utilities and homeowners insurance use space times time. In the IRS example, a 1,600 square foot basement in a 3,200 square foot home is 50%; 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year is 3,000 hours, or 34.25%; the business share is 17.12%. A cost for the daycare room alone, like painting it, uses the time percentage only: $500 times 34.25% is $171. Under the simplified method ($5 a square foot at most), the rate is reduced by daycare hours over total hours, unless at least 300 square feet were used regularly and exclusively for daycare. For the general rules on home offices, see home office expense records.

What parents need from you

Parents who claim the child and dependent care credit report your name, address and taxpayer identification number on Form 2441. Form W-10 is the IRS form they use to ask for it; they keep it and don't file it. The form itself says individuals and sole proprietors generally give a Social Security number (or an ITIN if they can't get one), that a provider who doesn't give a correct TIN is subject to a penalty for each failure unless there's reasonable cause, and that a parent can also rely on a recently printed letterhead or invoice showing your name, address and TIN. In practice:

• Give a numbered receipt for every payment: date, family, child, care period, amount and method.
• Mark payments made by an agency or subsidy program separately from what the family paid.
• In January, give each family one year-end statement with your name, address, TIN and the total they paid.

For a center with staff, tuition and subsidies, see daycare bookkeeping. Estimated payments come due through the year when nobody withholds for you; the quarterly estimated tax calculator sets a figure.

Official sources

• NJ Department of Children and Families: Office of Licensing (updated Apr. 13, 2026)
• NJ DCF: Manual of Requirements for Family Child Care Registration, N.J.A.C. 3A:54 (effective Jan. 19, 2024)
• NJ Department of Agriculture: Child and Adult Care Food Program facts (updated Sept. 25, 2026)
• NJ Department of Agriculture: CACFP family day care homes fact sheet
• IRS: Publication 587 (2025), Business Use of Your Home (Including Use by Daycare Providers)
• IRS: About Form W-10, Dependent Care Provider's Identification and Certification (updated Apr. 29, 2026)
• IRS: Form W-10 (Rev. October 2020)

Checked November 2026 on the official pages above.

Common questions

More guides for one-person businesses: Booth rent or commission: stylist records · NJ house cleaner pricing and records · NJ cottage food and food truck sales