The Different Types of Daycare in BC, Explained

11 min read · Updated May 8, 2026

BC's childcare system has eight licensed types of daycare and two unlicensed categories. The differences are not cosmetic. They determine how many other children your child will be with, what credentials the adults in the room must hold, whether the program qualifies for $10-a-Day or fee reductions, and where the care actually happens — a purpose-built centre, a converted church basement, or someone's living room.

The legal taxonomy comes from Schedule E of the BC Child Care Licensing Regulation, B.C. Reg. 332/2007. Group sizes and staff-to-child ratios in this article are quoted directly from that schedule. Provincial summaries occasionally collapse the ratio bands; the regulation is the source of truth.

A licence is required as soon as a provider cares for three or more children unrelated to them. Two unrelated children, or a single sibling group, can be cared for without a licence at all (BC Gov — Rules for operating a licensed day care). That single threshold separates the entire licensed system on one side from the much smaller, much less regulated unlicensed care arrangement on the other.

The licensed types at a glance

Type	Ages served	Max group size	Staff:child ratio	Setting
Group Child Care (Under 36 Months)	Birth to 36 months	12	1:4 (Infant Toddler Educator) up to 4 children; 2 staff for 5–8; 3 staff for 9–12	Community facility
Group Child Care (30 Months to School Age)	30 months to school entry	25	1:8 up to 8 children; +1 assistant for 9–16; +2 assistants for 17–25	Community facility
Preschool (Licensed)	30 months to school entry	20	1:10 up to 10 children; +1 assistant for 11–20	Community facility; typically 1–4 hours/day
Out-of-School Care (K/Grade 1 to age 12)	Kindergarten to age 12	24 with K/Grade 1 children present; 30 if Grade 2 and older only	1:12 with K/Grade 1 present; 1:15 without	Community facility or school grounds
Multi-Age Child Care	Birth to 12 years	8	1 educator	Community facility or licensee's residence
Family Child Care	Birth to 12 years	7 (incl. licensee's own children)	The licensee (Responsible Adult qualified)	Licensee's personal residence
In-Home Multi-Age Child Care	Birth to 12 years	8	The licensee, who must be a certified ECE	Licensee's personal residence
Occasional Child Care	Drop-in, max 8 hrs/day, 40 hrs/month per child	16 or 20 (age dependent)	Scales 1 → 4 responsible adults with group size and ages	Community facility

Quoted from BC Child Care Licensing Regulation, Schedule E. For a plain-language overview, see BC Gov — Understand the different types of child care in B.C..

A few terms in the table need unpacking before the per-type sections:

Educator means a person holding an Early Childhood Educator (ECE) certificate from BC's ECE Registry.
Infant Toddler Educator (ITE) is a more advanced ECE credential required for under-36-months group care. ITE-staffed care is one of the clearest quality signals available to a parent of a baby.
Responsible Adult is a lower-tier qualification — first aid, criminal record check, and a 20-hour course — that allows someone to run Family Child Care or assist in larger settings.
Assistant in this context means an ECE Assistant, supervised by a full ECE.

Group Child Care (Under 36 Months)

This is the licence category for centre-based care of babies and toddlers up to 36 months. Maximum group size is 12 children. Staffing scales tightly: an Infant Toddler Educator can be alone with up to 4 children; 5 to 8 children require an ITE plus a second educator; 9 to 12 require an ITE, a second educator, and an assistant. ITE-staffed under-3 care is the most heavily regulated and most expensive licence band in BC, and it is also the most supply-constrained.

A typical day looks like a purpose-built infant-toddler room with separated nap and play areas, scheduled feeds and bottles, two or three educators on the floor, and ratios that the licensing officer can verify by walking in. Most $10-a-Day spaces in BC's larger non-profit operators sit in this band, which is also where waitlists run longest — UBC Child Care reports two to two-and-a-half years for its 12–36 month program (UBC Child Care — When to apply).

If you have a child under three and both parents work full time, this is most likely what you are looking for. You can browse licensed group infant care across BC to see what's available near you. It is also the band where Multi-Age and Family Child Care become genuinely competitive alternatives, because the under-three supply gap is severe enough that home-based options stop feeling like a compromise and start feeling like the only thing available.

Group Child Care (30 Months to School Age)

The "preschool-aged group care" band. Up to 25 children, with a maximum of two children under 36 months mixed in. Ratios are 1:8 up to 8 children, then an assistant added for 9–16, and a second assistant for 17–25. This is what most parents picture when they say "daycare" — a centre with a preschool room of 20-something kids, a couple of educators, snacks, outdoor time, a daily routine.

The 30-month floor is firm. A child who turns 30 months in March cannot start in this licence band until the day they reach that age, even if there is an open spot waiting. Many centres keep a child in their under-three room past 30 months until a same-cohort group transitions together; this is a normal scheduling decision, not a signal something is wrong.

Compared to under-36-months care, supply is better, ratios are looser, and fee reduction tends to be more accessible. Most full-time non-profit "daycare" spots for 3- and 4-year-olds in BC sit here — see group preschool-age care available now.

Multi-Age Child Care

Multi-Age licences allow a single educator to care for up to 8 children spanning birth to 12 years, with composition limits on the youngest end. The setting can be a community facility or the licensee's home. Because the educator is alone, the cap is small and the credentialing carries the full weight of the room.

Multi-age groups suit families with siblings of different ages who want them in the same program, and providers who run an intentionally mixed-age pedagogy (some Montessori and Reggio-inspired homes do this). The trade-off is that one educator is also one point of failure: if the licensee is unwell, there is no second adult on the floor, and the program closes for the day.

For parents, Multi-Age sits between centre-based group care and Family Child Care. It is licensed and inspected like a centre, but it operates at the scale of a household. You can browse home-style and family-licensed providers on Daycare Discovery.

Family Child Care

Family Child Care happens in the licensee's own home. The cap is 7 children including the licensee's own. There are further composition limits — for example, no more than three children under 48 months when an infant under 12 months is present. The licensee must hold a Responsible Adult qualification, but is not required to be a certified ECE.

This is the most home-like of BC's licensed options. A child is in someone's living room and back yard, eating meals at the family table, mixing with the licensee's own kids, with a small and stable group. For families who want home-style care with regulatory oversight, this is the band — see Family Child Care providers across BC, or browse popular city pages like Vancouver family daycares and Surrey family daycares. Fees are typically lower than centre-based care, hours are sometimes more flexible, and the relationship with the provider is more direct.

The constraints follow from the same things that make it attractive. One adult means closures when the licensee is sick or on vacation. Smaller groups mean less peer interaction. And because there are fewer Family Child Care spaces overall in any given neighbourhood, the pool to apply to is smaller than for group care.

In-Home Multi-Age Child Care

Structurally similar to Family Child Care — same 8-child cap, also in the licensee's residence — but with one critical upgrade: the licensee must be a certified Early Childhood Educator. This is the most credentialed home-based licence band in BC, and the only one where you get an ECE running a household-scale program.

For parents who want the small-group, home setting of Family Child Care but with the educator credential of a centre, In-Home Multi-Age is the answer. There aren't many of them. Demand per spot tends to run high.

Preschool (Licensed)

In BC, "Preschool" is a distinct licence category, not a synonym for "daycare for 3-year-olds." Licensed Preschool serves children 30 months to school entry, with a max group size of 20. Ratios are 1:10 up to 10 children, and an assistant added for 11–20.

The defining feature is that Preschool is part-day. Programs typically run one to four hours per day (BC Gov — types of child care). That makes it good for school readiness, structured social time, and exposure to a classroom rhythm — and it makes it useless as full-time care if both parents work.

Many families pair a morning Preschool with afternoon care from a different provider, or with a parent or grandparent. If you see "Preschool" in a directory and you need 8-to-5 coverage, read the hours carefully before applying. To compare programs in this band, see licensed preschools across BC.

Out-of-School Care (Kindergarten/Grade 1 to age 12)

Often called Group Child Care (School Age) in the regulation. This is the before- and after-school category, plus full-day care during school breaks, professional development days, and summer. Max group size is 24 if any kindergarten or Grade 1 children are present, and 30 if the group is Grade 2 and older only. Ratios are 1:12 with K/Grade 1 children present and 1:15 without.

These programs often live on or near school grounds; some are run by school districts, some by community non-profits, some by private operators. For working parents of school-age kids, this is the daycare band. Waitlists for popular Out-of-School Care programs in Vancouver have been reported as multi-year — some parents apply when their child is still in preschool. Browse kindergarten care and Grade 1–12 after-school care to see programs by age.

Occasional Child Care

Drop-in care, used by the hour. Maximum 8 hours per day and 40 hours per month per child. Max group size of 16 or 20 depending on the ages present, with staffing that scales from 1 to 4 responsible adults. Settings are community facilities — community centres, gym childminding, some neighbourhood houses.

Occasional Child Care is for errands, appointments, and short-term needs. It is not full-time care. If you find a centre that is occasional-licensed and you need a permanent spot, that centre cannot legally be your full-time arrangement. For full-time options, search licensed daycares across BC instead.

Unlicensed: License-Not-Required (LNR)

A provider can legally care for two children unrelated to them, or a single sibling group, without any licence at all. This is the unlicensed end of the system (BC Gov — types of child care). It splits into two statuses.

Registered License-Not-Required (RLNR) providers registered with their local Child Care Resource and Referral (CCRR) before March 15, 2024. They voluntarily completed criminal record checks, first aid training, and home safety reviews, and they appear in CCRR directories and on the BC Child Care Map. The 2-child limit still applies. RLNR fees are eligible for the Affordable Child Care Benefit but not for the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative or $10-a-Day. Westcoast CCRR's September 2025 fee survey of Vancouver RLNR providers reported averages of $1,641/month for infants, $1,598/month for toddlers, and $1,500/month for ages 3–5 (Westcoast CCRR fee surveys).

Unregistered License-Not-Required providers are fully outside the registration system. Same 2-child cap, no required qualifications, no public listing, no oversight. This is most often a family member, a friend, a nanny, or a neighbour caring for one or two children.

For most parents, RLNR is the more useful unlicensed category — it offers some quality signal and shows up in the same searches as licensed care. Unregistered LNR is by definition invisible to any directory; you find it through word-of-mouth.

How to choose

Most parents, in practice, do not "choose" a single type. They pick a target — usually full-time licensed care matched to their child's age — and then apply broadly across whatever programs in that band are reachable from home, work, or somewhere along the commute. The supply gap in BC is large enough that narrowing too aggressively before applying tends to leave families with no offers.

A workable order of operations:

Filter by age band first. A program that doesn't serve your child's age is not a candidate, no matter how good it is.
Decide whether part-day (Preschool, Occasional) can be part of your stack. If both parents work full time, the answer is usually no, or only as a supplement.
Pick a geographic radius. Near home, near work, and along the commute. Give yourself permission to apply outside your immediate neighbourhood.
Decide how you feel about home-based vs centre-based. Family Child Care, Multi-Age, and In-Home Multi-Age all run smaller and more home-like; Group Child Care runs larger and more institutional. There is no objectively correct answer; there is only the answer that fits your child and your family.
Check program participation in fee reduction and $10-a-Day when comparing real out-of-pocket cost. The sticker price and the actual price are often very different numbers.

On Daycare Discovery, you can filter by facility type and program participation at /search, then track applications across as many providers as you decide to apply to. You can also browse the BC daycares hub for a province-wide directory. Our companion guides cover when to start looking, what $10-a-Day actually means in practice, and how to run a broad application strategy.

The licence categories above are the legal floor. They tell you what is in the room. They do not tell you whether the room will be the right one for your child — that part is the provider's craft, and the only way to evaluate it is to visit, ask questions, and pay attention to how the educators speak to the kids in front of you.