For home child care agencies · 6 min

Home visits each quarter: what an agency must do

The short answer

Before a home is used, a home child care visitor from the agency inspects it, outdoor play space included. After that the visitor inspects it without notice at least once every quarter, and the agency keeps a record of each inspection. The agency also screens the adults in the home, sees to health assessments and immunization, and keeps its register of homes and children up to date.

Checked against e-Laws on Oct 23, 2026. Section numbers are O. Reg. 137/15 unless another instrument is named.

Before a home is used for licensed home child care, a home child care visitor employed by the agency inspects it, including the outdoor play space, for compliance with the Act and the regulation. After that the visitor inspects it without prior notice to the provider at least once in every quarter of each calendar year, and whenever the director requires, using any checklist the director provides, and the agency keeps a record of each inspection (s. 26). The same agency obtains vulnerable sector checks from the provider and everyone 18 or older living at or regularly in the home, ensures the provider and everyone living at or regularly in the home has a health assessment and immunization, and keeps a register of homes and children current to within one business day (ss. 57, 60, 61(2), 74).

The inspections (s. 26)

The first inspection comes before any child is placed. The quarterly ones are unannounced; “at least once in every quarter of each calendar year” means a visit in each of January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December, so a visit in January and the next in July leaves April to June uncovered, however close together other visits were. The visitor uses any checklist provided by the director, and the agency ensures a record is made of each inspection.

Who may be a visitor (s. 56)

A home child care visitor is a member in good standing of the College of Early Childhood Educators with at least two years’ experience working with children under 13 and the director’s approval, or a person the director considers capable of providing support and supervision at a home child care premises.

What else is checked at each home

The premises meets the health and safety standards in s. 13(1)(a) to (d) (s. 25) and the home child care provisions on play materials, temperature, balconies, outdoor play, bodies of water and hazards (ss. 27 to 31; from January 1, 2027, ss. 31 and 31.1 as amended).
A written evacuation procedure in case of fire exists for the premises (s. 68(3)).
The provider and every person ordinarily resident or regularly at the premises had a vulnerable sector check before the agreement was signed, with new residents and regulars checked before they start, and the five-year and yearly cycle kept up (ss. 60(2), 62).
The same people had a health assessment and immunization as directed by the local medical officer of health before any child was cared for (s. 57(2)).
Group size and capacity are within the Act and the agreement, with the provider’s own children counted (s. 9).
The provider holds standard first aid with infant and child CPR (s. 58(2)).

Public health at a home

A home child care premises is a private home: it isn’t a food premises under the Food Premises regulation (O. Reg. 493/17), and the drinking water rules for child care centres (O. Reg. 243/07) don’t cover it. The regulation’s health rules apply at every home all the same: a medical officer of health’s direction is carried out by the provider and a report kept at the agency (s. 32), each child not in school is immunized as the medical officer of health directs unless a parent objects or a doctor gives medical reasons (s. 35), each child is observed for signs of ill health before joining the other children, and a child who appears ill is separated with the symptoms noted (s. 36), and the provider and the people living at or regularly at the home have a health assessment and immunization as directed (s. 57(2)).

The register (s. 74)

The agency keeps, at its office, a register listing the address of each premises, the names and addresses of the children receiving care in each, and the name of the provider, kept up to date within one business day of any change.

What the inspector usually reads at the agency

The licensing visit to an agency is a visit to its records: the inspection record for every home with four dates a year, the screening and health file for every provider and every adult in each home, the policy sign-offs for providers and visitors, the register, and the serious-occurrence file. A home with three recorded visits in a year is a finding the advisor is likely to write up.

Sources

O. Reg. 137/15 as consolidated on e-Laws (consolidation from July 1, 2026; last amendment O. Reg. 197/26). This guide explains the regulation in plain words; it is not legal advice, and the Ministry’s program advisors decide compliance.