Three States Now Bar Your City From Zoning Out a Home Daycare

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Tennessee, New Mexico and New Hampshire have each written home-based child care into
state zoning law. All three are now in force. New Mexico’s also reaches homeowners associations,
which no other one of the three does. Maryland’s version passed both chambers and died two days
before its session ended.

The short version

If you want to open a daycare in your own home, meeting the state licensing requirements has
never been the whole fight. You can satisfy every ratio, inspection and background check the state
asks for and still be stopped by your city’s zoning office — or by your HOA — after
you have already spent the money.

Three states have now taken some of that power away from local government. Each did it
differently, and the differences matter a great deal depending on where you live.

State Law In force since Covers HOAs? Bars local fees?
Tennessee Public Chapter 276 (SB1379/HB1175) July 1, 2025 No No
New Mexico Chapter 62 (SB96) July 1, 2026 Yes Yes
New Hampshire Chapter 217 (HB1195) July 1, 2026 No No

Tennessee: home daycare is residential property, full stop

Tennessee’s law has been in force the longest — since July 1, 2025, now thirteen months.
Public Chapter 276 tells local government it has no separate category to put you in:

“a local governing authority shall treat a child care family home as residential
property in the application of local regulations, including: (A) Zoning; (B) Land use
development; and (C) Sanitation.”

And it closes the obvious loophole of a city agreeing you are residential but insisting you are
not single-family residential:

“For zoning purposes, ‘residential property use’ includes
single-family residential zoning.”

The statute also bars a local authority from imposing “any additional regulations that do
not apply to other residential properties,” or fire requirements stricter than the state
division of fire prevention’s.

It applies to a “child care family home,” which the act defines as a family child
care home “operated in an occupied residential dwelling” — you have to actually
live there.

New Mexico: the broadest of the three, and the only one that reaches HOAs

New Mexico’s SB96 passed the Senate 25–13 and the House 41–23, was signed March 10,
2026 as Chapter 62, and took effect July 1, 2026. It is the most far-reaching child care zoning
law of the three, and by some distance.

“a child care home shall be considered a residential use of property for purposes
of zoning and shall be permitted by right.”

“Permitted by right” is defined in the act itself, which matters — it means a
use that “does not require conditional use approval, special exceptions or permits, variances
or any other discretionary approval.” In plain terms: no going before a board and asking.

New Mexico then does three things the other two do not:

  • It bans the fee. A local authority shall not “assess or collect a fee
    or tax for the privilege of operating a child care home.” The act separately amends the
    municipal business licensing statute so that business registration and license fees apply to any
    business “except for a child care facility.”
  • It reaches homeowners associations. An association “shall not adopt or
    enforce a restriction, covenant, condition, bylaw, rule, regulation, provision of a governing
    document or master deed provision or take any other action that effectively prohibits,
    unreasonably restricts or limits, directly or indirectly, the use of a lot as a child care
    home.”
  • It covers centers too, in commercial zones. A licensed child care center is
    permitted by right in any district zoned commercial, mixed-use or multifamily residential. If a
    city requires drop-off stacking spaces, it may require no more than one space per ten children of
    licensed capacity.

New Hampshire: by right, but watch the 30-child line

New Hampshire’s HB1195 became Chapter 217. The act sets its own effective date of July 1, 2026;
the governor signed it July 2.

It works on two tracks. Home-based programs — family day care homes and group family day
care homes as defined in RSA 170-E:2 — are allowed by right under RSA 674:16, so long as the
Department of Health and Human Services’ rules (He-C 4002) are met. Separately, RSA 674:81 requires
municipalities to allow a child care center by right on commercially zoned land.

The limit to know: if a center’s licensed capacity exceeds 30 children, local
site plan review is still on the table. New Hampshire also left industrial and manufacturing zones
alone — a municipality may still restrict a center there, unless the center is for the
exclusive use of employees.

What none of these laws do

This is the part worth reading twice before you sign a lease, because “by right”
does not mean unregulated.

  • Building and fire codes still apply everywhere. Tennessee explicitly keeps
    the state fire marshal’s standards. New Hampshire explicitly preserves fire, building, water and
    sewage enforcement.
  • Traffic and parking survive. Tennessee’s act says outright that it “does
    not restrict a local governing authority from managing the flow of traffic and parking adjacent to
    a child care family home.” New Mexico caps parking requirements at what a single-family
    residence faces rather than eliminating them.
  • New Mexico’s HOA protection is not absolute. An association may still enforce
    rules on parking and traffic, noise and nuisance, safety and security, architectural appearance,
    and use of common elements — provided they apply uniformly to every lot owner and are not
    aimed at child care. The act also states plainly that meeting state licensing
    “shall not exempt a licensed child care home from compliance with association rules that do
    not conflict with those requirements.”
  • Tennessee and New Hampshire do not touch HOAs or deed covenants at all. If
    you are in a Tennessee or New Hampshire subdivision with a restrictive covenant, this legislation
    does not help you. Tennessee considered a bill that would have voided such covenants —
    HB1069 — and it died in subcommittee in March 2025, its Senate companion having failed for
    want of a second.

Maryland came within two days

Maryland’s HB1259 would have been the plainest of the lot. Its synopsis: prohibiting a local
jurisdiction “from denying or restricting the operation of certain family child care
homes” that meet state licensing, and requiring localities to designate them “as a
residential activity and as a permitted use.”

It passed the House 91–32 and the Senate 34–12. The two chambers could not reconcile
their amendments, a conference committee was appointed on April 11, 2026, and the session adjourned
two days later. The bill died there. It is not law, and would have to start over.

California is doing something narrower this month

California already requires localities to treat family child care homes as a residential use
under Health & Safety Code §1597.30 et seq., and has for years. Moving through the
legislature now is SB299, which would exempt day care projects on residentially zoned parcels from
California Environmental Quality Act review.

Worth being precise about what that is and isn’t: it removes an environmental review step. It
does not stop a city from denying a permit. As of this writing it has not passed.

This is not a new idea — it is a spreading one

None of this started in 2025. The Early Learning Policy Group documented eight states with
statutes preempting local zoning barriers for family child care homes as of November 2024 —
California, Connecticut, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington —
several of them decades old. New Jersey’s, for instance, already makes a deed restriction against a
family day care home unenforceable unless the party defending it can prove it is necessary for
health and safety.

What Tennessee, New Mexico and New Hampshire did was join that group, and in New Mexico’s case
go past most of it. If you operate in one of the three, the rules changed underneath you — in
Tennessee, over a year ago.

Frequently asked questions

Can my city still make me get a special use permit for a home daycare?

In New Mexico, no — the act defines “permitted by right” to exclude conditional
use approval, special exceptions, permits and variances. In Tennessee, a local authority may not
impose any regulation that doesn’t apply to other residential properties. In New Hampshire, home-based
care is by right where DHHS rules are met.

Can my HOA stop me from running a daycare out of my house?

In New Mexico, an association may not adopt or enforce anything that effectively prohibits or
unreasonably restricts it — though uniformly applied rules on noise, parking, appearance and
common areas still stand. In Tennessee and New Hampshire, these laws do not address HOAs, so your
declaration and covenants still govern.

Do I still need fire and building inspections?

Yes, in all three states. None of these laws waive building codes, fire safety or sanitation.

Does this apply to a child care center, or only a home?

Tennessee’s provision covers a family child care home operated in an occupied residential
dwelling. New Mexico covers homes in residential zones and centers by right in commercial, mixed-use
and multifamily zones. New Hampshire covers home-based care by right and centers by right on
commercially zoned land, with site plan review still available above 30 children.

When did these take effect?

Tennessee July 1, 2025. New Mexico July 1, 2026. New Hampshire July 1, 2026.

Sources

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