How to Become a Relative Child Care Provider in Kansas

If you're a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or adult sibling caring for a relative's child in Kansas, you may be able to get paid by the state as a child care provider — without becoming a licensed daycare facility. Kansas allows relatives to enroll as out-of-home providers through DCF, and the distinction from full foster care licensing is important.

Relative Provider vs. Licensed Facility

Kansas relatives caring for children in foster care or receiving DCF child care subsidies do not need to obtain a KDHE (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) child care facility license. This is a specific exemption for relative providers.

What you do need: official DCF provider enrollment and background checks. This is a lighter process than foster licensing, but it's not optional.

The Enrollment Steps

1. Background Check

Every household member aged 10 and older must clear a background check. Kansas DCF runs checks through:

• Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) criminal records
• Kansas child abuse and neglect registry
• Adult abuse registry

Certain criminal convictions or founded abuse findings are disqualifying. The check covers everyone living in the home, not just the caregiver providing child care.

2. DCF Provider Enrollment

Contact your local DCF service center to begin the provider enrollment process. You'll complete DCF enrollment forms and authorize the background checks. The enrollment registers you in DCF's system as an approved relative provider eligible to receive subsidy payments.

3. Health and Safety Standards

While you don't need a facility license, DCF expects basic health and safety conditions in the home — working smoke detectors, safe sleeping arrangements for young children, and secure storage of medications and hazardous materials. Your DCF caseworker may conduct a home walkthrough.

What You Get Paid

Once enrolled, DCF pays you directly at the state child care reimbursement rate for your area and the child's age group. Payments go to you as the provider, separate from any TAF or guardianship payments you may also receive for the child.

The reimbursement rate varies by region and by whether you're providing full-time or part-time care. Rural areas may have lower rates than Johnson or Sedgwick County.

Who This Path Is For

This makes the most sense for relatives who are:

• Already providing full-time care and could use the income
• Caring for a child placed by DCF (foster care or kinship placement)
• Caring for a child whose working parent or other caregiver is receiving a DCF childcare subsidy

It's not the same as becoming a foster parent. Foster licensing through a child-placing agency is a separate, more extensive process. Relative provider enrollment is specifically designed for kinship situations where the child already lives with family.

The Kansas Kinship Financial Help Guide covers the full provider enrollment process alongside the other financial programs available to relative caregivers — TAF cash, SNAP, KanCare, and guardianship assistance — so you can see which combination applies to your situation.

See more Kansas guides →