Raleigh City Council members voted unanimously last Tuesday to move forward with changes that would let home childcare facilities enroll up to 15 children, nearly double the current limit of 8, while also stripping away a permitting process that can take commercial centers nearly three months to complete. The vote comes as Wake County families face some of the steepest childcare costs and longest waitlists in the state.
The city currently has 57 home childcare facilities and 167 commercial childcare centers, according to WRAL. Under the proposal, commercial centers would no longer need to secure a Special Use Permit from the Board of Adjustment before opening in residential zones, a quasi-judicial process that currently requires public notification and compliance with strict screening and setback rules under Section 6.1.4 and Section 6.4.1.C of the city's Unified Development Ordinance, according to the City of Raleigh Planning and Development. The station reports city planners aim to make that permit change shorter and less costly for operators hoping to open new locations.
A Push That Started With a Direct Order From the Mayor
The effort traces back to a May 5 city council meeting, when Mayor Janet Cowell instructed city planning staff to review Raleigh's land-use codes and identify where municipal rules were inadvertently creating barriers for childcare operators, according to CivicSearch. That review appears to have produced the two-pronged approach council members endorsed this week: loosening the commercial permitting process and expanding what home-based providers can do.
Under the proposed change, home childcare facilities could also hire non-residents, a shift from current rules that only allow owners to employ a resident or family member living in the home, per the same report. Any expanded enrollment would still require home facilities to meet staff-to-child ratios, zoning requirements, code reviews and inspections, and additional staffing under state requirements. City planners have said they will draft specific requirements for childcare facilities as part of the ordinance changes, though Raleigh has not yet scheduled the next discussion of the proposal.
State Law Sets the Ceiling, Local Zoning Sets the Floor
Raleigh's proposed 15-child cap complies with state law, WRAL reports, referencing North Carolina's Session Law 2025-36, which permits family child care homes to serve up to 10 children depending on age structure while explicitly requiring home operators to demonstrate compliance with local zoning ordinances before state regulators will approve license increases, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. In other words, even if the state allows more children, Raleigh's own zoning code has to get out of the way first — which is exactly the barrier local advocates say the city is now trying to remove.
Carol Orji said the proposed changes could break a barrier for childcare facilities and families, and that improving access includes making it easier for existing facilities to grow and for new providers to enter the market. Orji also said childcare can consume a significant portion of many families' paychecks because they cannot afford it. Megan Patton said the proposed changes could help lower childcare rates and give providers flexibility to offer more affordable pricing, per WRAL's reporting. Wake County Smart Start, a nonprofit that advocates for childcare accessibility, has identified finding affordable childcare as the biggest barrier facing local families.
The Numbers Behind the Urgency
The financial pressure behind Raleigh's zoning push is stark. A January report from the North Carolina Department of Commerce found that childcare gaps cost Wake County's economy roughly $666 million annually in combined worker turnover and absenteeism, the highest loss of any county in the state. Full-time infant care in a licensed Wake County center averaged $18,155 a year in 2026, according to Beverly Research, consuming roughly 22% of a local household's median income and exceeding the national median of $17,163.
Beverly Research also describes Wake County as an infant childcare desert, with only 26.7 licensed infant care slots for every 100 children of working parents, pushing waitlists at credentialed facilities out to 12 to 18 months. That supply shortage is compounded by a workforce problem zoning changes alone cannot fix: childcare workers in the Raleigh metro earned a median wage of just $13.60 an hour in 2026, or 52.7% of the local living wage, according to the same research, a gap that has driven staffing shortages limiting how much facilities can expand even when physical space is available.
A Statewide Crisis Behind the Local Fix
Raleigh's zoning overhaul lands amid a broader unraveling of North Carolina's childcare network following the expiration of federal pandemic stabilization grants. EducationNC reported in August 2025 that the state had lost more than 200 licensed child care programs after that funding dried up, leaving statewide licensed slot capacity able to meet only 44% of estimated demand. The losses accelerated further, with the state recording 45 licensed child care programs closing in a single quarter in late 2025, according to the WNC Health Policy Initiative.
In response, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted a state budget in July allocating $97 million to support child care centers and working families, per the same policy group's report. Raleigh's local zoning changes work alongside that state funding rather than replacing it, targeting the municipal red tape that has kept existing providers from expanding even as state dollars try to stabilize the broader system. Any facility, regardless of the zoning outcome, must still comply with all applicable state licensing requirements and regulations, per a DHHS statement cited by WRAL.
The city's move follows earlier municipal childcare efforts, including a program the Weatherbound school-closure initiative that Raleigh Parks operated earlier this year to help parents during school closures. For now, families and providers alike are left waiting on a city that has yet to set a date for its next round of discussion on the ordinance changes.
