Skip to main content

Oregon State Flag An official website of the State of Oregon »

Oregon Department of Human Services Search Site

Children's Care Licensing Program

Oregon law requires child-caring agencies to be licensed

The ODHS Children's Care Licensing Program (CCLP) licenses and regulates child-caring agencies (CCAs) in Oregon. This includes academic and therapeutic boarding schools, adoption and foster care agencies, day treatment and residential treatment agencies, youth shelters, outdoor youth programs and secure transportation services. We set licensing requirements, make sure agencies meet the requirements before being licensed and conduct announced and unannounced site visits.

Licensed Agencies Licensing coordinators Licensing reportsLicensing rulesReferral agentsContact us

Note: We do not license daycare or preschool facilities

Contact the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care for information about licensing for family child care providers and child care centers.


Frequently asked questions

A child caring agency is a private (non-governmental) agency, organization, or school licensed by the Oregon Department of Hum​an Services to provide care and services to children.

These include: 

Academic Boarding Schools (ABS): Provides educational services and care to children 24 hours a day; and does not hold itself out as serving children with emotional or behavioral problems, providing therapeutic services, or assuring that children receive therapeutic services.

Adoption Agencies (AA): An organization providing any of the following services:

  • Identifying a child for adoption and arranging an adoption
  • Securing the necessary consent to relinquishment of parental rights and to adoption
  • Performing a background study on a child or a home study on a prospective adoptive parent and reporting on such a study
  • Making determinations of the best interests of a child and the appropriateness of adoptive placement for the child
  • Monitoring a case after placement until final adoption
  • When necessary because of disruption before final adoption, assuming custody and providing child care or other social services for the child pending an alternative placement

Day Treatment Programs (DT): Provides psychiatric day treatment services. "Day treatment" means a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, nonresidential, community-based, psychiatric treatment, family treatment, and therapeutic activities integrated with an accredited education program provided to children with emotional disturbances.

Foster Care Agencies (FC): An agency that offers to place children by taking physical custody of and then placing the children in proctor foster homes certified by the child-caring agency as provided in ORS 418.248 and these rules.

Homeless, Runaway and Transitional Living Shelters (SH): A youth in care who has not been emancipated by the juvenile court; lacks a fixed, regular, safe, and stable nighttime residence; and cannot immediately be reunited with his or her family.

Outdoor Youth Programs (OYP): A program that provides, in an outdoor living setting, services to children in care who are enrolled in the program because they have behavioral problems, mental health problems, or problems with abuse of alcohol or drugs. "Outdoor youth program" does not include any program, facility, or activity operated by a governmental entity, operated or affiliated with the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps, or licensed by the Department as a child-caring agency under other authority of the Department. It does not include outdoor activities for children in care designed to be primarily recreational.

Residential Care Programs (RC): Provides care and treatment services to children 24 hours a day in a staffed facility.

Secure Transportation Services (STS): Provides secure transportation or secure escort services for children on the highways of this state along a route that begins or ends in this state to or from a child-caring agency as defined by ORS 418.215(2)(a)(A), if the school, agency, organization or program is located in this or state or in any other state.

Therapeutic Boarding Schools (TBS): An organization or a program in an organization that is primarily a school and not a residential care agency, provides educational services and care to children for 24 hours a day, and holds itself out as serving children with emotional or behavioral problems, providing therapeutic services, or assuring that children receive therapeutic services.

Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) outline the licensing requirements. 

Umbrella licensing rules in OAR 419-400-0005 to OAR 419-400-0310 apply to all child-caring agencies. 

The requirements describe:

  • What kinds of programs and businesses need to be licensed
  • What training employees of licensed agencies must have
  • Policies that the licensed agency must have in place
  • How the physical environment must be maintained to keep children safe, and 
  • Many other aspects of how a licensed agency must operate.

There are also agency-specific rules based on the types of services a child-caring agency provides. 

Visit our Rules page for details.​

Reports available on this site​

  • Initial License – This report type is generated when a new agency applies to be a licensed child-caring agency in the State of Oregon.
  • License Renewals – This report type is generated when a child-caring agency has applied to renew its license. This generally occurs every 2 years.

  • Announced - This report type is generated when a licensing coordinator arranges for a site visit due to various reasons such as technical assistance, remodels, moving to a different location, etc.
  • Unannounced - This report type is generated when a licensing coordinator performs an unannounced site visit. Per OAR 413-215-0101(1)(b) the department will inspect premises where children in care reside and receive services from employees or staff who do not reside on the premises at least once per year.

SB710 effective 2021​
  • Restraint and Involuntary Seclusion - Per Senate Bill 710 child caring agencies are required to report information following the administration of restraints or involuntary seclusion performed on a child in care. These reports must be submitted quarterly.

Other reports​​
  • Civil Penalties – Fines imposed on a child-caring agency to enforce regulations.
  • Conditions – Set by an administrative order that may have temporary or ongoing​ requirements that the child caring agency must complete to ensure licensure compliance.
  • Formal Plan of Correction – Specific actions prescribed by the department that must be completed by a child caring agency to achieve full compliance.​
  • ​​Revocations – The termination of a child caring agency’s licensure.

Resources for providers

ORS ​418.255(7)​ requires ODHS to provide training on appropriate ethnic hair and skin care for children of African-American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian-American or multiracial descent. The following list of resources is available to support this training requirement.​

Resources