California is one of the states that regulates non-medical home care, and most families have no idea. That means there is a public, free, five-minute check you can run on any agency you are considering, and on the individual caregiver who will be in your parent’s house.
Almost nobody runs it. Here is how.
What the law actually requires
California’s Home Care Services Consumer Protection Act took effect in January 2016. It created two things that matter to you as a family.
First, any business that sends caregivers into private homes to help with activities of daily living must hold a Home Care Organization license, issued and overseen by the California Department of Social Services. The Home Care Services Branch processes those licenses, investigates complaints, and conducts unannounced compliance visits.
Second, the individual caregivers those agencies employ must be registered Home Care Aides, listed in a public state registry after passing a criminal background check.
An agency operating without an HCO license in California is not a budget option. It is operating illegally, and you have no recourse through the state if something goes wrong.
Check the agency: the HCO license
Licensed agencies are required to display their HCO license number on their website and printed materials. Start by looking for it. If you cannot find a license number anywhere on an agency’s website, that is your first data point.
Then verify it rather than trusting it. The California Department of Social Services runs a public facility search at cdss.ca.gov, under Community Care Licensing, where you can look up a Home Care Organization by name or license number. You are checking three things: that the license exists, that it is current rather than expired or revoked, and that the name and address match the business you are actually talking to.
If you would rather just ask a person, the Department’s consumer line is (877) 424-5778.
Check the caregiver: the Home Care Aide Registry
This is the step families almost never take, and it is the one that covers the person who will be alone in the house with your parent.
California maintains a public Home Care Aide Registry at ccld.dss.ca.gov/hcsregistry/registrysearch.aspx. You can search it yourself. A registered aide has cleared a criminal background check through the Department of Justice, submitted via Live Scan fingerprinting.
You are entitled to ask an agency for the name and registry status of the specific caregiver assigned to your family. A licensed agency will not be bothered by the question. That reaction is itself informative.
What a registered caregiver has actually had to do
Worth knowing what the credential means, because “background checked” gets used loosely in this industry.
Under California Health and Safety Code section 1796.44, a registered home care aide affiliated with a licensed agency must complete a minimum of five hours of entry-level training before ever being present with a client. That breaks down as two hours of orientation covering their role and terms of employment, and three hours of safety training covering basic safety precautions, emergency procedures, and infection control.
After that, five hours of annual training is required, covering client rights and safety, daily living needs, abuse and neglect detection and reporting, personal hygiene assistance, and safe transportation where applicable.
There is also a health requirement. Aides must show they are free from active tuberculosis, based on an examination dated no earlier than ninety days before employment and no later than seven days after.
One change worth asking about
California is adding to this. Senate Bill 412 was signed in October 2025 and takes effect January 1, 2027. It adds the special care needs of clients with dementia to the list of topics that must be covered in every registered aide’s annual training statewide.
It is folded into the existing five hours rather than added on top, so the practical question for any agency you are evaluating is what their dementia training actually consists of, not just whether they have it. If a loved one has dementia, that is a fair and specific thing to ask about now rather than in 2027.
The five-minute version
If you only do four things: find the agency’s HCO license number on their website; look it up on the state’s facility search to confirm it is current; ask for the assigned caregiver’s name and check the Home Care Aide Registry; and ask what happens when your regular caregiver is sick, because a licensed agency has an answer and an individual hired privately does not.
None of this guarantees a good experience. Licensing is a floor, not a recommendation. But it filters out a category of risk in about the time it takes to read a couple of online reviews, and it is a strange thing to skip when you are deciding who gets a key to your parent’s house.
Source: California Home Care Services Consumer Protection Act and licensing requirements per the California Department of Social Services Home Care Services Branch; training and tuberculosis clearance requirements per California Health and Safety Code section 1796.44; dementia training addition per California Senate Bill 412 (2025), signed October 6, 2025, effective January 1, 2027.
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If you are comparing home care agencies in North County and want a straight conversation about licensing, caregiver screening, and how care actually gets staffed, a Care Consultation with SYNERGY HomeCare of North County is a good place to start. Call us at (760) 990-4289 and learn more about our team and how we hire in North County.
