All about child care licensing

About Child Care Licensing

Child care licensing is a way to ensure that programs that care for children are doing so in a safe way. Many states have licensing sites that act as daycare search engines. Licensing is typically the most basic level of quality that a child care, daycare, or preschool program needs to meet so that it can care for children. Child care licensing is managed at the state level. Different states have different licensing standards. Some states have strict standards, other states have loose standards. Since child care licensing is managed at the state level, each state has different standards they focus on. However, many states’ licensing standards include common elements. These common elements can include: 

• Hygiene practices

• Food safety

• Safe sleep

• Safe environment and equipment

• Staff training

• Supervision of children

• Teacher/child ratios

• Academic support

States monitor child care programs to ensure they keep up with licensing standards. Programs that are not up to standards during an inspection might receive a notice of violation. Some licensing violations are not serious. Programs can work to address these violations following their inspection. Serious violations may lead the program to be closed. Many states provide a website search tool that allows parents to view the inspections and violations for any licensed child care program. Parents can use this information when assessing the quality of programs as they decide which one is best for their family. A link to each state’s licensing website is at the bottom of this page.

Background checks for daycare providers

U.S. federal law requires each state to implement a process to complete a background check of people providing care for children in licensed daycare programs. The exact process can vary by state, but each background check must include fingerprinting to run against the FBI database.

The purpose of background checks for daycare providers is to ensure that the people who are caring for kids do not have criminal records. This would put children’s safety at risk. During a background check, any information related to criminal history or inclusion on a sex offender registry will be uncovered.

State licensing standards often include timely completion of background checks as one of their standards. Failure to complete a background check within the timeline of the state’s guidelines may constitute a licensing violation for a child care program. Parents can usually check to see if any program has failed to complete background checks by visiting the state’s licensing website.

Other child care licensing information

Many states will include additional information in their licensing database or daycare search engine that is helpful to parents in deciding which child care program is right for their family. This other information usually includes basic information and characteristics about the operations of the program. Some of these characteristics might include:

• Hours of operation: The days of the week and the hours of the day the program is open.

• Ages served: The ages of children the provider cares for. Typical age ranges include, infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children.

• Subsidy acceptance: Whether the daycare provider accepts a child care subsidy for full or partial payment for the cost of care:

• Children with special needs: Whether the provider has training or programming that is specialized to children with unique needs.

• Transportation: Any transportation the daycare program makes available to parents to transport children to and from the program.

• Staffing: The number of teachers at the program and, sometimes, their level of education or training.

• Capacity: The maximum number of children the daycare program is licensed to serve.

Information about daycare programs that is not included in licensing

While state licensing daycare search engines contain a wealth of information about child care programs, they typically do not include all available information. The primary type of information that is not included in child care licensing systems are indicators of quality. In most states, indicators of daycare programs’ quality are collecting and given to parents through what is called a Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS).

As of 2022, most states operate a QRIS as a well to assess and rate the quality of child care programs. These ratings (usually on a 3 to 5 star system) are then provided to parents through a publicly-available website. This information, along with information from child care licensing, can help parents to make decisions about the right type of child care for their kids.

The factors included in a daycare program’s quality rating vary from state to state, although there is a great deal of overlap. Commons factors include:

• Teacher level of education and training

• Use of a standard curriculum

• Scores on standard assessments of quality, including areas like emotional support, academic instruction, and classroom organization

• Parent engagement and involvement

• Assessment of children’s academic progress

Because QRIS includes indicators of quality it is sometimes considered to be a higher level of overall child care quality than licensing. However, both daycare licensing and QRIS are important. Parents should refer to both information from daycare licensing and ratings from a QRIS when making decisions about their child’s care.

Links to state licensing daycare search engines

• Alabama Child Care Services

• Alaska Child Care Program Office

• Arizona Child Care Facilities

• Arkansas Child Care Licensing

• California Child Care Licensing

• Colorado Office of Early Childhood

• Connecticut Office of Early Childhood

• Delaware Child Care Resources

• Florida Child Care Department of Children and Families

• Georgia Early Care and Learning

• Hawaii Child Care Services

• Idaho Child Care Program

• Illinois Department of Children and Family Services

• Indiana Child Care Finder

• Iowa Child Care Licensing

• Kansas Child Care Licensing

• Kentucky Regulated Child Care

• Louisiana Child Care Facility Licensing

• Maine Office of Children and Family Services

• Maryland Division of Early Childhood

• Massachusetts Child Care Program

• Michigan Child Care Licensing

• Minnesota Child Care Licensing

• Mississippi Child Care Regulations

• Missouri Office of Childhood

• Montana Child Care Licensing

• Nebraska Child Care Licensing

• Nevada Child Care Licensing

• New Hampshire Child Care Licensing

• New Jersey Office of Licensing

• New Mexico Child Care Licensing and Registered Homes

• New York Child Care Regulations

• North Carolina Child Care Licensing

• North Dakota Early Childhood Services

• Ohio Child Care Licensing

• Oklahoma Child Care Services

• Oregon Child Care Assistance

• Pennsylvania Child Care Licensing

• Rhode Island Office of Child Care

• South Carolina Child Care Licensing

• South Dakota Child Care Licensing

• Tennessee Child Care Services

• Texas Child Care Licensing

• Utah Child Care Licensing

• Virginia Child Care Licensing

• Washington Child Care Check

• West Virginia Early Care and Education

• Wisconsin Child Care Licensing

• Wyoming Child Care Licensing

• Washington D.C. Child Care Compliance