About Daycare Record
Daycare Record publishes the state inspection record of every licensed child care center we cover, one page per center, starting with Texas and California.
What we publish
Each center’s page lists its state inspections, the rules inspectors found broken (citations), the state’s severity rating for each one, and, in California, complaint investigations and their findings. Each page also compares the center with other licensed centers in the same state and links to the state’s official record.
Why it exists
States inspect licensed child care centers and publish what they find, but the records are hard to use: they are spread across search tools and report documents, written in regulatory language, and give no way to see how one center compares with the rest. We put each center’s record on one page, in plain English, and keep it up to date.
Where the data comes from
- Texas: Texas Health and Human Services, Child Care Regulation, from the state’s public inspection data (Texas Open Data Portal). The official record for any center is on Search Texas Child Care.
- California: California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing Division, from the inspection and complaint reports it publishes for each licensed facility (CCLD Facility Search).
We check for new records every day. Citations are quoted from the state’s records; long findings are shortened, and every center page says where to read the full official report. When a state removes old records from its website, we keep the ones we saved and mark them as older records.
Independence
Daycare Record is independent. It is not affiliated with any state agency or child care provider. Centers cannot pay to change their score, their rank or anything we publish, and we do not remove accurate public records on request.
How scores work
A score compares a center only with other licensed centers in the same state: its citations per inspection, weighted by the state’s own severity levels. It summarizes the state’s records; it is not a rating of teaching or the quality of care. Read how scores work.
Complaints
We list every complaint investigation the state publishes, with its finding. We show what a complaint alleged only when the state substantiated it.
Corrections and contact
If something on a page is wrong, see how we correct errors. For anything else, email press@daycarerecord.com.