Reading daycare inspection records

• How to read a daycare inspection report

  What a visit type, a citation, a rule number and a correction mean, and what a count of violations can and can't tell you.

• Severity levels in each state

  Type A and B, five risk weights, or no levels at all: how each state grades a violation and how this site groups them.

• What to ask a daycare about a violation

  Questions that get past a defensive answer to what changed, and when a citation deserves a follow-up call to the state.

• Licensed and license-exempt child care

  Which programs a state inspects, which ones it doesn't, and why some daycares you know won't be on this site.