Child Care · Checklist · Reviewed July 14, 2026
Child care license, cost help, and complaint check
A first-step check for finding care, reviewing a license, seeking help with cost, or reporting a safety concern.
The short version
First identify the kind of care
California licenses child care centers and family child care homes. A small family home can care for no more than eight children, and a large family home can care for no more than 14, but the license and age mix can set a lower number. Some care in the child's home, care by relatives, and care for only one family's children can be license-exempt. The CDSS facility search shows about five years of licensing history. It is a starting point, not a safety promise.
What changes the answer: License-exempt does not mean state-inspected. A subsidy decision, a licensing complaint, and a report of abuse are three different matters. Immediate danger belongs with emergency or child-protection responders first.
Finding care and checking safety history use different systems. Cost help and complaints use other paths. A license search is only one check.
How it works
California uses three common care lanes
A child care center usually provides group care in a commercial, school, religious, or public building. A family child care home provides care in the licensee's own home. Both are licensed by CDSS when no exemption applies.
License-exempt care includes many arrangements in the child's own home. Care by a relative can also be exempt, as can a person caring only for one family's children in the circumstances described by the state. These providers will not have the same CDSS inspection record as a licensed facility.
The license sets capacity and staffing
A small family child care home normally serves up to six children. It may serve up to eight only when added age, notice, and home rules are met. A large family home normally serves up to 12. It may serve up to 14 when its added rules are met. Young children who live in the home can count toward the total.
At a normal licensed center, one teacher may watch no more than 12 preschool children. Some teacher-and-aide plans are allowed. An infant center uses one teacher for every four infants. A qualified teacher may oversee up to 12 infants. In that plan, each aide may care for no more than four. The license type and room setup still control.
The facility search covers only part of the story
Search by the facility's legal name, address, or license number. Read inspection reports, complaint investigations, citations, correction plans, and the license status. CDSS says the public search generally contains five years of information.
Call the regional licensing office for older records or more facts about a citation. Call if the result does not match the provider too. Then visit. Ask to see the current license and reports. Count the children and adults during the hours the child will attend.
Cost help comes through more than one program
Resource and Referral agencies help families search for care in all 58 counties. They can explain local openings. They can also link a family to a payment program or a center that takes eligible families. A voucher can be used with an approved provider. A direct-service program enrolls the child at its own site.
CalWORKs child care has three stages. Stage One starts through the county. It can serve an eligible parent who needs care for work or an approved task. Stage Two can serve a stable family or one that recently left cash aid. It can last through the first 24 months after cash aid ends. Stage Three follows that period, but it depends on funds and continued eligibility.
A visit should test the daily routine
Ask who opens and closes, who covers breaks, and how the provider records arrivals and pickups. For an infant, look at the sleep space and ask how back-sleeping, bedding, checks, feeding, and an individual sleep plan are handled. For older children, look at supervision indoors, outdoors, and during bathroom use.
Review medicine, allergy, discipline, emergency, fire, earthquake, and missing-child plans. Ask what happens when a staff member is absent. A clean lobby or a clear search result cannot show how the setting works at its busiest hour.
Use the complaint path that matches the harm
For a possible license-rule breach, call 844-538-8766. You may also email CDSS or use its online form. A person making a complaint may remain anonymous. Contact details let the state ask more questions. They also let it send the findings after the review.
A child care payment notice has its own appeal steps. It does not become a license complaint. Suspected child abuse goes to child protection or law enforcement. Call 911 for danger now. Give the licensing office the facility facts when it is safe.
First moves
- 1
Start with the need. You may need care, a provider check, cost help, an appeal, or a safety report.
- 2
Use Resource and Referral or MyChildCarePlan to search. Filter by location, age, schedule, language, and openings.
- 3
For licensed care, use the CDSS facility search. Review inspections, violations, complaints, and the regional-office contact.
- 4
Visit the setting. Ask to see the current license and reports. Watch supervision and pickup. Ask about sleep, food, medicine, emergencies, and discipline.
- 5
For help paying, ask Resource and Referral or the county. A CalWORKs worker or child care program can explain voucher and center-based paths.
- 6
If a subsidy agency changes or ends help, read the notice and appeal instructions. A subsidy appeal is not a licensing complaint.
- 7
For a licensing concern, call 844-538-8766 or use the CDSS complaint path. CDSS says a complainant's name can remain anonymous unless permission is given.
- 8
For suspected abuse or immediate danger, protect the child first and contact local law enforcement or the proper child-protection agency as well as licensing.
Watch for
- 1
Some family, friend, neighbor, and in-home care is license-exempt. Ask what checks a subsidy program requires for that provider.
- 2
The facility search shows a limited history and can be incomplete. Contact the regional office for more information.
- 3
A clean search result does not promise current quality or safety. Visit, ask questions, and check the latest reports.
- 4
A licensing complaint addresses licensed-care rules. A subsidy appeal addresses payment or eligibility. An abuse report uses another path.
- 5
CalWORKs child care and other vouchers use different rules. Head Start, state preschool, school programs, and private tuition have other waitlists.
- 6
Never post a child's medical, custody, or identity papers in a public complaint or send them through an unofficial link.
- 7
If the child may be unsafe now, do not wait for an online facility record or routine complaint response.
Official sources
Where to confirm this
Use the source that matches the step you are on. Current forms, fees, deadlines, and agency decisions can change after this page is reviewed.
Use this as a map. It does not decide your rights, tell you what to file, or say someone broke the law. If a deadline, denial, eviction, firing, injury, tax bill, permit fight, or insurance dispute is on the line, use the official source or a licensed professional.