Young children washing their hands.

When you’re looking for child care, you should first understand how your state or territory regulates it.

Licensing is the main way the U.S. and its territories regulate child care. Child care licensing is a process where state and territory governments set minimum health and safety requirements that child care programs must meet to legally operate.

Federal law requires states and territories to set and enforce child care licensing requirements to ensure your child’s health and safety in a child care program.

Looking for a licensed program is one step you can take to choose a safe child care program for your child.

Although child care licensing does not guarantee quality, it does set minimum health and safety requirements for child care programs. In addition, licensed child care programs are required to be monitored to ensure they continue to meet those requirements.

In this section you will find the following pages: