Texas Health and Human Services, Child Care Regulation
Texas daycare license lookup
Search the provider's name on the state's Texas child care search, open its record, and read the permit, capacity and every inspection from the last five years. For Houston and Austin providers, our pages show the license number and two years of findings.
How to check a provider in four steps
- Open the state's child care search and choose "By Provider".
- Type the name or the license number. Check that the address matches the place you toured.
- Look at the permit. "Full Permit" is the normal status; a permit with conditions or a corrective action plan means the state wants changes.
- Open the inspections and read each deficiency, its date and its risk level.
License types in Texas
Licensed child care center. Care for 13 or more children, or 7 to 12 in a building that is not a home. 9,607 operate today.
Licensed child care home. Care in the caregiver's own home for 7 to 12 children. 1,597 operate today.
Registered child care home. Care in the caregiver's home for up to 6 children from birth to 13, plus up to 6 more school-age children after school. Registered homes are inspected less often and are not called licensed. 1,725 operate today.
Texas daycare violations and inspection reports
When an inspector finds a rule broken, the state records a deficiency and gives it one of five risk levels: High, Medium High, Medium, Medium Low or Low. In the last two years, Texas cited 49,476 deficiencies across 57,501 inspections. 3,903 providers were inspected and had none.
| Risk level | Deficiencies in two years | Share |
|---|---|---|
| High | 12,448 | 25% |
| Medium High | 20,423 | 41% |
| Medium | 13,972 | 28% |
| Medium Low | 1,862 | 4% |
| Low | 771 | 2% |
A deficiency is not a finding of harm. Many are paperwork, and some are fixed while the inspector is still there. Look for repeats of the same rule and for High or Medium High findings about supervision, ratios or safe sleep.
Texas child-to-caregiver ratios
Texas rule 746.1601 sets how many children one caregiver may watch in a center, by the age of the youngest children in the group. Rule 746.1609 sets the largest group two or more caregivers may run.
| Age of children | Children per caregiver | Largest group |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 11 months | 4 | 10 |
| 12 to 17 months | 5 | 13 |
| 18 to 23 months | 9 | 18 |
| 2 years | 11 | 22 |
| 3 years | 15 | 30 |
| 4 years | 18 | 35 |
| 5 years | 22 | 35 |
| 6 to 8 years | 26 | 35 |
| 9 to 13 years | 26 | 35 |
Source: Texas Minimum Standards for Child Care Centers, chapter 746.
Inspection records by city
License information is from the Texas Health and Human Services public register, retrieved October 2026. License status can change; verify at childcare.hhs.texas.gov before enrolling.