Methodology

How we compile the Clear Day childcare directory

Every state guide and center page is built from state records. This page says which records, what a percentage on the page is counted over, and where our limits are.

Who compiles this directory

Clear Day compiles this directory. Clear Day is the company behind childcare management software for preschools and child care centers, provided by The Gully Goose Co, LLC. The directory is built from the public licensing records that state agencies publish, listed below.

Clear Day is not a government agency and does not license, inspect or rate any center. The state keeps the official record; we copy it, label where it came from, and link you back to it. Corrections are covered below.

Where the data comes from

Center records come from each state's licensing public records, listed below with the agency that keeps them.

Where a state’s license or terms of use require a credit or disclaimer, it appears under that state above, on the state’s guide and city pages, and in short form on its center pages.

Quality rating, subsidy and pre-K program names on the state guides come from the same agencies’ own pages. Where we could not confirm a name against an official page, the guide leaves it out.

Ratios and other rules

A ratio table appears on a state guide only when we have the regulation it comes from.

Each row links to the regulation that sets it, and the guide names the rule next to the figure. Where we have no cited rule for a state yet, the guide shows no ratio table at all. We would rather leave a gap than print a number we cannot source.

Rules change. Read the linked rule text before relying on a figure, and confirm with the state agency if a decision depends on it.

When the data was last updated

Each state guide shows a “Data updated” date near the top: the date Clear Day last successfully imported that state’s public licensing records, so it can differ from one state to the next. It is not the date the state changed a record. If we do not have an import date for a state, the guide leaves the line out instead of guessing.

A center can change hands, move or close after its record was imported. Check the state’s own lookup before you visit.

What licensed means

A licensed center holds a license, permit or certificate from the state agency that regulates child care. States use their own words for it (Pennsylvania calls it a certificate of compliance), and each state decides which programs it licenses.

We show the license status the state records. We do not inspect centers or verify a license ourselves, which is why each state guide walks you through the state’s own lookup.

Clear Day does not rate or review centers

We publish no stars, scores or rankings of our own, and we collect no parent reviews for the directory.

Some state guides show the state’s own quality rating program, such as a state’s level or star system. Those levels are the state’s, shown as the state’s, and only for states that run one. A center with no state rating is not a lower-rated center. It just has none on file.

How each percentage is counted

Every share on a state guide names what it is counted over, for example “of N centers reporting.” The denominator is the number of centers whose record reports that field. A center whose record says nothing about a field is left out of both the count and the denominator, so it is never counted as a “no.”

That means denominators differ from one figure to the next on the same page, and a state with sparse records for a field will show a smaller denominator. Compare shares within a state, not between states: each state records different things in different ways.

Corrections

Every center page has a “Report this listing” link. Use it, or contact us, if a center, a figure or a link here is wrong. A person reads every message, and we review every report before anything on the page changes.

If the state’s record itself is wrong, the state has to correct it. For the states listed above, each center page links the state agency and its license lookup. The corrected record shows up here once we import it.