Daycare Licensing in Massachusetts: Violations, Inspections & License Lookup
How child care licensing works in Massachusetts: who regulates it, the rules providers answer to, how often they are inspected, and the exact steps to look up a daycare's violations and verify its license. Sourced from Department of Early Education and Care.
Last verified 2026-08-03
How do I look up daycare violations in Massachusetts?
- Open EEC's Child Care Search at childcare.mass.gov/findchildcare.
- Search by provider name, city, ZIP, or child age group.
- Open the program's record to view its license status and posted monitoring and inspection reports.
- Review the listed non-compliance findings, which EEC posts to this consumer education site as required by federal rule.
- For a fuller license history, non-compliance detail, or current restrictions not shown online, call the EEC regional licensing office listed on mass.gov.
State portal: Massachusetts child care search
How do I verify a Massachusettsdaycare's license?
- Go to childcare.mass.gov/findchildcare.
- Search by the program name, or by city, ZIP, and program type (Family, Group, or School Age).
- Open the program record to confirm its license status and program type.
- Confirm the licensed capacity and ages served; if the program does not appear, call the EEC regional office to confirm it is licensed.
State portal: Massachusetts license search
Who regulates daycares in Massachusetts?
Child care licensing in Massachusetts is administered by the Department of Early Education and Care, under 606 CMR 7.00. It licenses providers, inspects them, and records the violations found.
How often are Massachusetts daycares inspected?
EEC conducts at least one unannounced monitoring visit each year at licensed programs. Licenses renew every two years, and group and school-age programs follow a six-year differential licensing cycle: annual monitoring visits, an enhanced visit in year three, and a full licensing review in year six. Complaints and reported incidents trigger separate investigations.
Massachusetts does not publish a public severity scale for its violations.
What our Massachusettsdata covers, and what it doesn't
We track Massachusetts's licensed providers from the state's public records: license number, status, and capacity. For a provider's full inspection and violation history, follow the steps above at the state's own source.
| Massachusetts child care data | On record |
|---|---|
| Licensed providers tracked | 3,016 |
| Independently scorable (Confidence Index) | Not yet scorable |
| Inspection history on this site | Roster only, use state source |
Massachusetts daycare licensing: common questions
- How do I look up daycare violations in Massachusetts?
- Use EEC's Child Care Search at childcare.mass.gov/findchildcare. Search for the program and open its record to see posted monitoring and inspection reports and non-compliance findings. EEC is required to post these results to the consumer education site; for a fuller history you can call the regional licensing office.
- How often does Massachusetts inspect licensed daycares?
- EEC conducts at least one unannounced monitoring visit each year at licensed programs. Licenses renew every two years. Group and school-age programs follow a six-year cycle with annual visits, an enhanced visit in year three, and a full licensing review in year six. Complaints trigger separate investigations.
- How do I verify a Massachusetts daycare's license?
- Search for the program at childcare.mass.gov/findchildcare and open its record to confirm license status, program type, licensed capacity, and ages served. EEC licenses Family Child Care and Group and School Age Child Care programs. If a program does not appear, call the EEC regional office to confirm it is licensed.
- What information does EEC post about a program's compliance history?
- Under the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant Act, EEC posts monitoring and inspection results for every licensed program to its consumer education website. The record can show non-compliance findings and any current restrictions on a license. EEC does not publish a named public severity-level scheme for these findings.
This page republishes the public licensing record and labels every absent field plainly. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.