Daycares in Illinois

8,569 licensed child care providers in Illinois, drawn from the state licensing agency's public records. Each profile carries the license number, status, and capacity on record. Where the state publishes nothing for a field, or the daycare is not licensed, the profile says so plainly.

Averaged across every licensed provider on record, excluding this state from the comparison.

Parent sentiment

+0.5 vs Other states average

Average parent review rating on Google or Yelp.

Illinois3.9
Other states3.4

1,407 providers sampled

Daycare Index Rating

-4 vs Other states average

Composite of licensing, inspections, reviews, accreditation, transparency. See scoring guide.

Illinois48
Other states53

978 providers sampled

What changed in Illinois this year

The share of dated parent reviews mentioning each theme, over the last twelve months against the twelve before them. Shares rather than totals, because we hold more recent reviews than old ones and counting raw mentions would show everything rising. Only themes with enough mentions to be worth reading appear here.

Praised more than last year

Staff and teachers41% of reviews, from 37%+4.9 pts
Learning and curriculum8% of reviews, from 7%+1.6 pts
Safety and supervision4% of reviews, from 3%+1.4 pts

Complained about less

No complaint fell enough to report.

Illinois over time

Every dated record we hold for Illinois, bucketed by calendar year. A year appears only once it carries enough observations to be a point rather than an anecdote, so the lines start where the state's published record does.

Parent sentiment trend

20152026

Average star rating across every dated parent review on record for Illinois. Reviews are counted individually here, unlike the state averages above.

Show the figures

Average parent review star rating for Illinois daycares, by year, by year, with sample sizes
Year	Average rating	Sample
2015	4.54	72
2016	4.25	114
2017	4.33	240
2018	4.40	249
2019	4.39	277
2020	4.30	205
2021	4.43	278
2022	4.33	437
2023	4.34	693
2024	4.53	1,093
2025	4.62	1,743
2026	4.61	1,802

Where they are in Illinois

Every Illinois provider we hold a location for. Click a pin for the license record, and pan or zoom to load more.

Where this record comes from

Licensing in Illinois is administered by the Department of Children and Family Services under 89 Ill. Admin. Code Part 407. This directory republishes the public record and labels every absent field "Not listed" rather than filling it in. Verify current status with the agency before enrolling.

Primary source: https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov

Illinois averages