Pennsylvania certified child care
6,549 certified daycares, licensed for 411,482 children
Browse certified child care in Pennsylvania by city. Every number here comes from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) public list of certified child care providers, so you see state-regulated providers, not adverts.
Data: PA DHS, Office of Child Development and Early Learning, “Child Care Providers including Early Learning Programs Listing” (data.pa.gov, dataset ajn5-kaxt), as of September 25, 2026. Counts cover the three certified child care types. 922 other early learning programs in the list (such as Pre-K Counts and Head Start sites listed as “Other,” with no child capacity) are counted separately. Capacity is the state-certified maximum, not the number of open spots. School-age-only providers have no numeric capacity in the data, so their capacity is not included in the totals.
Pennsylvania at a glance
There are 6,549 certified child care providers in Pennsylvania, certified for a combined 411,482 children.[1]
| Provider type | Providers | Certified capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Child Care Center | 5,000 | 398,912 |
| Group Child Care Home | 587 | 6,777 |
| Family Child Care Home | 962 | 5,793 |
| Total | 6,549 | 411,482 |
- 5,812 of these providers (about 89%) have a child care subsidy (Child Care Works) agreement.[1]
- 38 are flagged with a negative sanction.[1]
- The list also includes 922 other early learning programs, such as Pre-K Counts and Head Start sites.[1]
Keystone STARS ratings
Keystone STARS is Pennsylvania’s quality rating program for early learning. Levels run from STAR 1 to STAR 4, the highest. “ACC” marks providers with an accepted national accreditation. A rating describes program quality standards, not whether a provider has openings.
| STAR level | Providers |
|---|---|
| STAR 4 | 1,607 |
| STAR 4 – ACC | 332 |
| STAR 3 | 218 |
| STAR 3 – ACC | 5 |
| STAR 2 | 1,149 |
| STAR 1 | 2,964 |
| No STAR Level | 274 |
Cities with the most providers
| City | Providers | Certified capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia | 1,668 | 82,304 |
| Pittsburgh | 328 | 22,046 |
| Allentown | 256 | 9,944 |
| Lancaster | 114 | 5,520 |
| Harrisburg | 109 | 8,195 |
| Erie | 100 | 6,801 |
| Reading | 98 | 7,310 |
| York | 71 | 4,754 |
| Lebanon | 57 | 1,387 |
| Bethlehem | 49 | 3,898 |
City is the facility mailing city in the dataset.[1] City guides: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Lancaster.
Provider types explained
- Child Care Center: a facility outside a home that cares for 7 or more children at one time.
- Group Child Care Home: a home or facility that cares for 7 to 15 children of various ages, or 7 to 12 children of the same age range.
- Family Child Care Home: a provider’s home that cares for 4 to 6 unrelated children at one time.
Definitions follow Pennsylvania’s child care certification rules (55 Pa. Code Chapters 3270, 3280 and 3290).
How to check a provider’s certification and inspections
- Go to Pennsylvania’s official provider search on COMPASS at compass.dhs.pa.gov/home/providersearch. (The older address, findchildcare.pa.gov, is the one the dataset itself points to.)
- Search by provider name, city, county or ZIP code.
- Open the provider’s record. It shows the certificate type, capacity, Keystone STARS level and inspection results.
- The open dataset also flags whether a provider has a negative sanction (field “Negative Sanctions”).[1]
Sources
- Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL). “Child Care Providers including Early Learning Programs Listing Current Monthly Facility County Human Services,” data.pa.gov, dataset ajn5-kaxt, rows updated 2026-09-25. https://data.pa.gov/d/ajn5-kaxt
DaycareVacancy is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (PA DHS) or OCDEL. Capacity is the state-certified maximum, not the number of open spots, and no listing here means a provider has openings.
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