Child Care in Dallas, TX: Licensed Daycares, Capacity & How to Check a Provider

Dallas, TX

430 licensed daycares, licensed for 40,704 children

Data: Texas HHSC Child Care Licensing, “HHSC CCL Daycare and Residential Operations Data” (data.texas.gov, dataset bc5r-88dy), updated October 23, 2026. Counts cover active operations (OPERATION_STATUS = Y) where the listed city is “Dallas.” Residential operations and child-placing agencies are excluded. Capacity is the state-licensed maximum, not the number of open spots.

Dallas at a glance

There are 430 active day care operations in Dallas, licensed for a combined 40,704 children.[1]

Provider type Operations Licensed capacity
Licensed Center 342 39,872
Registered Child-Care Home 25 283
Licensed Child-Care Home 41 483
Listed Family Home 22 66
Total 430 40,704
  • 197 of these operations (about 46%) say they accept child care subsidies.[1]
  • Most are in Dallas County (403 of 430). The rest are in Collin and Denton counties (Collin: 16, Denton: 11).[1]

ZIP codes with the most providers

ZIP Operations Licensed capacity
75243 24 1,758
75216 21 1,216
75228 20 1,613
75224 20 1,282
75217 19 1,229
75227 17 803
75241 16 812
75238 15 2,018

Source for this table: the same dataset.[1]

Provider types explained

  • Licensed Center: a non-residential facility that cares for 7 or more children.
  • Licensed Child-Care Home: a provider’s home that cares for 7 to 12 children.
  • Registered Child-Care Home: a provider’s home that cares for up to 6 children, plus a limited number of school-age children.
  • Listed Family Home: a home that regularly cares for 1 to 3 unrelated children. These homes are listed with the state but not inspected routinely.

How to check a provider’s license and inspections

  1. Go to the Texas HHSC child care search at childcare.hhs.texas.gov/Public/ChildCareSearch.
  2. Search by the operation’s name, its operation number, or a ZIP code.
  3. Open the provider’s page. It shows the permit type, licensed capacity, the ages it serves, inspection history, and any deficiencies found, by risk level.
  4. You can also see deficiency counts and inspection totals for every provider in the open dataset (fields DEFICIENCY_HIGH through DEFICIENCY_LOW, and TOTAL_INSPECTIONS).[1] Non-compliance details are in a separate dataset, tqgd-mf4x.

Cost

[TBD: Dallas child care cost data, pending a citable source]

Sources

  1. Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Child Care Licensing. “HHSC CCL Daycare and Residential Operations Data,” data.texas.gov, dataset bc5r-88dy, rows updated 2026-10-23. https://data.texas.gov/d/bc5r-88dy

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