Pennsylvania Daycare Licence Lookup & Violation Records
Pennsylvania child-care licences are public. Look any provider up free at the Pennsylvania COMPASS / Find Child Care database. Certification status, Keystone STARS rating, and inspection history.
Open the official Pennsylvania lookup →
Official government database, free, no account needed. Link verified 2026-09-14. We are not affiliated with Pennsylvania COMPASS / Find Child Care — this page explains how to use their record, and they are the authority on it.
How to read a child-care licensing record
Finding the record is the easy part. Most parents stall on what it means. Four things matter:
- Licence status. "Licensed" means the facility is currently authorised to operate. Anything else — probation, suspended, closed, pending — is worth asking about directly.
- Serious vs minor deficiencies. States grade citations. California calls them Type A (a direct risk to a child's health or safety) and Type B (everything else — paperwork, posting, minor facility issues). Florida uses Class I/II/III; other states use their own scale. A Type A is the one to ask about. A single Type B usually isn't a red flag — well-run schools collect them.
- Substantiated vs unsubstantiated complaints. Anyone can file a complaint. Substantiated means the state investigated and found it true. Unsubstantiated complaints are common and mean very little on their own; a substantiated one is a real finding.
- Recency and pattern. One citation five years ago is different from three in the last year. Look at the trend, not the total.
What the state will not tell you: almost no state publishes the narrative of the allegation online — only counts and outcomes. To read what actually happened, request the full report from the licensing agency using the control or case number shown on the record. That's a normal public-records request, and you're entitled to make it.
What to ask the school
A licensing record is a conversation starter, not a verdict. If you see something, ask — a good director will answer plainly:
- "I saw a citation from [date] on your licensing record. What happened, and what changed afterwards?"
- "What's your current licensed capacity, and how many children are enrolled right now?"
- "What are your actual staff-to-child ratios in my child's room today?" — state law sets a minimum; many schools run better than it, and almost none publish the number.
- "When was your last licensing visit, and may I see the report?"
A defensive answer to any of these tells you more than the citation did.
See also: the average cost of daycare in Pennsylvania · finding violations in any state · every state's lookup.