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Colorado Child Care: Providers & Quality Ratings

Childcare Alerts indexes every licensed child care provider in Colorado from the state's open data, including each provider's Colorado Shines quality rating. This report summarizes the landscape. It is a factual overview, not a safety rating of any provider.

Colorado has 4,374 licensed child care providers on public record across 64 counties. Colorado publishes each provider's Colorado Shines quality rating (Level 1–5), which we surface on every provider page.

Colorado Shines quality ratings

Colorado Shines is the state's voluntary quality-rating system; a higher level reflects more of the program-quality standards met. Not every provider participates, so an unrated provider is not necessarily lower quality.

Provider types

Where the providers are

Colorado counties with the most licensed child care providers:

1. El Paso County — 536 providers
2. Arapahoe County — 490 providers
3. Jefferson County — 479 providers
4. Denver County — 440 providers
5. Adams County — 342 providers
6. Douglas County — 300 providers
7. Weld County — 298 providers
8. Larimer County — 293 providers
9. Boulder County — 272 providers
10. Pueblo County — 122 providers

Colorado child care in the news

Recent third-party coverage of Colorado child care. Headlines link to the original source — these are news reports, not our licensing records.

• Boulder County needs to fund affordable child care for a sustainable future (Opinion)
  Daily Camera · Jul 28, 2026
• Mayor Johnston launches task force aimed at expanding childcare access in Denver
  Denver7 · Jul 28, 2026
• Childcare frustrations? Denver says it’s ready to listen
  Denverite · Jul 27, 2026
• Childcare in Colorado: The challenges families face
  KOAA News 5 · Jul 27, 2026
• Boulder County is putting childcare funding on the ballot this year
  Denver7 · Jul 24, 2026
• Trump’s DOJ suing Colorado over in-state tuition for undocumented students; Boulder County leaders to consider new ballot measure aimed to fund childcare; Lawsuit aims to block Denver-area ICE detention center
  KGNU · Jul 24, 2026

Coverage is gathered automatically from public news sources and isn't an endorsement; we link out and don't host the articles.

How to check a specific provider

Search any Colorado provider by name or city to see its Colorado Shines rating and a link to the official state record.

Search a provider →

Methodology & source

Providers and Colorado Shines ratings: the Colorado Department of Early Childhood open provider listing (data.colorado.gov). Childcare Alerts surfaces and summarizes these public records; the official government record always controls, and the absence of a record is not a guarantee of safety. Childcare Alerts is an independent service, not affiliated with any state agency.