Childcare Alerts

← All guides · Search Colorado · Colorado report

Colorado Child Care Licensing: A Parent's Guide

A plain-English guide to how child care licensing works in Colorado — who regulates it, how to check any provider's license and public record, and where to find the official state information. Childcare Alerts indexes 4,374 licensed Colorado providers, free.

Who licenses child care in Colorado?

Child care in Colorado is licensed and monitored by the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. Colorado licenses providers through the Department of Early Childhood. Colorado Shines shows the license, quality rating, and — on the state portal — inspection and complaint history.

How to check a provider's license and record

  1. Search on Childcare Alerts. Look up any Colorado provider by name, city, or ZIP — free. Each page shows what's on the public record in plain English and links to the official state file.
  2. Read the record. Check the license status and any licensing actions. Not sure what a term means? See violations explained.
  3. Confirm on the state's own site. Colorado Dept. of Early Childhood ↗ is the system of record — always the final word.

What Childcare Alerts shows for Colorado

For Colorado, we surface the provider directory plus each provider's Colorado Shines quality rating.

See the Colorado child care report and the Colorado deserts map for the statewide picture.

Colorado's quality rating: Colorado Shines

Colorado runs a voluntary quality-rating system called Colorado Shines. A higher rating reflects more of the state's program-quality standards met — but participation is voluntary, so an unrated provider is not necessarily lower quality. We show the rating on a provider's page when the state publishes it.

Before you choose care

The record is one input, not the whole story. See 10 questions to ask on a tour and what accreditation means. A provider with no action on record has not necessarily had a clean history — always open the official record.

Worried a provider is operating without a license, or seen something unsafe? Here's how to report it in Colorado.

Childcare Alerts is an independent service — not affiliated with the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. We surface public records from official state sources; the official government record always controls, and the absence of a record is not a guarantee of safety.