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Minnesota Child Care Licensing: A Parent's Guide

A plain-English guide to how child care licensing works in Minnesota — who regulates it, how to check any center's license and public record, and where to find the official state information. Childcare Alerts indexes 2,394 licensed Minnesota providers, free.

Who licenses child care in Minnesota?

Child care in Minnesota is licensed and monitored by the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF). Minnesota licenses child care through the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (formerly DHS). Its Licensing Lookup shows a provider's license status and up to four years of correction orders, fines, and maltreatment findings.

How to check a center's license and record

  1. Search on Childcare Alerts. Look up any Minnesota center 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. Minnesota DHS Licensing Information Lookup ↗ is the system of record — always the final word.

What Childcare Alerts shows for Minnesota

For Minnesota, we surface the complete public licensing record — violations, correction orders, fines, and maltreatment findings — plus a free email alert whenever a new record is posted.

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

Minnesota's quality rating: Parent Aware

Minnesota runs a voluntary quality-rating system called Parent Aware. A higher rating reflects more of the state's program-quality standards met — but participation is voluntary, so an unrated center is not necessarily lower quality. We show the rating on a center'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 center with no action on record has not necessarily had a clean history — always open the official record.

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

Childcare Alerts is an independent service — not affiliated with the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF). 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.