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Tennessee Child Care Licensing: A Parent's Guide
A plain-English guide to how child care licensing works in Tennessee — who regulates it, how to check any provider's license and public record, and where to find the official state information. Childcare Alerts indexes 4,054 licensed Tennessee providers, free.
Who licenses child care in Tennessee?
Tennessee licenses providers through the Department of Human Services (school pre-K is approved by the Department of Education). The Child Care Locator shows each provider's license, Star-Quality Report Card score, and inspection/compliance history.
How to check a provider's license and record
- Search on Childcare Alerts. Look up any Tennessee 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.
- Read the record. Check the license status and any licensing actions. Not sure what a term means? See violations explained.
- Confirm on the state's own site. Tennessee DHS Find Child Care ↗ is the system of record — always the final word.
What Childcare Alerts shows for Tennessee
For Tennessee, we surface the provider directory plus each provider's Star-Quality quality rating.
See the Tennessee child care report and the Tennessee deserts map for the statewide picture.
Tennessee's quality rating: Star-Quality
Tennessee runs a voluntary quality-rating system called Star-Quality. 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 Tennessee.
Childcare Alerts is an independent service — not affiliated with the Tennessee Department of Human Services. 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.