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Vermont Child Care Licensing: A Parent's Guide

A plain-English guide to how child care licensing works in Vermont — who regulates it, how to check any provider's license and public record, and where to find the official state information. Childcare Alerts indexes 1,054 licensed Vermont providers, free.

Who licenses child care in Vermont?

Child care in Vermont is licensed and monitored by the Vermont Department for Children and Families. Vermont licenses providers through the Child Development Division. Vermont publishes each provider's STARS quality level and license details openly.

How to check a provider's license and record

1. Search on Childcare Alerts. Look up any Vermont 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. Vermont Child Development Division ↗ is the system of record — always the final word.

What Childcare Alerts shows for Vermont

For Vermont, we surface the provider directory plus each provider's Vermont STARS quality rating.

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

Vermont's quality rating: STARS

Vermont runs a voluntary quality-rating system called STARS. 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 Vermont.