ChildcareCenter.us Daycare & Childcare Directory Scraper

Scrape ChildcareCenter.us - the US directory of 137,000+ licensed childcare centers and preschools, plus 114,000+ home / family day care providers. Search by ZIP code, city + state, browse an entire state or county, and get names, full addresses, phone numbers, websites, license numbers, capacity, age range, rate ranges, languages spoken, ratings, individual reviews, operating hours, and more. No login, no API key, and no cookies required.

What this actor does

• Five modes: search by ZIP code, search by city + state, browse an entire state, browse an entire county, or look up specific providers by URL
• Two provider types: licensed childcare centers / preschools, and home / family day care providers
• Rich per-provider detail: address, phone, website, license number, capacity, age range, rate range, languages supported, accreditations, subsidized-program participation, type of care, schools served, transportation, hours of operation, star rating, individual reviews, photos, and licensing details (issue/expiration dates, licensor, inspection history)
• Filters: minimum rating, minimum capacity, minimum review count, subsidized-program-only, language spoken
• Nationwide coverage: all 50 US states + Washington, D.C., down to the county level
• Empty fields are always omitted - every field returned genuinely exists on the source page

Output per provider

• providerId, name, facilityType, centerType (center or home)
• streetAddress, city, state, zip, phone, website
• licenseNumber, capacity, ageRange, accreditations, rateRange, languagesSupported[]
• subsidizedProgram (boolean), typeOfCare[], schoolsServed, transportation
• initialLicenseDate, currentLicenseDate, licenseExpirationDate, licensor
• districtOffice, districtOfficePhone
• operationHours - object keyed by day of week
• ratingValue (0-5), reviewCount
• reviews[] - { author, rating, date, text, reviewerRelationship, helpfulVotes, helpfulVotesTotal } per published review
• description, additionalInfo
• photos[], logoUrl
• inspections[] - { date, hasViolation } per licensing inspection on file
• sourceUrl, recordType, scrapedAt

Only fields the source page actually publishes are included - a provider with no reviews yet simply has no ratingValue/reviewCount/reviews field, rather than a placeholder value. Likewise, rateRange, languagesSupported, licensor, and licenseExpirationDate are only published by some providers/states, so they appear only when the source page actually has them.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	byZip	byZip / byCityState / byState / byCounty / byProviderUrl
zip	string	33781	5-digit US ZIP code (mode=byZip)
city	string	-	City name, used with state (mode=byCityState)
county	string	-	US county name, used with state (mode=byCounty), e.g. Suffolk or Van Zandt
state	string	FL	US state, 2-letter code (mode=byCityState, byState, or byCounty)
centerType	string	center	center (childcare center / preschool) or home (home daycare / family child care)
providerUrls	array	-	Provider detail URLs or slugs (mode=byProviderUrl)
minRating	int	-	Drop providers with a review rating below this value (0-5)
minCapacity	int	-	Drop providers with a listed capacity below this number of children
subsidizedOnly	bool	false	Only emit providers enrolled in a subsidized child care program
minReviewCount	int	-	Drop providers with fewer published reviews than this
language	string	-	Only emit providers whose published languages include this (e.g. Spanish)
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap on emitted records (1-1000)

Example: search by ZIP code

{
  "mode": "byZip",
  "zip": "33781",
  "centerType": "center",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: search home daycare by city + state

{
  "mode": "byCityState",
  "city": "Orlando",
  "state": "FL",
  "centerType": "home",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: browse an entire state, subsidized centers with capacity 20+

{
  "mode": "byState",
  "state": "TX",
  "centerType": "center",
  "minCapacity": 20,
  "subsidizedOnly": true,
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example: browse an entire county, Spanish-speaking providers only

{
  "mode": "byCounty",
  "county": "Suffolk",
  "state": "NY",
  "centerType": "center",
  "language": "Spanish",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: look up specific providers by URL

{
  "mode": "byProviderUrl",
  "providerUrls": [
    "https://childcarecenter.us/provider_detail/first_baptist_preschool_center_pinellas_park_fl"
  ]
}

Use cases

• Parent-facing apps - power a childcare-search or comparison tool with structured, up-to-date provider data
• Market research - analyze childcare capacity, pricing signals, and subsidized-program availability by city or state
• Lead generation - build outreach lists of licensed childcare centers or home daycare providers by region
• Compliance & licensing analysis - track license numbers, licensing-inspection history, and accreditation status
• Real estate & demographic analysis - correlate childcare availability with neighborhood data

FAQ

Do I need an account, cookies, or API key? No. ChildcareCenter.us is a public directory with no login wall. This actor works out of the box with no configuration beyond the input fields.

What's the difference between center and home provider types? center covers licensed childcare centers, preschools, and child development centers. home covers home-based / family child care and group home day care providers. Each is searched separately via the centerType input.

Does this actor cover nanny or in-home sitter services? No. Nanny and babysitter listings are hosted on a separate site (nanny.us) operated by the same company but with a different search structure and provider database - out of scope for this actor, which targets childcarecenter.us specifically.

Why do some providers have no ratingValue or reviewCount? Those fields are only included when the provider has at least one published review. A provider with no reviews yet simply omits both fields rather than showing a 0 or placeholder rating.

Why do some license dates look unusual? ChildcareCenter.us occasionally renders a 2-digit license year with the wrong century (e.g. a provider licensed in 1969 shows "11/15/69" as "2069-11-15" in their own page). Since a license issue date in the future is impossible, the actor automatically corrects the century (subtracting 100 years) so initialLicenseDate always reflects a real, plausible date - every digit is exactly what the source published, only the century is corrected.

How many results does byState mode return? byState walks every city listed for that state (highest-listing-count cities first) until maxItems is reached or the state is exhausted. Large states like California or Texas have thousands of providers; set maxItems accordingly.

How does byCounty mode work? It uses ChildcareCenter.us's own county hub pages (e.g. childcarecenter.us/county/suffolk_ny), which list the county's top providers directly plus every city within that county. county is matched against the site's own slug (lowercase, spaces become underscores, a trailing "County" is stripped, possessive apostrophes are dropped, and "St."/"Ft."/"Mt." are expanded to "Saint"/"Fort"/"Mount" to match the source's naming, e.g. St. Mary's -> saint_marys) - standard US county names resolve correctly, including ones like Prince George's or St. Lucie. If a county name doesn't resolve, the run emits a status message rather than fabricating results.

Is pricing / tuition information available? Sometimes. Some providers - mostly home / family day care listings - publish a rateRange (e.g. "$110 to $160 per week"). Most providers do not publish pricing, so rateRange is included only on the records where the source page actually has it; there is no site-wide guarantee of coverage.

Are individual reviews available, or just the star rating? Both. ratingValue/reviewCount are the aggregate figures shown at the top of the page; reviews[] contains each individual published review with its author name, 1-5 star rating, date, review text, an optional "I have used this provider for..." relationship tag, and helpful-vote counts where the site shows them.

How fresh is the data? Provider listings, ratings, and licensing-inspection records reflect whatever is currently published on ChildcareCenter.us at the time the actor runs.