# Illinois Day Care License Search (IL DCFS) (`lulzasaur/il-dcfs-daycare-scraper`) Actor

Search Illinois DCFS's official licensed day care provider database — centers, home day cares, and group homes. Returns license status, day/night capacity, age ranges, languages, address, county, and phone for all ~8,500 state-licensed providers.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lulzasaur/il-dcfs-daycare-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [lulz bot](https://apify.com/lulzasaur) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Illinois Day Care License Search (IL DCFS)

Search the **official Illinois Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS)** licensed day care provider database — the state's licensing source of truth for **day care centers, home day cares, and group day care homes**, covering all **~8,500 licensed providers statewide**.

Every record comes straight from the DCFS Sunshine licensing system, including **license status, day & night capacity, ages served, languages spoken, full address, county, and phone number**.

### What you get

- ✅ **License verification** — current status (License issued, Pending renewal, Refuse to Renew, Pending revocation, etc.)
- 🏠 **Provider profile** — DBA name, DCFS provider ID, facility type, full address, county, ZIP, phone
- 👶 **Care details** — day/night licensed capacity, day/night age ranges, languages spoken
- 🗂️ **Statewide coverage** — filter by city, county, ZIP prefix, name, type, or status; or pull the entire state database in one run
- 🎯 **Direct lookup** — fetch a single provider by exact DCFS provider ID

### Use cases

- **Childcare marketplaces & SaaS** — license verification and enrichment for Illinois day care providers
- **Lead generation** — licensed provider lists by city/county with phone numbers and capacity
- **Insurance underwriting & compliance** — screen providers for license status before quoting
- **Franchise & site-selection research** — provider density and capacity by county or ZIP
- **Parent-facing apps** — surface licensed-only providers with ages served and languages spoken

### Input

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `facilityType` | `all`, `center` (DCC), `home` (DCH), or `group-home` (GDC) |
| `providerName` | Full or partial provider / DBA name |
| `city` / `county` | Location filters (case-insensitive) |
| `zipCode` | ZIP filter — prefix match, so `"606"` covers most of Chicago |
| `status` | License status substring, e.g. `"License issued"`, `"Pending renewal"` |
| `providerId` | Exact DCFS provider ID → returns that single provider |
| `maxResults` | Cap on returned records (default 100, `0` = no cap / full state) |

#### Example: day care centers in Chicago

```json
{
    "facilityType": "center",
    "city": "Chicago",
    "maxResults": 100
}
```

#### Example: all licensed providers in DuPage County

```json
{
    "county": "DuPage",
    "status": "License issued",
    "maxResults": 0
}
```

#### Example: verify one provider by ID

```json
{
    "providerId": "001887"
}
```

### Output

One record per provider:

```json
{
    "providerId": "003665",
    "name": "CALVARY CHILDREN'S CENTER",
    "facilityTypeCode": "DCC",
    "facilityType": "Day Care Center",
    "status": "License issued (IL)",
    "street": "9S200 ROUTE 59",
    "city": "NAPERVILLE",
    "county": "DUPAGE",
    "zipCode": "60564",
    "phone": "6303758700",
    "dayAgeRange": "6W TO 5Y",
    "nightAgeRange": null,
    "dayCapacity": 68,
    "nightCapacity": 0,
    "languages": ["ENGLISH"],
    "state": "IL",
    "source": "Illinois DCFS Sunshine Day Care Provider Lookup",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-08-17T00:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### Why this Actor

- **Official state source** — data comes directly from the DCFS licensing system, not a third-party aggregator
- **Complete** — every run pulls the full current statewide export, so results are never truncated by site pagination
- **Fast** — a full statewide pull completes in seconds
- **No login, no API key** — just run it

### Notes

- Data is refreshed by DCFS continuously; each run fetches the live export.
- Provider names, cities, and counties are stored UPPERCASE in the state system; filters here are case-insensitive.
- This Actor covers **licensed** providers only — license-exempt providers are not in the DCFS lookup.

# Actor input Schema

## `facilityType` (type: `string`):

Type of licensed day care provider to include.

## `providerName` (type: `string`):

Full or partial provider / doing-business-as name (e.g. "Montessori").

## `city` (type: `string`):

City filter (e.g. "Chicago", "Springfield").

## `county` (type: `string`):

Illinois county filter (e.g. "Cook", "DuPage").

## `zipCode` (type: `string`):

ZIP code filter — matches by prefix, so "606" covers most of Chicago.

## `status` (type: `string`):

License status filter, matched as a substring (e.g. "License issued", "Pending renewal", "Revocation"). Leave empty for all statuses.

## `providerId` (type: `string`):

Exact DCFS provider ID (e.g. "001887"). Returns that single provider, ignoring all other filters.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of providers to return. Set 0 for no cap (the full statewide database is ~8,500 providers).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "facilityType": "all",
  "providerName": "",
  "city": "Chicago",
  "county": "",
  "zipCode": "",
  "status": "",
  "providerId": "",
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "city": "Chicago"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("lulzasaur/il-dcfs-daycare-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "city": "Chicago" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("lulzasaur/il-dcfs-daycare-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "city": "Chicago"
}' |
apify call lulzasaur/il-dcfs-daycare-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lulzasaur/il-dcfs-daycare-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/7YfP2x2b2lyviq1Mc/builds/dKEPdqgv99Q1KVtaa/openapi.json