As a companion to the state-level consumer education information, a national website, ChildCare.gov, provides information to parents to help them access safe and quality child care services in their communities, with a range of price options, that best suit their family’s needs.

Features of ChildCare.gov include the following:

• Nationwide capacity: ChildCare.gov has the capacity to help families in every state and community in the nation.
• Information at all hours: ChildCare.gov provides, to parents and families, access to information about child care services 24 hours a day.
• Services in different languages: ChildCare.gov ensures the widest possible access to services for families who speak languages other than English.
• High-quality consumer education and referral: ChildCare.gov ensures that families have access to easy-to-understand child care consumer education and referral services. [2]

The website provides to consumers, via a zip code search, the following information:

• A localized list of all eligible child care providers, differentiating between licensed and license-exempt providers.
• Provider-specific information from a quality rating and improvement system or information about other quality indicators, to the extent the information is publicly available and to the extent practicable.
• Other provider-specific information about compliance with licensing and health and safety requirements, to the extent the information is publicly available and to the extent practicable.
• Referrals to local resource and referral organizations that offer consumers more information about child care providers.
• State and territory information about child care subsidy programs and other financial supports available to families.
• Resources on child development.

Additional Resources

Specifics on how families can use Childcare.gov can be found at Finding High-Quality Child Care with ChildCare.gov. [3]

[1] CCDBG Act of 2014 658L(b); Child Care and Development Fund, 45 C.F.R. § 98.3(e) (2016).

[2] CCDBG Act of 2014 658L(b).

[3] Office of Child Care. (2017). ChildCare.gov project. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ/childcaregov-project