zReports Research Institute · Updated September 2026
California has 28,874 active licensed daycares on the state's public file. zReports analyzed state child care licensing and enforcement records to produce a records layer grade for every one, the government's own verdicts, mapped through one fixed rule. No facility can pay to change a score, and the grade is free.
| Statistic | Value |
|---|---|
| Active licensed daycares | 28,874 |
| Cities covered | 1,000 |
| Statewide average records layer score | 85 |
| Grade A facilities | 28,874 (100%) |
| Combined licensed capacity | 999,428 |
| Family Day Care Home | 14,401 |
| Day Care Center | 9,630 |
| Infant Center | 2,260 |
| School Age Day Care Center | 1,861 |
Average records layer score by city (cities with 10+ facilities), against the statewide average of 85.
| City | Facilities | Avg score | vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Livermore | 76 | 85 | +0 |
| Berkeley | 125 | 85 | +0 |
| Castro Valley | 54 | 85 | +0 |
| Dublin | 88 | 85 | +0 |
| Alameda | 98 | 85 | +0 |
| Oakland | 357 | 85 | +0 |
| Hayward | 142 | 85 | +0 |
| Fremont | 257 | 85 | +0 |
| Plumas Lake | 21 | 85 | +0 |
#1 Sunset Christian Preschool Livermore · A-
#2 Berkeley Montessori School Berkeley · A-
#3 Childrens Community Center Berkeley · A-
#4 Happiness Hill Preschool And Day Care Castro Valley · A-
#5 Highlands Pre-School Piedmont · A-
#6 Holy Cross Lutheran Nursery School Livermore · A-
#7 John Knox Co-Op Preschool Dublin · A-
#8 Kiddie Kampus Cooperative Play School Alameda · A-
#9 Lakeshore Children'S Center Oakland · A-
#10 Linda Beach Cooperative Play School Piedmont · A-
#11 Sequoia Nursery School Oakland · A-
#12 Skyline Preschool Oakland · A-
#13 Berkeley Ymca Head Start - South Ymca Berkeley · A-
#14 First Covenant Treehouse Preschool Oakland · A-
#15 Montessori Children'S House Of Hayward Hayward · A-
#16 Prince Of Peace Prechool- Mission Hills Fremont · A-
#17 Dandelion Nursery School, INC Berkeley · A-
#18 Kimber Hills Preschool Fremont · A-
#19 Gan Avraham Preschool Oakland · A-
#20 Lake School (The) Oakland · A-
#21 Peter Pan Co-Op Nursery School Maxwell House Oakland · A-
#22 Nia House Learning Center Berkeley · A-
#23 St. Leander Pre-Kindergarten San Leandro · A-
#24 Valley Christian Preschool Dublin · A-
#25 Agnes Memorial Oakland · A-
Don't see a name? Search it. Every daycare has an answer.
The free grade on this page contains zero zReports judgment: it maps the state's own published licensing and enforcement verdicts through one fixed rule, applied identically to every daycare in America. Where the record and public reputation diverge, a highly reviewed facility with serious findings on file, the paid Consumer Intelligence Report™ surfaces it through the composite Consumer Z Score™ and our published ten point methodology. Facilities are never contacted and cannot pay to change a score. Read the full methodology →
Licensed child care in California is regulated by the California Department of Social Services’ Community Care Licensing Division, which licenses providers, conducts inspections, investigates complaints, and publishes enforcement actions on the public record. Those state filed records, not reviews, are what this page is computed from. One precision note: some programs are legally exempt from licensing in many states (certain school- or church-operated programs, and small home settings under the state’s size threshold) and therefore do not appear on the licensed register at all. This page covers every provider on California’s public licensing file.
California has 28,874 active licensed daycares on the state's public file, across 1,000 cities, with a combined licensed capacity of 999,428. Every one has a free records layer grade on zReports.
Los Angeles, with 1,484 licensed daycares, followed by San Diego (1,037) and San Jose (763).
The free records layer grade contains zero zReports judgment. It maps the government's own published verdicts, state child care licensing and enforcement records, through one fixed rule, applied identically to every daycare in the country. The paid Consumer Intelligence Report™ adds the composite Consumer Z Score™, which audits the record against public reputation through our published ten point methodology.
Reviews and records are different surfaces. Reviews reflect what visitors chose to write, and can be managed by the business. Inspection and enforcement records are filed by the state, are mandatory, and cannot be edited by the facility. When the two diverge, the record is the surface worth checking. That divergence is exactly what zReports was built to surface.
Rankings refresh whenever California republishes its licensing data; facility pages carry the records-verified date for each provider. This page was generated from the current file as of September 2026.
No. Facilities are never contacted, never notified, and cannot pay to be listed, delisted, or re-scored. zReports has no business relationship with any facility it grades, independence is the product.
This report was generated from the zReports Consumer Records Database™, a continuously updated database that normalizes official government licensing, inspection, enforcement, ownership, and safety records across multiple federal and state agencies. Every statistic in this report is traceable to its originating public record. Facilities cannot pay to alter scores, rankings, or findings.
Data source: zReports Consumer Intelligence Database™ v2026.09 · Built from: California child care licensing, inspection & enforcement records · Public consumer review signals (audited, never trusted, in the composite Consumer Z Score™) · Proprietary Consumer Z Score™ methodology · Updated: September 2026
APA, zReports Research Institute. (2026). California Licensed Child Care Rankings & Safety Report (v2026.09). zReports.org. https://zreports.org/rankings/daycare/ca
MLA, zReports Research Institute. “California Licensed Child Care Rankings & Safety Report.” zReports.org, v2026.09, September 2026, zreports.org/rankings/daycare/ca.
Plain, California Licensed Child Care Rankings & Safety Report, zReports Research Institute, v2026.09, updated September 2026, zreports.org/rankings/daycare/ca