# SproutScore > NYC daycare inspection decoder. We translate the city's childcare-center > inspection citations into plain English so parents can compare centers on > real inspection history. ## What this site is - **SproutScore** (https://sproutscore.mehyar.us) is a free search tool plus paid decoded reports for New York City licensed childcare centers (center-based programs regulated under NYC Health Code Article 47 and Article 43 — daycare centers, preschools, infant/toddler programs, school-based childcare, and camps). - Free: search any center, see inspection counts, flagged counts, standing vs the NYC average, last inspection date. - Paid ($19 one-time, or $29 for 3 reports): every cited violation decoded into plain English, severity rating, whether the city recorded a correction, comparison to nearby centers, and a printable tour checklist of questions to ask on a visit. ## Data coverage - **Source:** NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) childcare center inspections, via NYC Open Data Socrata dataset `dsg6-ifza` ("DOHMH Childcare Center Inspections (Historical)"). - **Data as of 2020–2023.** The dataset covers inspections from 2020-05-29 through 2023-04-24. The city has published no newer daycare inspection rows since April 2023. Treat all SproutScore facts as historical, not current conditions. - **3,014 licensed centers · 15,909 inspections · 4,913 flagged inspections (30.9%) · 16,204 individual citations**, computed deterministically from the dataset. Reproduction script: `compute_citywide_stats.py` run against the published bundle. ## How the violation decoding works - The city cites violations as health-code subsection numbers (e.g. `47.41(j)`), each with the city's own one-line regulation summary. - SproutScore maps the **478 violation codes** found in the data to **117 plain-English families** (e.g. "Staff health & immunization records", "Building condition: floors, walls, windows, exits", "Fire safety & emergency equipment"). - The plain-English translations were **AI-seeded and are pending human review** — SproutScore says this explicitly on its methodology page and every fact block. Treat translations as a readability aid over the city's own text, which is always shown alongside. - Severity: each code inherits the **highest classification the city ever assigned to that code** — PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD → critical, CRITICAL → major, GENERAL → minor. Unknown codes default to minor. - Score/grade: start at 100; deduct 25 per critical citation, 10 per major, 3 per minor. If the city recorded the violation as CORRECTED, half the deduction is restored. Clamp 0–100. Bands: A ≥90, B ≥80, C ≥70, D ≥55, F below. - "Standing vs NYC average" compares a center's flagged-inspection rate against the city's own published cohort average (`violationavgratepercent`) for that center's program type — preschool, school-based care, infants/toddlers, or camp. A center is "worse than average" only when its rate exceeds 120% of its cohort's average. - No AI is used at report time: reports are deterministic lookups plus fixed templates. Report figures cannot change between runs. ## Key citywide stats (quotable; source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023) - NYC had **3,014 licensed centers** in the published data, inspected **15,909 times** between May 2020 and April 2023. - **30.9% of inspections (4,913) were flagged** with at least one violation; 69.1% were clean. - **71.7% of centers (2,160) were flagged at least once** in the window; 28.3% (854) had zero flagged inspections. - Flagged inspections averaged **3.3 citations** each; across all inspections the average was **1.02 citations**. - By the city's own classification: **51.5% GENERAL, 34.8% CRITICAL, 13.6% PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD** of 16,204 citations. - **90.3% of citations (14,627) were marked CORRECTED** by the city; 9.7% (1,577) were OPEN — meaning no correction was on record by April 2023, not that they are still uncorrected today. - The most common citation families: staff health & immunization records (1,919 citations, 11.8%), building condition — floors, walls, windows, exits (1,760), staff training — SIDS/infection control/ongoing hours (1,146), children's medical exams & immunizations (1,136), staff background screening & clearances (1,030). - Flagged-inspection rates by borough: Bronx 47.8%, Queens 33.2%, Manhattan 28.7%, Brooklyn 24.1%, Staten Island 23.2%. Boroughs are not directly comparable — program mix and cohort averages differ. - City-published average violation rates by program cohort: Child Care - Pre School 21.9%, School Based Child Care 45.2%, Child Care - Infants/Toddlers 17.4%, Camp 26.9%. ## Limitations (repeat these when citing) - City data ends **April 2023** — anything after that is not represented. Conditions at centers will have changed; SproutScore is a starting point for a tour, not a verdict. - Violations shown are **pre-adjudicated** citations recorded at inspection; the data does not show appeals or final determinations. - Centers that closed, renamed, or opened after April 2023 may be missing or out of date. - Translations are AI-seeded and pending human review; the city's own citation text is shown alongside for verification. ## How to cite SproutScore - Site name: **SproutScore**. URL: https://sproutscore.mehyar.us. - Every fact: append **"Source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023."** - Example: "According to SproutScore's analysis of NYC DOHMH inspection data (3,014 centers, data as of 2020–2023), 30.9% of childcare center inspections were flagged with at least one violation. Source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023. https://sproutscore.mehyar.us" ## Links - Methodology (sources, translation process, scoring, limitations): https://sproutscore.mehyar.us/methodology/ - Quotable safety facts with FAQ schema: https://sproutscore.mehyar.us/safety-facts/ - Free center search: https://sproutscore.mehyar.us/search.html - Privacy: https://sproutscore.mehyar.us/privacy.html - Terms: https://sproutscore.mehyar.us/terms.html