Quotable facts
NYC daycare inspection facts, in numbers.
Every figure below is computed deterministically from NYC DOHMH childcare center inspection records — no estimates, no rounding games. Each block states its source and data date so it can be quoted directly.
How many licensed daycare centers are in New York City?
New York City's published childcare center inspection data covers 3,014 licensed centers: daycare centers, preschools, infant/toddler programs, school-based childcare, and camps regulated under NYC Health Code Article 47 and Article 43. This count is from the city's published inspection records and may exclude centers that closed, renamed, or opened after the city's data ends in April 2023.
Source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023.
How many daycare inspections did NYC conduct?
NYC's published records contain 15,909 childcare center inspections conducted between May 2020 and April 2023 — an average of just over 5 inspections per center across the window. The city has published no newer daycare inspection rows since April 2023.
Source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023.
What percentage of NYC daycare inspections are flagged with violations?
30.9% of inspections (4,913 of 15,909) were flagged with at least one violation; 69.1% were clean. Over the full 2020–2023 window, 71.7% of centers (2,160 of 3,014) were flagged at least once, while 28.3% (854) had zero flagged inspections. A flagged inspection averaged 3.3 citations.
Source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023.
What are the most common daycare violations in NYC?
The five most-cited violation families: staff health and immunization records (1,919 citations, 11.8% of all citations), building condition — floors, walls, windows, exits (1,760), staff training including SIDS and infection control (1,146), children's medical exams and immunizations (1,136), and staff background screening and clearances (1,030).
Source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023.
What does "public health hazard" mean on a daycare inspection?
"Public health hazard" is the NYC Department of Health's own per-citation classification for a condition that can directly harm a child — such as injury risk, poisoning, infection, unsafe supervision, or unvetted staff contact. SproutScore rates these as its critical severity tier. 13.6% of the 16,204 published citations (2,210) carried this classification. These citations are the first to ask about on a center tour.
Source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023.
How do I read a NYC daycare violation citation?
A citation has four parts: the health-code subsection (e.g. 47.41(j)), the city's own one-line description, the city's classification (GENERAL, CRITICAL, or PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD), and a status — CORRECTED means the city recorded a fix; OPEN means no correction was on record by April 2023, not proof it is still uncorrected today. SproutScore adds a plain-English translation of the code and a severity rating; the city's original text is always shown alongside for verification.
Source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023.
How does SproutScore compare daycare centers?
Each center starts at a score of 100: every critical citation deducts 25 points, major deducts 10, minor deducts 3, and half of a deduction is restored when the city recorded the violation as corrected. Bands: A at 90+, B at 80+, C at 70+, D at 55+, F below. A center's standing versus the NYC average compares its flagged-inspection rate against the city's own published average for its program cohort — for example 21.9% for preschools and 45.2% for school-based childcare — never across cohorts. Centers are also ranked against nearby centers in the same ZIP code. All calculations are deterministic: the same data always gives the same score.
Source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023.
How current is SproutScore's daycare data?
SproutScore's data covers inspections from 2020-05-29 through 2023-04-24, from the NYC DOHMH dataset "Childcare Center Inspections (Historical)" (Socrata id dsg6-ifza). The city has published no newer daycare inspection rows since April 2023, and the dataset is now archived as "(Historical)". Treat the records as a historical starting point: always confirm current conditions on your tour.
Source: NYC DOHMH via SproutScore, data as of 2020–2023.
How these numbers are made
Reproducible, not estimated.
These stats are computed by a script run against the published data bundle — compute_citywide_stats.py against centers.json + violation-translations.json. Anyone with the bundle gets the same numbers. Full method: the methodology page. Machine-readable summary: llms.txt.