Data Definitions for 2026
Child Care Center: A facility licensed by the Office of Early Childhood that offers full time/part time
regular care to more than twelve related or unrelated children outside of their homes. Child Care
Centers also include Group Child Care Homes that provide care for 7 to 12 children. Child Care Centers also include programs that are exempt from licensing. Exempt programs are administered by a public school system, municipality and/or private school.
Family Child Care Home: An individual licensed in their home to provide child care for up to 9 children.
Legally Authorized Capacity: Number of assigned slots in programs for center, group child care care
home and family child care homes licensed by the Office of Early Childhood and license-exempt center based programs which are largely in public school and municipal settings.
Actual Capacity: The sum of reported openings and reported enrollment that refers to number of slots
offered by program. Actual capacity is less than or equal to Legally Authorized Capacity
% Actual vs Authorized Capacity: Percent of actual capacity divided by legally authorized capacity
Enrollment: A full time slot utilized with a child enrolled as reported by the program other than Nursery
School and School Age slots which are partial day enrollments, spanning multiple sessions.
Openings: Child Care slot(s) available for enrollment for a child/ren of the corresponding age(s).
Openings are self-reported by program either by age group or at the facility level. Openings reported at
the facility level are divided by all ages served.
Openings %: Percent of reported openings divided by the actual capacity for that age group.
Age Groups and Age Range:
- Infant/Toddler: 0 to 35 months in Center Based programs, 0-17 months in Family Child Care programs.
- Preschool: 3 years to 5 years in Center Based programs, 18 months to 5 years in Family Child Care programs.
- School Age: 5 years to 12 years in Center Based programs and in Family Child Care programs.
- Nursery School: Part Day Enrichment program for 3 years to 5 years.
Data Collection
Overall, 62% of all programs provided enrollment and openings information.
Enrollment and Openings were collected November 1, 2025, through March 31, 2026, via telephone and electronic surveys.
Data includes actual reported enrollment and openings information and projected enrollment and openings information from programs that did not report.
The full Data Definition document for 2026 can be downloaded here.
The full Data Definition document for 2025 can be downloaded here.