Safety & records · Colorado
Reading a daycare's record in Colorado
Colorado publishes inspection records through Colorado Shines Provider Search. This page walks you to the record, decodes its vocabulary from the state's own definitions, and states what the archive cannot tell you. We never name, rate, or score a center.
First, the money
Records are half the decision. The other half is whether you can get help paying — run the free check for Colorado before you fall in love with a center you cannot fund.
The portal
Colorado Shines Provider Search
Licensed status, inspection reports with rule violations, complaints with whether the complaint was found true, Stage II child abuse/neglect investigations, injury reports, license changes (probation, revocation), and the Colorado Shines Level 1–5 rating.
What this portal does not show
The full history is available only by requesting a public file review; the Stage I county investigation is not the posted record.
How Colorado grades what it finds
Narrative findings by rule; no severity classes. The Level 1–5 Colorado Shines rating is a quality rating, not a severity grade.
Words like these are decoded, term by term, in the records decoder — always from the state's own published definitions, and always with the correction status given the same weight as the finding.
If you need to report something
Colorado Department of Early Childhood complaint line at 1-800-799-5876.
Read any record in this order
- The license status first — active, conditional, or under action.
- The findings, newest to oldest, watching for the same rule cited twice.
- The correction status on each finding — corrected, corrected on site, plan accepted, or still open. It carries the same weight as the finding.
- The blind spots above: what this archive structurally cannot show you.
Portal facts checked October 2026. Only the state agency's record is the record — this page is a map to it, not a copy of it.