Safety & records · Minnesota
Reading a daycare's record in Minnesota
Minnesota publishes inspection records through Minnesota DHS Licensing Look-Up + OIG reports. 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 Minnesota before you fall in love with a center you cannot fund.
The portal
Minnesota DHS Licensing Look-Up + OIG reports
Licensing actions, and full maltreatment investigation reports: the allegation, the statute, and the finding.
What this portal does not show
Investigation reports cover maltreatment allegations; routine licensing detail sits in the licensing lookup, a separate view.
How Minnesota grades what it finds
Substantiated / not substantiated determinations under Minn. Stat. §260E.
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
Report suspected maltreatment to the Minnesota Child Protection line or your county agency — the same system whose reports you are reading.
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.