Safety & records · Pennsylvania
Reading a daycare's record in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania publishes inspection records through Pennsylvania DHS inspection summaries. 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 Pennsylvania before you fall in love with a center you cannot fund.
The portal
Pennsylvania DHS inspection summaries
For each inspection: the regulation number, the non-compliance narrative, the correction required, the center's plan of correction, and the plan's status.
What this portal does not show
The summary is a table, not a story — repeat citations across inspections are visible only if you read down the dates yourself.
How Pennsylvania grades what it finds
Citations to 55 Pa. Code chapters (3270 centers, 3280/3290 family homes) with plan-of-correction status.
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 a concern to the DHS regional child development office or ChildLine.
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.