Safety & records · Tennessee
Reading a daycare's record in Tennessee
Tennessee publishes inspection records through Tennessee TDHS provider map / Find Child Care. 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 Tennessee before you fall in love with a center you cannot fund.
The portal
Tennessee TDHS provider map / Find Child Care
Compliance visits, the QRIS/Star quality rating, and corrective action plans.
What this portal does not show
The star rating is a quality framework, not a safety verdict — read the compliance visits, not just the stars.
How Tennessee grades what it finds
A report-card framework; 'major high risk' violations trigger a five-day follow-up visit.
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 TDHS child care complaint hotline.
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.