Home daycare or a center: what actually differs in Texas
Texas licenses three kinds of childcare, and the differences that matter are ratio, inspection frequency and what happens when one person is ill.
Texas licenses childcare in three categories we list, and the words are not interchangeable. Of 12,918 programs, 9,594 are licensed centers and 3,324 are child care homes, split between 1,729 registered and 1,595 licensed.
The difference in one number
A licensed center here averages 118 children. A child care home averages 12. Almost everything else follows from that.
Registered versus licensed home
Both operate out of someone's house and both are regulated, but not equally. A licensed child care home is held to the fuller set of minimum standards and is inspected more often. A registered home is held to a reduced set. If you are comparing two homes and one is licensed, that is a real difference in oversight, not a difference in branding.
A third category, listed family homes, cares for one to three children and sits outside what we publish. Across nine years the state recorded roughly one citation for every three of them, so there is almost no inspection record to show. That is not evidence they are safe or unsafe; it is an absence of evidence, and you should treat it that way.
What genuinely differs
| Home | Center | |
|---|---|---|
| Group size | Around 12 children | Around 118 |
| Who is with your child | Usually the same one or two adults all day, for years | Staff by room, changing as your child moves up |
| If that person is ill | They may close that day | Covered by other staff |
| Mixed ages | Normal, siblings often together | Separated by age band |
| Hours | Often shorter and less flexible | Usually longer, more likely to open early |
| Inspection record | Thinner, because there is less to inspect | Longer, partly because there is more |
The comparison that misleads people
A center will almost always show more citations than a home. That is mostly arithmetic: more rooms, more staff files, more standards that apply, and more inspections. Comparing a center's citation count against a home's tells you very little. Comparing a center against other centers in the same city tells you something, which is why every provider page here shows the median for its city rather than a score.
What to ask, by type
At a home: what happens when you are ill or on vacation; whether anyone else is ever alone with the children; how the age mix works when the older ones are loud and the baby is asleep.
At a center: how often staff change in your child's room; what the ratio actually is at 7am and at 6pm rather than mid-morning; who is in the room when the lead teacher takes a break.
Sources
Something here wrong or out of date? Write to corrections@childcaretx.com.