Methodology and data sources
A reproducible, allowlisted pipeline turns public agency records into comparison pages without publishing unnecessary personal information or inventing ratings.
Centers
9,602
Cities
751
Counties
236
Census geocodes
8,454
Texas HHSC source records
The center roster comes from Texas HHSC Child Care Regulation Operations (`bc5r-88dy`). Regulatory activity comes from inspections/investigations/assessments (`m5q4-3y3d`) and noncompliance records (`tqgd-mf4x`). Their live Texas Open Data metadata identifies a CC0 public-domain dedication. We attribute the agency and link users to the official record anyway.
The current build includes only rows classified as Licensed Center with an active operation status. It excludes home providers and every residential-care type.
Public-field allowlist
Pages may use the center name, physical business address, public phone, reported website, permit/issuance fields, subsidy flag, hours/days, capacity, licensed ages, programs, structured regulatory activity, standard descriptions, risk levels, and correction dates.
Never published: administrator/director names, source email addresses, mailing addresses, home-provider data, Head Start administrative addresses, or free-text compliance narratives. The build audit fails if prohibited keys enter processed data.
Five-year regulatory summaries
The snapshot keeps activity and structured noncompliance fields from 2021-09-21 onward. Center pages show a recent subset and link to the official five-year compliance history. Texas HHSC says its online history excludes certain items until due process is complete or waived and that risk weights are not meant to rank operations. We calculate no safety or quality score.
Head Start matching
The Office of Head Start daily service-location feed is grantee-reported. From 1,066 open Texas locations, 801 location records conservatively matched 520 licensed centers. A match requires a unique normalized street address plus ZIP or a unique public phone. 265 ambiguous or unmatched locations are not attached.
Funded slots remain labeled as funded slots. They are never presented as current openings.
Map coordinates
Business addresses are sent to the public U.S. Census Geocoder in a batch of fewer than 10,000 rows. Census coordinates may be actual or calculated along an address range, so the site labels maps as approximate and always offers directions using the full address.
Freshness and corrections
The displayed source snapshot date is 2026-09-22. Rebuilds preserve retrieval metadata and file hashes. A correction to the directory is checked against an official source; when the agency record itself is wrong, the provider or family should also contact that agency.
Important limitation
This methodology reduces error and interpretation risk; it does not make source data complete, current in real time, or suitable for a safety conclusion. The directory is not affiliated with or endorsed by Texas HHSC, HHS, the Office of Head Start, or listed providers.