Toronto Private Schools

Welcome! This is your online guide to licensed child care in Ontario.

As a parent, you want to choose the kind of care that will help your child learn and grow. You want your child to be safe and happy.

Finding the right kind of care for your child can take time and effort. The child care search tool is designed to provide parents with information about licensed child care in Ontario. Parents can search for care by city, postal code, type of program, age group, program name, operator name or language of service delivery. We’ve created this web page to help you:

• search for a licensed child care program near you; and
• find detailed information about a specific licensed child care program.

To start your search, please click the “FIND LICENSED CHILD CARE” button on the left side of this web page.

What you need to know about licensed child care in Ontario

Licensed child care programs - whether home-based child care associated with a licensed agency, or centre-based child care - have to meet and maintain provincial standards. These standards are set out in the Day Nurseries Act . The standards help program operators to meet the health, safety, and developmental needs of the children in their care.
The Ministry of Children and Youth Services staff make unannounced inspections of all licensed child care programs. Program advisors, in some regions called licensing specialists, inspect child care programs to assess whether the operator is meeting the requirements of the legislation. Inspections are done before:

• issuing a licence to a new child care program; and
• renewing an existing licence.

Licence renewals are done at least annually. Before any licence can be renewed, ministry staff will inspect the program.

Ministry staff also make unannounced visits to licensed child care programs to:

• investigate complaints; and
• monitor operators who are having difficulty complying with the licensing standards.

When is “illegal” child care investigated?

Ministry staff investigate complaints from the public about a person who may be taking care of more than five unrelated children under the age of 10 without a licence. It is an offence under the Day Nurseries Act to provide care to more than five children without a licence. The ministry can prosecute people who provide child care without a licence. If convicted of the offence of providing child care without a licence, a person can be fined up to $2,000 per day.

It is also an offence to provide private-home day care at more than one location without a licence. Persons providing private home day care at more than one location without a licence can be prosecuted by the ministry and if convicted can be fined up to $2,000 per day.

Types of licences

The type of licence issued by the ministry depends on the outcome of the licensing inspection. More details about the terms below appear in the Glossary.
Regular licence

• issued when the child care program is in compliance with licensing requirements at the time of the inspection; and
• may be issued for a period of up to one year.

Provisional licence

• issued when the child care program has not met all of the licensing requirements at the time of inspection and requires time to meet the licensing requirements; and
• gives the program a short period of time to meet licensing requirements; and
• does not mean that children are in an unsafe place or that the program is about to close.

Suspended licence

• a Notice of Direction is issued when there is a threat to the health, safety or welfare of the children in the child care program and the licence is temporarily suspended; and
• the program is closed until the operator complies with the Notice of Direction to remove the threat or, if there is an appeal to the Licence Appeal Tribunal, until the Tribunal reaches a decision.

Terms and Conditions of Licences

Terms and conditions may be attached to a licence when a child care program has to meet requirements in addition to licensing requirements under the Day Nurseries Act. The circumstances are related to each program and appear on the licence. (see also Director’s Approval)

A note to parents

The Ontario Licensed Child Care Website is designed to improve public access to child care licensing information. It is not a substitute for the notification and posting requirements of the Day Nurseries Act. Please note that the information collected for use on this website has been typically used for ministry purposes.

We are working on continuous improvement to make the information more useable for parents. Every effort is made to keep the information accurate and up-to-date.

If a child care program you are looking for is not listed on this site, it is not a licensed child care program.

Who to contact if you have concerns

If you have concerns about a program or would like to discuss the details of a program’s licence, contact a program advisor at your local regional office of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

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