Georgia day care center scores

Fiscal years 2007-08 through 2010-11

The Department of Early Care and Learning has been keeping a compliance scoring system since the summer of 2007, the start of the 2008 fiscal year. During the first two years of the system, not all home-based day cares were scored. To create this database, technology producer Pete Corson combined the four years’ worth of data into one file and made it possible for readers to search the database by county and the center's name. You may find the same day care center listed more than once if its name or address is spelled differently from year to year.

Or search for a day care center by its name. (Tip: If the full name doesn't work, try just using a piece of the name.)

HOW TO INTERPRET SCORES:

The scoring system has been changed three times in four years.

In the 2008 data, the scoring system was color-coded. Child-care programs, depending on their level of compliance, were given one of four colors. Here is the scoring system:

Blue = most compliant

Green = compliant

Yellow = noncompliant

Red = most nomcompliant.

In the 2009 and 2010 data, the scoring system was numerical. The numbers represented a range of compliance, with 4 being the most compliant and 1 being the least compliant. According to the state, programs that received a 1 or 2 were considered noncompliant.

In 2011, the scoring system was pared down from four scores to two. Child-care programs either receive a ‘C’ for compliant or a ‘NC’ for noncompliant.

NOTES:

This data has been largely untouched by the AJC, save for only a small number of changes to errors or typos discovered during the newspaper’s reporting for this story. That means typos could exist in, for example, the spelling of day care centers’ names or their addresses.

Not all programs receive scores each year. For example, if a day care recently opened and did not have enough time to generate a score, the word ‘new’ will appear in place of a score. If a day care changed ownership recently, the acronym ‘CoO’ will appear.