Is Grace a licensed child-care center?

Yes. Grace Learning Tree is licensed and routinely inspected by Texas HHSC for every age we serve, from 6 weeks through Kinder Bridge.

What does a licensed Texas daycare have to do that an exempt program doesn't?

Licensed centers must complete FBI fingerprint, DFPS/CPS, and sex-offender background checks on all staff with access; require 24 hours of pre-service training plus 24 hours per year of ongoing training; maintain current pediatric CPR and First Aid; meet state-set child-to-staff ratios; follow safe-sleep, medication, food-service, sanitation, and fire/health standards; and pass unannounced inspections at least yearly, with a public inspection record. License-exempt programs operate under a lighter path that generally does not include those same routine inspections or that public accountability layer.

How often is a licensed Texas center inspected?

At least once per year, unannounced — more often if there are compliance concerns. Every inspection is documented and published on the state's public child-care search.

How do I check if a child-care program is licensed in Texas?

Go to childcare.hhs.texas.gov and search by the program's name or address. The results show whether the program is licensed or operating under an exemption, plus its full inspection history.

What background checks are required for licensed Texas child-care staff?

FBI fingerprint, Texas DFPS/CPS history, and sex-offender registry checks on every person with unsupervised access to children — completed before licensing and kept current.

What safety training do licensed Texas caregivers have?

24 hours of pre-service training, 24 hours per year of ongoing training, plus current pediatric CPR and First Aid certification.

Does licensing cover infants and toddlers?

Yes — including safe-sleep requirements and the 1:4 infant ratio. Note: Texas private-school exemptions generally do not cover children under three years old, so very young children are most often cared for in licensed settings.

What safety questions should I ask on a preschool or daycare tour?

Three questions cover most of it: (1) Are you licensed or exempt? (2) May I see your inspection history? (3) Who verifies your ratios and staff training?

Licensed vs. License-Exempt Child Care in Texas: What Every Parent Should Know

In Texas, not every program that cares for young children is licensed. Licensed centers are routinely inspected by the state under detailed Minimum Standards. Some programs operate under an exemption — legal, but a lighter path that skips the same routine inspections and public accountability. Understanding that difference is one of the most important safety steps in choosing care.

Source: Requirements summarized from the Texas Minimum Standards for Child-Care Centers (HHSC Child Care Regulation, Chapter 746). Verify any program at childcare.hhs.texas.gov.

What "licensed" actually means in Texas

A licensed Texas child-care center must meet — and keep meeting — a long list of state standards. In plain English:

Background checks on every adult with access. FBI fingerprint, DFPS/CPS history, and sex-offender registry checks — completed before licensing and kept current.
Trained staff. 24 hours of pre-service training before working with children, plus 24 hours of ongoing training each year, plus current pediatric CPR and First Aid certification.
State-set child-to-staff ratios and group sizes. Including 1:4 for infants — the lowest, safest ratio for the youngest children.
Safe-sleep practices for infants (back-sleeping, no soft bedding, approved cribs).
Medication, food-service, and sanitation standards — including how diapers are changed, how food is prepared, and how surfaces are cleaned.
Fire and health inspections — building safety, evacuation, ventilation.
Written emergency-preparedness plans — for weather, fire, lockdown, and medical events.
Documented enforcement. When something is out of compliance, it is written up and the center is given a correction timeline.

The accountability layer most parents don't know about

Two parts of Texas licensing are easy to miss and are the most parent-protective:

1. Unannounced inspections, at least yearly

HHSC inspectors arrive without warning. They review the building, the records, the staff training files, the safe-sleep setup, the ratios in each room, the food prep, and the playground — on the days you'd actually want them looking.

2. A public inspection record you can read

Every inspection — the dates, the findings, any deficiencies, and the corrections — is published on Texas's public child-care search at childcare.hhs.texas.gov. As a parent, you can look up any licensed program in Texas and read its actual inspection history.

What "license-exempt" means — and what it skips

Some programs in Texas are legally allowed to care for children without a child-care license. That is the "exemption." It's legal. It's not automatically unsafe. But it does mean the program operates outside the standard inspection system above.

A few important nuances:

A one-time exemption determination is not the same as ongoing routine inspection. A center can be determined exempt years ago and then operate without HHSC visiting again under the same regime.
Exempt programs typically do not have the same public inspection record for parents to review.
Texas private-school exemptions generally do not cover children under three. If a program serves infants and toddlers, the youngest rooms are almost always operating under a child-care license — ask which.
"Exempt" does not mean "no rules." It means a different, generally lighter set of accountability mechanisms than a licensed child-care center.

None of this means an exempt program is a bad program. It means a parent should know what they're choosing.

How to check any program in 2 minutes

The 2-minute Texas licensing check

Go to childcare.hhs.texas.gov
Search the program's name or street address
Look at: licensed or exempt? · inspection dates · any deficiencies · whether they were corrected

That's the whole check. It works for every program in Texas.

The 3 tour questions every parent should ask

"Are you licensed by Texas HHSC, or are you operating under an exemption?"
"May I see your inspection history?"
"Who verifies your child-to-staff ratios and your staff training?"

A program with nothing to hide will answer all three without hesitation.

Where Grace stands

Grace Learning Tree is a licensed Texas child-care center, inspected by HHSC under the same Minimum Standards described above — for every age we serve, from 6 weeks through Kinder Bridge. We meet the background-check, training, ratio, safe-sleep, sanitation, and emergency-prep requirements that come with a license — and our inspection record is published on the state's public search like every other licensed program in Texas.

If you're choosing care in Aledo or Parker County, the licensing question deserves a clear answer from every program you tour. We'd be glad to be the easy one to verify.

Tour Grace and ask the three questions.

Dawn personally walks every tour. Bring the checklist — she'll show you the answers.

Schedule a Tour

Licensed vs. license-exempt child care in Texas: what every parent should know