Seattle area

Find the few worth a visit.

Look up any of the 2,387 licensed programs around Seattle to see its size and what state inspectors wrote.

Your location stays on your phone. It’s used once to find programs near you, and it isn’t saved or sent anywhere.

Browse neighborhoods

In Seattle

Look up a program by name

Can’t find a program? Ask us to add it

Every program, by neighborhood

Arbor Heights

Ballard, Sunset Hill/Loyal Heights & Fremont

Belltown & Cascade/Eastlake

Broadview/Bitter Lake

Central Area/Squire Park & Madrona/Leschi

Columbia City, South Beacon Hill/Newholly & Seward Park

Duwamish/SODO & North Delridge

Duwamish/SODO, Pioneer Square/International District & First Hill

Fauntleroy/Seaview

First Hill, Downtown Commercial Core & Cascade/Eastlake

Georgetown, Beacon Hill & South Park

Green Lake, Greenwood/Phinney Ridge, Fremont & Wallingford

Haller Lake & Broadview/Bitter Lake

Laurelhurst/Sand Point, Ravenna/Bryant & University District

Madison Park & Montlake/Portage Bay

Magnolia & Interbay

Montlake/Portage Bay, Cascade/Eastlake, Capitol Hill & North Capitol Hill

North Beacon Hill/Jefferson Park & Mt. Baker/North Rainier

Olympic Hills/Victory Heights & Cedar Park/Meadowbrook

Queen Anne & Cascade/Eastlake

Queen Anne & Interbay

Rainier Beach

Riverview, Highland Park & North Delridge

Roxhill/Westwood, North Delridge, High Point & West Seattle Junction/Genesee Hill

Sunset Hill/Loyal Heights, North Beach/Blue Ridge, Greenwood/Phinney Ridge & Whittier Heights

Wedgwood/View Ridge, Ravenna/Bryant & Laurelhurst/Sand Point

West Seattle Junction/Genesee Hill & Alki/Admiral

Around Seattle, by city

Bellevue

Bothell

Brier

Burien

Carnation

Clyde Hill

Covington

Des Moines

Duvall

Edmonds

Fall City

Issaquah

Kenmore

Kent

Kirkland

Lake Forest Park

Lynnwood

Maple Valley

Medina

Mercer Island

Mill Creek

Newcastle

Normandy Park

North Bend

Redmond

Renton

Sammamish

SeaTac

Seattle

Shoreline

Snoqualmie

Tukwila

Unincorporated King County

Unincorporated Snohomish County

Woodinville

Elsewhere in the metro

How to read a state inspection

How to read a state inspection

Washington DCYF inspection reports

Every citation comes with a deadline, and the deadline tells you how serious it is.

When an inspector finds a rule that isn’t being followed, the report names the rule and gives it one of four levels. Each level is a deadline for fixing it.

Citations at Seattle area programs’ visits and complaint investigations, by level

Immediate
86 of 13,758
Must be corrected “immediately or by the start of the next business day.”
Serious
8,618 of 13,758
Corrected in “no more than 5 business days from the date of non-compliance.”
Short term
3,938 of 13,758
Corrected in “no more than 10 business days.”
Long term
1,098 of 13,758
Corrected in “no more than 20 business days.”

Quoted from DCYF procedure PRO 10.1.21. A citation listed at two levels is counted at the sooner deadline.

A complaint with a “valid issue”

When someone files a complaint, Washington investigates and says whether it found a “valid issue.” That’s the state’s wording, and each program’s page uses it as-is, next to the report.

Seattle area state inspections

4,933 of 7,658 visits

cited at least one rule. A single citation is common: family homes 3,080 of 4,837 visits, centers 1,853 of 2,821.

Family homes by size, share of state visits that cited at least one rule

Small home 3 to 6 children
57%
587 of 1,028 visits at 387 homes
Mid-size home 7 to 11 children
63%
849 of 1,347 visits at 404 homes
Full-size home 12 children
67%
1,644 of 2,462 visits at 733 homes
All centers
66%
1,853 of 2,821 visits at 838 centers

Size is the capacity on the state license, on the same bands as each program’s size word in the list. Counted over the 1,524 family homes whose reports Shortlist has read: 3,080 of 4,837 visits (64%) in all.

86 of 13,758 citations

were Immediate: Washington required them fixed by the start of the next business day.

Rules cited most, by visits citing each

  1. Safety requirements1,711
  2. Training requirements1,548
  3. Storage of hazardous and maintenance supplies1,517
Washington DCYF inspection reports for 2,362 licensed programs around Seattle, counted by Shortlist on October 9, 2026. Visits the state still publishes, plus earlier reports Shortlist read while they were public. shortlist.guide/seattle
Cost

Cost

From programs’ own websites

What full-time care costs, when programs actually say.

$2,907a month, the middle published price for an infant

Infant · 46 pricesmiddle $2,907
$1,000$2,000$3,000$4,000$5,000 a month
Toddler · 70 pricesmiddle $2,300
$1,000$2,000$3,000$4,000$5,000 a month
Preschool · 99 pricesmiddle $2,050
$1,000$2,000$3,000$4,000$5,000 a month

106 of the 2,387 programs publish a full-time monthly price. Family homes count here as well as centers (1 of them publish one). Each tick is one program, and the tall mark is the middle. Most programs don’t post a price at all, so from any program’s page, Shortlist can ask for you.

Price a whole year, with closures and backup care
How this guide is made

As of October 9, 2026, Shortlist lists 2,387 licensed childcare programs in the Seattle area. On the Washington DCYF reports Shortlist has read for 2,362 of them, inspectors cited at least one rule at 4,933 of 7,658 visits (64%), and 86 of 13,758 citations had to be fixed by the next business day.

Every number here comes from a public source: Washington DCYF’s licensing data and inspection reports, a program’s own website, IRS records, the City of Seattle’s business license register and www.usaspending.gov. Each one says how many programs it covers. Figures were counted from Shortlist’s directory on October 9, 2026. The list itself is the directory as it stands today.

“Around” a neighborhood means every program whose state license ZIP overlaps it on the City of Seattle’s neighborhood map, from Census ZIP boundaries. A center’s row names its neighborhood only where its licensed street address places it there. Most family homes’ state pages list no street address, so a home’s row names no neighborhood. A town is the city on the state license.

A visit is one day the state was on site, counted from reports for the 2,362 programs whose reports Shortlist has read. “Nothing cited” appears only where the report was read. A row says so when a program is newly listed, when Washington lists no visit report, or when a report could not be read. The state removes older reports, so a typical program’s record starts in January 2024.

† The center size bands were drawn from the 859 centers listed on September 25, 2026, before the October 9, 2026 count, and will be regenerated.

Programs are listed A to Z. The order doesn’t mean anything.

Programs near an addressPrograms on the way to work