How to check a Georgia daycare’s license, inspection history, and complaints

That changed on July 9, 2026, when the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning launched DECAL FAST (Family Access to Services & Tools) at families.decal.ga.gov. You can now look up any licensed program in Columbia County and read its inspection reports, licensing history, and formal complaint record before you ever pick up the phone.

Here is how to do it, and — more usefully — how to read what you find.

Step 1: Find the program

Go to families.decal.ga.gov and search by program name, city, or ZIP code. Martinez is 30907, Evans is 30809, and Grovetown is 30813. The site works well on a phone, has a Spanish-language version, and includes an AI assistant called CALi that will walk you through it if you get stuck.

Step 2: Check what kind of license it holds

Georgia licenses three different things, and the differences matter more than most parents realize.

• Child Care Learning Center (CCLC). A commercial facility. Licensed capacity is set by square footage, exits and bathrooms — not by preference. Inspected routinely.
• Family Child Care Learning Home (FCCLH). Care in the provider’s own home, capped at six children. Also licensed and inspected, under a different rule set.
• License-exempt programs. Some programs — certain faith-based and short-term arrangements — operate legally in Georgia without a license and without routine inspections.

If a program is license-exempt, there is no inspection file to read. That is not automatically disqualifying. But you should know it, and you should ask why.

Step 3: Read the inspection reports — and sort what you find

Almost every program that has been open a few years has findings. A perfectly clean file usually means a short history, not a perfect program. The useful skill is telling two kinds of finding apart.

• Administrative findings. An expired CPR card, a fire drill log missing a month, a personnel file short a document. These are real, and programs should fix them, but they tell you about paperwork habits.
• Supervision and safety findings. A child left unsupervised. A ratio violation. Unsecured medication or cleaning supplies. An unreported injury. These tell you about what happens in the room.

A handful of the first kind across several years is ordinary. A pattern of the second kind — especially the same finding repeating after a correction plan — is the thing you are actually looking for. Read the dates. Three ratio violations in one year is a different story from three spread across six years under two different directors.

Step 4: Check the complaint history

Formal complaints are investigated by DECAL and recorded with an outcome: substantiated or unsubstantiated. An unsubstantiated complaint is not evidence of wrongdoing — anyone can file one, and programs in good standing collect them. A substantiated complaint is worth asking about directly.

Ask. A director who answers a substantiated complaint openly, explains what changed, and shows you the correction is telling you something good. One who is surprised you found it is telling you something too.

Step 5: Look at Quality Rated — but understand what it is

Quality Rated is Georgia’s voluntary star rating system, run by DECAL. Programs apply, submit a portfolio, and receive an on-site observation using a standardized environment rating scale. Stars are a genuine signal.

Two honest caveats. It is voluntary, so an unrated program is not necessarily an unrated-quality program. And because the rating depends on an on-site observation of an operating classroom, a brand-new program cannot have stars yet — it has to exist first. Treat stars as a plus, not a filter.

What to do with what you find

Print it and bring it. The single most useful thing you can do on a tour is say: “I read your inspection reports. Can you tell me about the finding from March?” You will learn more from how that question is answered than from any brochure.

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