Virginia Child Care Mapping Project
Child Care Aware of Virginia’s Child Care Mapping Project is designed to provide viewers with insight into the different types of child care programs available throughout Virginia. The map incorporates child poverty data, using varying shades of red where darker shades indicate higher poverty levels. This visualization highlights that certain high-poverty areas have limited access to licensed child care programs for families. Alternatively, the purple maps display the percentage of children in working families. As the purple shade becomes darker, it indicates a greater percentage of children with all available parents working (both parents in a two-parent household; head of household in a single parent family). Users can explore the maps from a statewide view or zoom in to examine specific counties, communities, or neighborhoods. A legend within each map denotes the type of child care (e.g., licensed or voluntarily registered homes, licensed centers, license-exempt care, etc.).
The interactive maps below allow users to view and customize the data by selecting or deselecting variables of interest. Data reflects operating status as of April 2025.
Mapping Quick Tips:
- Click on the map to open and view the programs in each type of care category
- Zoom in to see counties, communities or neighborhoods
- On the left panel, view the legend to see the color coding symbols for types of child care
- Most of the maps are set to purple shading (as the purple becomes darker, the % of children in families with all parents working is greater)
- Some maps are set to red shading (as the red becomes darker, the percentage of children living in or near poverty becomes greater)
- Click on the symbols/colors to see a pop-up box with program details (program info, census data)
- Map loading time may take a few seconds, so please be patient!
Click here to see licensed and voluntary registered family child care homes in Virginia.
Click here to see licensed child care centers in Virginia.
Licensed and Voluntarily Registered Family Day Homes
Licensed Child Care Centers
School-Aged Child Care Programs
Click here to see school-age child care programs in Virginia.
Religious License-Exempt Child Care Programs
Click here to see religious license-exempt child care centers.
Local Permit and Family Day System (NOVA)
Child Care Programs Offering Infant & Toddler Care
Child Care Programs Offering Nontraditional Hour Care
Licensed Child Care Programs Accepting Child Care Subsidy Payments
Click here to see child care centers and family child care homes that offer infant and toddler care.
Click here to see child care centers and family child care homes that offer care during nontraditional hours.
Click here to see child care centers and family child care homes that accept care paid for with child care subsidy funding.
Child Care Programs Participating in the Child & Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
Click here to see child care centers and family child care homes that participate in CACFP (the federal food program).
Head Start and Early Head Start Programs
Click here to see Head Start and Early Head Start programs in Virginia.
School-age Recreational/Instructional License-Exempt Child Care Programs
Click here to see school-age recreational/ instructional license-exempt child care centers.
May 2025 Update
Parents: Search for Child Care Here!
Home-based Child Care and Head Start Programs in Neighborhoods where Spanish is Spoken at Home
Click here to see child care supply in neighboods where Spanish is spoken at home. As the blue shading becomes darker, the percentage of children in homes where Spanish is spoken at home is greater.
Virginia Preschool Initiative Classrooms
Click here to see Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) classrooms.
Virginia Child Care Home-based Businesses by County
Click here to see VA’s 12,661 sole proprietors in 2023 who are paid to care for children. In contrast, in May of 2025, there were about 2,300 state and local regulated family day homes subject to health and safety rules to promote the safety of children in care.
Early Childhood Programs Participating in VQB5
Click here to see early childhood programs participating in VQB5 by program type.
Click here to see trends in Virginia regulated care since 2019.
The Landscape of Child Care in Virginia
These maps are intended for data/research use only. They should not be used to search for child care, as they are not regularly updated. To search for available child care in your area, click here.
All Child Care Programs in Virginia
Click here to see all child care programs in Virginia. It takes a few minutes for all the variables to load. Visitors may want to unclick all the layer options (types of child care) once the map fully loads, and click on layers as you want to add each to the map. Zoom in to check out your neighborhood!
Click here to see home-based providers caring for 4 or fewer children under a local permit in northern Virginia and home-based providers participating in a family day home system.
Trends in Virginia Regulated Child Care, 2019 - 2025
