Safety Scoring Methodology

Each facility starts with a base score of 100. Violations found during state inspections deduct points from this score based on two factors: the category of the violation (which determines its weight) and the severity (which determines how many points are deducted). Older violations count less than recent ones. The final score maps to a letter grade.

We classify all violations into four categories. Each contributes a different percentage to the overall score, reflecting its relative importance to child safety.

Each violation is classified into one of three severity levels. The severity determines how many points are deducted from the category sub-score.

A facility that had serious violations three years ago but has been clean since should not be judged the same as one with violations last month. We apply a recency multiplier to each violation:

For each of the four categories, we compute a sub-score:

1. 1Start with a sub-score of 100 for the category.
2. 2For each violation, deduct the severity points × recency weight.
3. 3Floor the sub-score at 0 (it cannot go negative).

The numerical score maps to a letter grade:

Some facilities may not yet have inspection data. This can happen when:

• The facility is newly licensed and hasn't undergone its first inspection
• The state hasn't published inspection data in a machine-readable format
• The facility operates under an exemption that doesn't require inspection

These facilities are listed without a grade and marked as “Not Yet Graded.” We recommend extra caution with ungraded facilities and directly requesting inspection records from the licensing agency.

Every state uses its own classification system for violations. We normalize this data by mapping each state's violation categories to our four standard categories and assigning severity levels based on consistent criteria:

• Violations involving immediate risk are always classified as Critical
• Violations that could escalate to a safety risk are classified as Serious
• Administrative and low-risk findings are classified as Minor

This makes it possible to compare facilities across state lines, though we recommend primarily comparing within the same state for the most accurate context.