Key findings
- The top three topics made up 43.2%
Together, health or food records, staff training, and equipment or emergency readiness accounted for 25,426 findings.
- Health or food records was the most common topic
It appeared in 9,806 findings across 6,458 reports.
- Polk was above Florida on all five of the most common topics
Those five are health or food records, staff training, equipment or emergency readiness, sanitation or facility condition, and background screening. Nine of the 18 counties, including Alachua and Miami-Dade, were below Florida on all five.
Florida’s three-year picture
Florida inspectors recorded 58,864 findings in 83,551 reports from July 2023 through June 2026. Every finding falls into one of the 20 topics.
Most common topics
Health or food records led with 9,806 findings, followed by staff training with 8,669 and equipment or emergency readiness with 6,951. By number of reports, staff training led narrowly: 6,533 vs. 6,458.
Statewide context
Most frequently recorded topics
The bar and the large number show recorded findings. The smaller number is findings per 100 reports, counting all Florida inspection reports.
See all 20 topics
Findings per 100 reports counts every citation. The share of reports counts each report once when that topic appears. Both use all Florida inspection reports. Neither column should be added across topics, because one report can include several topics.
| Topic | Findings | Reports with this topic | Findings per 100 reports | Share of reports with this topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health or food records | 9,806 | 6,458 | 11.7 | 7.7% |
| Staff training | 8,669 | 6,533 | 10.4 | 7.8% |
| Equipment or emergency readiness | 6,951 | 5,264 | 8.3 | 6.3% |
| Sanitation or facility condition | 6,578 | 4,645 | 7.9 | 5.6% |
| Background screening | 4,874 | 3,687 | 5.8 | 4.4% |
| Recordkeeping | 3,548 | 2,887 | 4.2 | 3.5% |
| Hazardous access | 2,833 | 2,315 | 3.4 | 2.8% |
| Administrative posting | 2,427 | 1,755 | 2.9 | 2.1% |
| Transportation | 2,399 | 1,847 | 2.9 | 2.2% |
| Emergency preparedness | 2,368 | 2,174 | 2.8 | 2.6% |
| Supervision | 1,873 | 1,627 | 2.2 | 1.9% |
| Attendance accountability | 1,662 | 1,512 | 2.0 | 1.8% |
| Staff-to-child ratio | 1,042 | 1,022 | 1.2 | 1.2% |
| Incident records | 1,007 | 902 | 1.2 | 1.1% |
| Child guidance | 967 | 875 | 1.2 | 1.0% |
| Sleep safety | 921 | 840 | 1.1 | 1.0% |
| Medication | 824 | 656 | 1.0 | 0.8% |
| Inspection access or misrepresentation | 61 | 61 | 0.1 | 0.1% |
| Pool barrier | 53 | 51 | 0.1 | 0.1% |
| Operator residency | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0% |
County comparison
After adjusting for provider type, Polk was above Florida on all five of the most common topics. Nine counties, including Alachua and Miami-Dade, were below Florida on all five. Each cell shows the difference from Florida in findings per 100 reports.
| County | Health or food records | Staff training | Equipment or emergency readiness | Sanitation or facility condition | Background screening |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alachua | -8.1 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -6.1 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -5.6 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -6.9 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Brevard | -3.4 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -0.2 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -3.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.7 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -3.2 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Broward | -5.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -3.9 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.1 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -2.7 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.2 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Collier | -5.0 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -5.8 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -3.4 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.1 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -1.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Duval | -5.2 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -0.9 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -5.1 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -5.0 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -1.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Hillsborough | +9.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +2.9 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +9.8 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +15.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -0.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Lee | -1.6 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -1.9 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.6 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -1.6 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -1.7 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Marion | +13.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -0.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +2.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -1.4 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -0.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Miami-Dade | -7.4 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -2.6 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -5.4 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -0.7 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Orange | -1.2 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -1.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -2.2 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -3.4 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -1.0 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Osceola | -3.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -0.4 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.1 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.7 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +1.8 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Palm Beach | +1.9 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +1.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +9.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -0.0 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +1.4 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Pasco | +8.6 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +8.4 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +6.7 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +9.8 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +0.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Pinellas | +9.9 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +7.8 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -0.6 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -1.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +9.8 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Polk | +22.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +11.0 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +14.8 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +23.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +9.2 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Sarasota | +5.9 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -8.6 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +8.9 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | +14.8 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.7 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| St. Lucie | -7.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -2.7 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -4.8 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -3.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -3.5 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
| Volusia | -2.8 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -3.4 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -2.9 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -3.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida | -2.3 findings per 100 reports compared with Florida |
Differences between counties may reflect why and how often inspections happened, how findings were recorded, or other things this study could not measure.
Five counties license childcare locally: Broward, Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Pinellas and Sarasota. Their results point in different directions, and this study does not measure the effect of local licensing.
What this means if you’re choosing childcare
This study compares what inspectors recorded. It does not measure which topics or places are safer.
When you visit a provider, ask about the topics that come up most: health or food records, staff training, and equipment or emergency readiness. A county’s pattern says nothing about any one provider. Read the reports for the providers you are considering to see what each was cited for.
How we did this
We used Florida CARES childcare inspection records dated July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2026. Text rules sorted the official wording of each finding into one of 20 topics. The topics are ours, not official Florida categories, and they do not replace reading the report.
For the county comparison, we calculated each topic separately for centers, family homes and large family homes, then recalculated each county as if it had Florida’s mix of those three provider types. Eighteen counties had at least 50 inspected providers, 200 reports, and 20 reports from each provider type.
Detailed methods and limitations
Counting
A finding is one citation linked to a report. Findings per 100 reports counts every citation. The share of reports counts each report once when that topic appears. Both rates use all 83,551 inspection reports, including reports without a finding in that topic.
All 58,864 findings received one of the 20 reviewed topics in the corrected study data.
Adjustment
County rates use direct standardization: each county’s rates for the three provider types are weighted by Florida’s mix of reports across those types over the full three years. No missing rate was estimated. A county is near Florida when it is within 0.5 findings per 100 reports.
Official severity levels
Florida rates each violation Class I (most serious), II or III. That rating was missing for 33.4% of findings (19,670 records), so we did not compare it across counties. It is separate from our topics and concern labels.
Data quality
CARES report flags and linked finding rows disagreed for 131 reports. We used the linked finding rows consistently.
Limits
These public records are not a random sample. They do not fully identify why each inspection occurred, and inspection frequency and reporting can differ by place and provider type. The adjustment covers only the three provider types. It does not account for local administration, capacity, children served or current conditions. The minimum-data rules favor larger, frequently inspected counties and common topics.
No sampling margin of error or uncertainty interval is available for these administrative counts, and no statistical-significance test was performed. Topic rates do not establish causes or measure child outcomes, current conditions, safety or childcare quality.
The official records are available through the Florida CARES public search. DaycareFacts does not currently offer the derived study tables as a public download.
Sources and related research
- Florida Department of Children and Families. Florida CARES public search. Open official source
- DaycareFacts. Data and methodology
- DaycareFacts Research. How Childcare Inspection Finding Rates Vary Across Florida
Cite this study
Paukstys, M. (2026, August 8; updated August 12). What Florida Childcare Inspectors Cite Most Often. DaycareFacts. https://daycarefacts.com/research/what-florida-childcare-inspectors-cite-most-often