Stepping Stones Montessori
A day care center in Ithaca, New York 14850
208 East Buffalo Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. (607) 342-1681.
What New York’s list coversOutside New York City
Programs New York State’s Office of Children and Family Services licenses or registers outside New York City, each county added once it is read in full. Programs in the city’s five boroughs, including the day care centers its Health Department regulates, aren’t here yet.
Watch and the shortlist are kept with a free account, on every device. Your watch list. New York’s own record is on hs.ocfs.ny.gov.
The short answer
Record last released by New York State Office of Children and Family Services on Nov 2, 2026.
- 2 violations in the last three years
- Aug 32026 the latest visit on record
- 21 children, its licensed capacity
Each figure’s source sits beside it, in its section below.
What these words mean4
- Inspection (survey)
- A visit by state inspectors, often unannounced, who check a place against the rules it must meet. For nursing homes and other places Medicare pays, CMS calls these visits surveys: a standard survey of a nursing home comes at least every 15 months, and a complaint survey whenever a complaint calls for one. Source: CMS; 42 CFR 488.308.
- Deficiency, citation, violation
- What inspectors write up when a place didn’t meet a rule: the rule, what they saw, and when. CMS calls it a deficiency; states may say citation or violation. It is the inspectors’ finding, not a court’s, and the place is usually asked for a plan to correct it. Source: CMS, statement of deficiencies (Form CMS-2567); each state’s licensing agency.
- Licence status
- Whether the state’s licence lets the place operate now, in the state’s own words: licensed, on probation (allowed to keep operating on conditions, after problems), provisional, pending or expired. Source: Each state’s licensing agency.
- Capacity
- The most people the licence or certification lets the place care for at once: residents, children, beds or apartments, as the state counts them. It isn’t how many are there now. Source: Each state’s licensing agency.
What did inspectors find?
11 inspections in the last three years, the latest on Aug 3, 2026.
2 violations cited in the last three years.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Program pages: inspection and complaint history. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
When those violations happened
2 violations in 2 months of the last 36. Last cited May 2025. The last 3 years, to Nov 2, 2026.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Dec | |||||||||||
| 2024 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 2025 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 2026 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov |
Hover or focus a month to read it.
Hearth Record drew this from the dates and levels in the source’s own records.
Each violation, in its source’s words
Grouped by visit, newest first, with the level its source gave it.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Program pages: inspection and complaint history. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
May 19, 2025: monitoring1 violation
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Protective caps, covers or permanently installed obstructive devices must be used on all electrical outlets that are accessible to children.
Nov 25, 2024: monitoring1 violation
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The program must maintain on file a record of each evacuation drill conducted, using forms furnished by the Office or approved equivalents.
All 11 visits on record
| Date | Visit | What the record says |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 3, 2026 | Monitoring | No violations found |
| May 12, 2026 | Monitoring | No violations found |
| Jan 13, 2026 | Annual Unannounced | No violations found |
| Oct 8, 2025 | Monitoring | No violations found |
| May 19, 2025 | Monitoring | 1 violation cited |
| Feb 25, 2025 | Annual Unannounced | No violations found |
| Nov 25, 2024 | Monitoring | 1 violation cited |
| Sep 11, 2024 | Monitoring | No violations found |
| Jun 4, 2024 | Monitoring | No violations found |
| Mar 8, 2024 | Annual Unannounced | No violations found |
| Nov 30, 2023 | Annual Unannounced | No violations found |
Is it licensed?
- Day Care Center, open since Sep 1, 2017.
- School district: Ithaca.
- Capacity, in New York’s words: 21 Preschoolers.
- Keeps epinephrine auto-injectors for emergencies.
- Licence 795531, issued Sep 1, 2023, expires Aug 31, 2027.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Child Care Regulated Programs. Released Nov 2, 2026. Updated daily.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Program pages: inspection and complaint history. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
Has New York acted against it?
- No complaints in the last three years.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Program pages: inspection and complaint history. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Child Care Regulated Programs. Released Nov 2, 2026. Updated daily.
Who does the caring?
- New York doesn’t publish staffing levels for individual programs.
Who owns it?
- New York’s open data doesn’t list owners.
How is it rated?
- Doesn’t take part in QUALITYstarsNY, New York’s quality rating program.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Program pages: inspection and complaint history. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
How does it compare nearby?
- Among 68 child care providers in Tompkins County, the middle value for violations cited in the last three years was 3.5; this one had 2.
New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Program pages: inspection and complaint history. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
| Place | Violations cited in the last three years |
|---|---|
| Stepping Stones Montessori This child care provider | 2 |
| Enfield School Age Program, Inc. | 28 |
| Northeast Kids Count, Inc. | 2 |
| Barber, Judy | 4 |
| Durfee, Melinda | 2 |
| Cornell Child Care Center | 29 |
| Coddington Road Community Center, Inc. | 24 |
| ITHACA COMMUNITY CHILDCARE CENTER, INC. | 21 |
| Downtown Ithaca Children’s Center | 41 |
| Ithaca Montessori School | 5 |
| YMCA SACC Year Round School’s Out Y Site | 7 |
| Community Nursery of Cayuga Heights, Inc. | 4 |
| Ithaca Community Childcare at Kendal | 0 |
What the record doesn’t say
- New York doesn’t grade violations by severity, so read what was cited.
- New York’s records give the regulation behind each violation, not what the inspector saw.
- New York’s program pages cover four calendar years; this page shows the last three years.
- New York doesn’t publish staffing levels or owners for individual programs.
Sources
-
New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Child Care Regulated Programs (cb42-qumz).
Released Nov 2, 2026 and checked Nov 2, 2026. Updated daily. No licence stated.
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New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Program pages: inspection and complaint history.
Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily. No licence stated.
If you believe something here is wrong, a correction starts with the agency whose record this copies: New York State Office of Children and Family Services. New York’s own record is on hs.ocfs.ny.gov. If Hearth Record copied something wrongly, it will fix it and log the correction publicly, with its date: how corrections work.
This copy of the record was made on Nov 2, 2026.
From the provider
The public record above comes first. Anything the provider adds will appear here, below it, and say who wrote it.
Replies
None. Replies aren’t open yet. When they open, the provider will be able to answer any finding for free, and the reply will show beside that finding, unedited and dated.
Paid listing
None. Paid listings aren’t open yet. When they open, anything paid for will say “Paid by the provider”, and paying will never change a finding, a rating or the order of results.