Hearth Record

Child care in Polk County

Shortlist up to four to read them side by side.

Filter them by what their records say, and open any one to read it: every fact with its source and date.

693 child care providers in Polk County, Iowa.

From the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services: Regulation checklists (PDF), Childcare Compliance and Complaint Reports and Childcare Compliance and Complaint Reports. The record lists 3,109 child care providers in Iowa.

693of 693 child care providersshown with your filters

What the words on these cards mean9
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.
The state’s most serious level
Each state grades findings on its own scale and in its own words, so the record counts a state’s findings at that state’s top level. Two states’ top levels aren’t the same thing, so the counts aren’t compared across states. Source: How this site reads each state’s scale.
Not read
The file this site reads doesn’t carry what inspectors found, so nothing is counted here. It doesn’t mean the place has a clean record: the state’s own site may have its reports. Source: How this site reads each source.
Quality rating
Many states rate child care in a quality rating system that goes past the licensing rules, such as Texas Rising Star or Kentucky All STARS. Taking part is often voluntary, so a program with no rating hasn’t been rated low. Source: Each state’s quality rating system.
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.
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.
None on record
The source lists nothing of this kind for the place, over the years its file covers. That is what the record holds, not proof that nothing ever happened. Source: How this site reads each source.
Not published
The source has no such field for this place. It isn’t a zero, and it isn’t a clean record. Source: How this site reads each source.

The list

Order the list

    Source:

    Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, Regulation checklists (PDF), Childcare Compliance and Complaint Reports and Childcare Compliance and Complaint Reports. Checked Nov 5, 2026. Updated daily.

    Side by side

    The same published facts for each, in the same order, in their sources’ words.

    Every line is a fact its source published, in that source’s own words. On a line whose figures can be ordered, the one that leads is marked; that is not a rating, and no line is weighed against another. “Not published” means that state’s file has no such field, which is not the same as a zero.

    How to read a record

    Four things every record does, shown on an example record made up for this guide.

    An example record, made up for this guide

    An example nursing home

    Made up for this guide: no real place is shown

    Not fully inspected in over two years (CMS flag)

    11 health citations at the latest inspection cycle

    The state average is 14.3.

    Source:

    CMS, State and US Averages and Health Deficiencies. Released Oct 28, 2026. Updated monthly.

    From the homeNone yet. Replies and paid listings aren’t open, and when they open they will sit here, below the record.

    1 of 4

    Every fact names its source.

    Who published it, when, and how often it changes sit beside each fact, with a link to the agency’s own file.

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