Menu
  1. Home
  2. What's New
  3. Services
    1. Financial Assistance
    2. Background Checks
    3. Child Care Rules, Law and Public Information
    4. Child Care Development Fund (CCDF)
    5. Preschool Development Grant - Birth through Five
    6. DCDEE WORKS
    7. DCDEE Moodle
    8. Early Educator Support (EES)
    9. Licensing
    10. NC FAST
    11. NC Pre-K Program
    12. Workforce Education Unit
  4. Parent
  5. Provider
    1. Training and Professional Development
    2. Background Check
    3. Child Care Fee Assistance for Military Families
    4. Child Care Rules
    5. Child Care Subsidy
    6. DCDEE WORKS
    7. Foundations for Early Learning and Development
    8. Licensing
    9. NC FAST
    10. Provider Documents and Forms
    11. Providing Child Care
    12. Provider Resources
    13. Regulated Child Care in NC
    14. Adoption Background Check
    15. Stabilization Grants
    16. Expansion and Access Grants
  6. County
  7. How Do I...?
  8. Search for Child Care
  9. Kindergarten Search

About the Division of Child Development and Early Education

Department of Health and Human Services Mission

The mission of the NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is, in collaboration with our partners, to provide essential human services to improve the health, safety and well-being of all North Carolinians.

The NC Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) is a division of the NC DHHS.

Division of Child Development and Early Education Mission

The mission of the Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) is to ensure the health and safety of children in child care programs, to promote quality child care by implementing evidenced-based standards and to increase access to quality child care to families and children across North Carolina.

Responsibilities of DCDEE

To ensure the health and safety of children in child care programs DCDEE:

  • Licenses, monitors and provides technical assistance to child care programs
  • Conducts comprehensive Criminal Background Checks with all individuals who work in licensed or regulated child care programs and other social and human services programs
  • Supports the NC Child Care Commission which has responsibility to create, amend or repeal rules to implement Child Care Law

 

To promote quality child care by implementing evidenced-based standards DCDEE:

 

To increase access to quality child care to families and children across North Carolina DCDEE:

  • Administers North Carolina’s Subsidized Child Care Assistance program
  • Provides parents a web-based tool to search for quality child care programs
  • Collaborates with early childhood partners and homeless service providers to address the need for child care for families experiencing homelessness or temporary housing arrangements
  • Administers NC’s Child Care and Development Fund federal block grant.     

 

Our History

DCDEE’s history reflects the growing importance of quality child care to North Carolina’s families and the role of the state in ensuring quality standards and access for families to child care services.

 

Date

Historical Reference

1971

North Carolina's first child day care licensing law was passed. As a result, the North Carolina Department of Administration, Office of Child Day Care Licensing was created.

1985

The North Carolina General Assembly approved legislation that consolidated the Office of Child Day Care Licensing and the NC Department of Human Resources, Office of Child Day Care Services. This consolidation led to the creation of the Child Day Care Section, which was housed in the NC Division of Health Service Regulation (formerly Division of Facility Services) under the NC Department of Human Resources.

1993

The Child Day Care Section and some other parts of the Department of Human Resources (now referred to as the Department of Health and Human Services) agencies were reorganized into the Division of Child Development.

1999

The Division implemented a new five-level Star Rated License for child care facilities based on achieving higher voluntary standards than minimum requirements for licensure.

2006

The star rated license was revised to give parents a greater indication of quality, awarding a facility’s star rating on the basis of staff education and program standards, and requiring higher compliance with licensing rules as a minimum standard.

2011

Legislation was approved moving NC’s More at Four program from the Department of Public Instruction to the Division of Child Development. In addition, the program name of More at Four was changed to NC Pre-Kindergarten/NC Pre-K.  The name of the Division also changed at this time, to the Division of Child Development and Early Education.

NOTICE: Global Site Search function is currently under maintenance and will not provide results. We apologize for the inconvenience. This does not impact the Child Care or Kindergarten searches.

 

 

 

2201 Mail Service Center | Raleigh, NC 27699-2200
919-814-6300 | 1-800-859-0829 (In State Only)
[email protected]

 

 
Back To Top