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:

Evaluates teacher and administrator education to determine qualification for different positions in child care programs
Licenses early childhood educators in non-public programs
Administers the NC Prekindergarten (NC Pre-K) program
Funds the statewide Child Care Resource and Referral system which provides evidence- based technical assistance, professional development, coaching and compensation supports for early childhood professionals
Works with a variety of early childhood partners to provide training, coaching, and evaluation for early childhood professionals across the state
Collaborates with the state funded NC Partnership for Children/Smart Start

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.