What daycare violations actually mean
Inspectors write up small stuff too. Park Slope Parents puts it well: "much like at restaurants, inspectors are looking for even the smallest things to cite for." A peeling wall and an unsupervised kid both count as one violation. So look at what kind it was, not just how many.
The three severity levels (the city's, not ours)
| Level | Fix deadline | Common examples in the data |
|---|---|---|
| Public health hazard | 1 business day | Staff fingerprints or SCR clearance not done, uncleared staff alone with kids, not enough staff supervising, ratios or group size over the limit, missing window guards, blocked exits |
| Critical | 2 weeks | Staff missing required training (including SIDS and safe sleep), kids missing flu shots, missing exit signs, fire extinguishers not inspected, no EpiPen on hand, pests |
| General | 1 month | Walls or floors in disrepair, staff vaccine paperwork, lighting, kids' medical records not on file |
Deadlines are from the Health Department's violation key. The city doesn't come back to re-check when there are fewer than 6 general violations.
The labels on each violation
- Open: the city's record still listed it as not fixed.
- Corrected: the city marked it fixed.
- Repeat: our label. The same Health Code rule was cited at an earlier inspection of the same center. One-offs happen. The same thing over and over is a pattern.
- Supervision/ratio, safe sleep, background check: our labels, matched from the city's own wording, so you can find the ones parents worry about most.
Questions worth asking on a tour
If a center has a violation that bugs you, ask about it. What happened, what changed, and who's in the room now. A good director will just answer.