INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) today announced a major step forward in providing a new, online tool to assist families in finding child care and early education providers for their children throughout the state. ChildCareFinder.IN.gov, one of several online enhancements FSSA is making to help people find services in their area, will allow families to perform detailed searches to help them find child care to meet their needs.

“We know that finding convenient, safe and reliable child care is critical in helping parents get to work and perform their jobs effectively,” said FSSA Secretary Dr. John J. Wernert. “We also know that finding resources to identify child cares based on all those factors has not always been easy for parents and guardians in Indiana. That’s why we’ve worked hard to make Child Care Finder as useful to families as possible.”

Child Care Finder allows families to search licensed providers, registered ministries and exempt providers by numerous, important parameters, including location, type of provider, hours, licensing status and whether or not the provider participates in Paths to Quality, Indiana’s voluntary quality rating and improvement system.

In addition, families can find inspection reports and any validated complaints or enforcement actions for each provider they search. Click here to find a short video providing detailed instructions on how to use the new site.

Child Care Finder is also as easy to use from a smart phone or mobile device as it is from a desktop computer.

“Often families will rely solely on their friends’ recommendations or other factors such as location when picking a caregiver for their children without being fully informed, because they haven’t had or haven’t been aware of tools and resources to help provide an in-depth search,” said Nicole Norvell, Director of the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning. “We are hopeful that Child Care Finder provides some confidence to Hoosier families by giving easier access to important information that will help them make a much more informed decision.”

The Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL) oversees early child care, education and out-of-school-time programs. It is one of the six divisions of FSSA. Individuals with complaints against a child care may call 1 (877) 511-1144. Child Care Finder is one of several enhancements FSSA is making to its online tools to help people find services they need in their area. It is also easier now to find health care providers, FSSA offices specific to the needs of the user and their location. Like Child Care Finder, these new services also use geo-location services to assist users in finding offices, providers and resources closest to their current location.