Licensed Before & After School in Compton, CA

Before & After School in Compton

As of August 2026

Compton comes closer to an even center/home split than most cities in this batch: 65 child care centers and 61 family child care homes make up its 126 licensed providers. Preschool coverage is a strength citywide, with 86 percent of providers serving that age group. Combined licensed capacity reaches 3,480 children. All providers are licensed through the California Department of Social Services' Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD), and CloverMap brings Compton's full roster together for comparison.

What to know about childcare in Compton

Compton's child care roster is close to balanced between formats. Of 126 licensed providers, 65 are child care centers and 61 are family child care homes, a near-even split with centers holding a slight edge. That means Compton families searching broadly will see both formats well represented rather than one crowding out the other. Parents new to licensed child care often assume one format is inherently better, but the right fit usually comes down to a child's temperament and a family's daily logistics: center hours may align more predictably with a standard work schedule, while a family child care home can sometimes offer more flexible drop-off and pickup arrangements.

The 126 providers reporting capacity together license 3,480 children, averaging about 28 per provider, a mid-range figure consistent with a roster split fairly evenly between larger centers and smaller family child care homes. It's worth remembering that a licensed capacity figure describes how many children a provider is permitted to enroll, not how many openings exist on a given day. Actual availability shifts constantly as children age out or families relocate, so this citywide number is best used as a planning benchmark rather than a guarantee of a specific opening.

Age coverage in Compton centers on the preschool years: 108 of 126 providers, or 86 percent, serve preschool-age children. Infants and toddlers are each served by 70 providers, 56 percent, and 67 providers, or 53 percent, serve school-age children. For families mapping out care across several years, knowing which providers serve multiple age bands up front can simplify the search considerably, since a single provider that follows a child from infancy through the preschool years spares parents the work of re-searching and re-enrolling at each stage.

Every Compton provider is licensed through the California Department of Social Services' Community Care Licensing Division. CCLD licensing applies the same baseline staffing, group-size, and safety standards to centers and family child care homes alike. A license is not a ranking or endorsement of one provider over another; it simply confirms the operator has met the state's threshold requirements to legally operate. Parents researching further should treat a CCLD license as a baseline credential, then judge day-to-day fit through a tour, a conversation with staff, and their own sense of the environment.

With the format split this close to even, Compton parents have real flexibility to choose based on preference rather than availability, a center like ANDERSON STATE PRESCHOOL sits alongside a comparable number of family child care homes on the roster. CloverMap lets Compton families filter by format, capacity, and age group served. Starting a search by deciding on format, then filtering by the age group a child currently needs, tends to narrow the list to a manageable number faster than browsing every listing one by one.