Licensed Full-Day Daycare in Foster City, CA

Full-Day Daycare in Foster City

As of August 2026

Families searching for child care in Foster City can choose from 38 licensed providers, per California Department of Social Services' Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) data, with family child care homes slightly ahead of centers: 22 homes against 16 centers. Combined licensed capacity across the roster reaches 1,769 spots, averaging about 47 per provider. CloverMap carries the full, verified list of Foster City providers, making it easy to compare options across both provider types.

What to know about childcare in Foster City

Foster City's 38 licensed child care providers lean modestly toward family child care homes, with 22 homes compared with 16 centers, or about 58 percent homes to 42 percent centers. That mix gives homes a slight edge over centers, though both provider types are well represented, meaning parents have a genuine choice between the two settings rather than one clearly dominating.

Reported licensed capacity across Foster City's 38 providers totals 1,769 children, an average of about 47 spots per provider, a fairly high figure for a roster that leans toward homes. That suggests some of Foster City's centers, including employer-affiliated programs, run larger than average, balancing out the smaller capacity typically licensed by individual family child care homes.

Age-group coverage in Foster City is broad across every category. Of the 38 providers, 25 serve infants and 25 serve toddlers, each about 66 percent of the total, while 29 providers, or 76 percent, serve preschool-age children and 26 providers, about 68 percent, serve school-age children. That level of coverage across all four groups is among the more consistent in this batch of cities.

All of Foster City's providers, including centers like KIDS CONNECTION, operate under licenses issued by CCLD, the California Department of Social Services division that regulates child care across the state. A license means the provider has met the state's requirements for staffing, group sizes, and program operations, a standard that applies equally to centers and family child care homes.

Given Foster City's strong, consistent age-group coverage, close to two-thirds or more of providers serve every category from infants through school-age children, families here are less likely to run into a narrow field regardless of which age group they are searching for, a contrast to cities where certain age ranges are covered far more sparsely.

With family child care homes holding a modest lead over centers, parents who have not yet decided between the two settings may want to tour a few of each, since Foster City's roster does not clearly favor one type strongly enough to make the choice obvious from the numbers alone.

Families relocating to Foster City or planning ahead for a growing family may find the consistent age coverage here particularly useful, since a provider serving an infant today is reasonably likely to also serve that same child through toddler and preschool years without requiring a switch to a different program.