Licensed Before & After School in New York, NY

Before & After School in New York

As of August 2026

Manhattan lists 1,583 licensed and registered child care providers on CloverMap. It's a borough where center-based programs, permitted by the city health department, make up the largest single slice of the total at 713, alongside 607 home-based and 263 school-age programs registered with New York State. Ratings run strong here: 407 providers carry a Google rating, averaging 4.5 stars, with 251 rated 4.5 stars or higher. A further 49 providers hold QUALITYstarsNY ratings, adding another quality signal for families comparing options.

What to know about childcare in New York

Few things stand out about Manhattan's child care options like how many carry a strong rating. Of the borough's 1,583 total listings, 407 have a Google rating, and the average among them is 4.5 stars - with 251 of those providers, about 62 percent of the rated group, coming in at 4.5 stars or higher. That's a dense cluster of strongly reviewed options for parents to work from, even though a majority of listings in the borough still don't carry a public rating.

Behind those numbers sits a provider base split across two regulators. 713 Manhattan providers are center-based programs permitted by the NYC Health Department (DOHMH) - the largest of the borough's three categories - while 607 are home-based programs and 263 are school-age programs, both registered with the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). Roughly 45 percent of the total falls into the center-based category, making Manhattan one of the more center-heavy boroughs in terms of program mix, with home-based and school-age options rounding out the rest.

Forty-nine Manhattan providers hold a QUALITYstarsNY rating, New York's quality rating and improvement system. That's a smaller slice of the total than the Google-rating coverage, but it's a distinct, independently assessed signal that's worth checking alongside reviews rather than in place of them.

The two-regulator setup is worth understanding before diving into a search. DOHMH oversees and permits center-based programs within city limits, while OCFS licenses or registers home-based providers and school-age programs statewide, Manhattan included. Both are legitimate government oversight paths, not a hierarchy of trust, and CloverMap combines listings from each into a single directory so parents aren't left checking two separate sources to see the full Manhattan picture.

With center-based programs forming such a large share of Manhattan's total, many searches naturally start there, though the borough's home-based and school-age options are substantial too and shouldn't be overlooked. A provider like RISE UP sits among the borough's rated listings, and working through a shortlist by cross-checking Google ratings against QUALITYstarsNY status is a reliable way to narrow down a field of well over a thousand providers.

It's also worth noting that Manhattan's home-based and school-age categories, while smaller than the center-based group individually, are not marginal together: 607 home-based providers and 263 school-age providers combine to outnumber the borough's center-based total. Parents who assume centers are the only realistic option in Manhattan may be surprised by how many home-based providers turn up once the search is broadened beyond that first category.