A short, honest guide to Maryland daycare.
Maryland is a high-cost daycare market shaped almost entirely by the close-in Washington and Baltimore suburbs, with very different pricing on the Eastern Shore, in Western Maryland, and in Southern Maryland. The state's biggest change in recent years is the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, which is funding a multi-year expansion of free Public Prekindergarten toward universal access by 2026-2027.
Blueprint for Maryland's Future Public Pre-K
Under the Blueprint for Maryland's Future (2021), Maryland is rolling out free Public Prekindergarten toward universal access for all four-year-olds and full-day for three-year-olds at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty line by 2026-2027. Public school district programs are joined by approved private and community-based mixed-delivery providers, so families can pair Pre-K with extended-day care from the same provider. Read our Maryland Blueprint Pre-K explainer.
Source: MSDE Blueprint for Maryland's Future Public Prekindergarten Annual Report, 2024-2025. Approximately 33,000 three- and four-year-olds enrolled in Maryland Public Prekindergarten in 2024-2025, with Mixed-Delivery sites in every Maryland county.
Maryland EXCELS
Maryland EXCELS is the state's voluntary Quality Rating and Improvement System for licensed centers, registered family child care providers, and public Pre-K programs, administered by MSDE. Programs earn Level 1 through Level 5 ratings based on staff qualifications, accreditation, program standards, and administrative policies. Level 4 and 5 programs significantly exceed state minimum on every category. Filter our directory by Maryland EXCELS level.
Maryland licensing and ratios
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) Division of Early Childhood licenses and inspects every legal child care center in the state and registers every family child care provider. Center ratios are 1:3 for infants under eighteen months, 1:3 for eighteen to twenty-four months, 1:6 for two-year-olds, 1:10 for three-year-olds, 1:12 for four-year-olds, and 1:15 for five-year-olds. Every provider in our directory is cross-checked monthly.
Financial help in Maryland
The Maryland Child Care Scholarship, administered by MSDE through the Child Care Scholarship Central program, funds subsidized care for working families up to a state-set income threshold (raised significantly under the Blueprint). Public Prekindergarten, federal Head Start, and Early Head Start fund additional free seats. All families can use the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, the Maryland Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, and a Dependent Care FSA if offered through work. Our tax credit explainer walks through the math.
Where Maryland parents tend to overpay
- Premium Bethesda, Chevy Chase, and Potomac centers when a Level 5 Maryland EXCELS program one ZIP code over runs $300 to $600 less per month.
- Paying private preschool tuition for a four-year-old who qualifies for free Public Prekindergarten under the Blueprint rollout in your district.
- Add-on enrichment fees marketed as optional but priced into the standard week.
Before your first tour, download the free DaycareSquare comparison checklist and the tour questions list.
