New Mexico families looking for home-based child care can use this form to verify if a provider is registered with the State of New Mexico.
The State of New Mexico wants to ensure that families have the information they need when choosing care, including access to safety and background information. Any in-home childcare provider licensed or registered by the state has at minimum undergone a Child Care Health and Safety Orientation, CPR/First Aid training, a background check for every adult living in the home, and an inspection.
Home-Based Provider Verification
Read Mario’s Story +
Mario Archuleta was barely three years old when, on October 11, 2002, his childcare provider purposely scalded his hands with hot water after a toileting accident. Mario spent two weeks at the UNMH burn trauma unit. Doctors removed skin from his thighs to graft to his hands during a five-hour operation. He spent a year in rehabilitation. His attacker pled guilty to second degree child abuse and neglect and was sentenced to nine years in the penitentiary.
To help other families avoid the pain and trauma that their family experienced, Mario’s parents asked that the State of New Mexico establish a database of registered child care home providers who have obtained background check eligibility, under the relevant background check regulations. They also asked that parents have access to other state and national databases to check on their provider’s background. You can access these databases below.
For more information on selecting child care providers, read the Parent’s Guide to Selecting Quality Child Care.
To search for child care for your child, please visit the ECECD Child Care Finder at eligibility.ececd.nm.gov.
To apply for Child Care Assistance to help pay for child care, please visit Am I Eligible.
Note to Families:
Once submitted, a Family Specialist will verify the provider’s registration status with ECECD and get back to you within 24–48 business hours. If you need immediate assistance, please call us directly at (505) 277-7900. You can also call us directly at (505) 277-7900 for assistance or information about childcare in your area.
Note to Providers:
If you are registered or licensed through ECECD and would like to be listed in our database, please email resourceandreferral@unm.edu or call (505) 277-7900. If you would like to become a licensed or registered in-home provider, please click here.
- NewMexicoKids.org and the University of New Mexico Early Childhood Services Center does not store private information you enter into our site. We do not store complete address information when you search. We do store city, county, and zip code information to better improve our services. We do track how many searches our system receives in a given time period and we may store device information like IP address for spam protection, analytics, and verification.
- A Background Check for a direct provider of care in a Registered (Non-Licensed) Home consists of a review of available state criminal histories. Beginning in 2001, the background check also includes a screen of ECECD’s child/adult abuse/neglect database; these are reviewed to determine whether disqualifying information exists. Background check eligibility is determined by and in accordance with criteria set forth and promulgated at Title 8, Chapter 8, Part 3 of the New Mexico Administrative Code, Governing Background Checks and Employment History Verification.
- The databases listed here do not guarantee that a provider who has obtained a background check will not commit an abusive act in the future. Parents should always observe prior to enrolling their child and should occasionally drop in unannounced to monitor the daily operations of the program.