Safety & records · Georgia
Reading a daycare's record in Georgia
Georgia publishes inspection records through DECAL FAST (Bright from the Start). This page walks you to the record, decodes its vocabulary from the state's own definitions, and states what the archive cannot tell you. We never name, rate, or score a center.
First, the money
Records are half the decision. The other half is whether you can get help paying — run the free check for Georgia before you fall in love with a center you cannot fund.
The portal
DECAL FAST (Bright from the Start)
An Inspection Reports section per provider: report date, arrival time, visit status, and report type (Licensing Study, Monitoring Visit, Follow-Up, Complaint Investigation, Complaint Closure, Incident Investigation) with a link to the full report, plus the Quality Rated 1–3 star score and enforcement actions.
How Georgia grades what it finds
Citations by DECAL rule number; narrative findings, no severity classes. (Providers can refute a citation through the KOALA system — a refuted citation may read differently from the first posting.)
Words like these are decoded, term by term, in the records decoder — always from the state's own published definitions, and always with the correction status given the same weight as the finding.
If you need to report something
DECAL Child Care Services at 404-657-5562 or the online complaint form; abuse and neglect to DFCS at 1-855-422-4453.
Read any record in this order
- The license status first — active, conditional, or under action.
- The findings, newest to oldest, watching for the same rule cited twice.
- The correction status on each finding — corrected, corrected on site, plan accepted, or still open. It carries the same weight as the finding.
- The blind spots above: what this archive structurally cannot show you.
Portal facts checked October 2026. Only the state agency's record is the record — this page is a map to it, not a copy of it.