How we source these records

Everything on CheckedCare is a restatement of an official government record. Our data files are a verified cache of those records, not their origin: the state licensing agency's own database is the ground truth, and every value we show is only as current as its sync date says.

Official sources only

We take records exclusively from the government agency that regulates the facility. Review sites, directories, and aggregators are never sources. If the official record cannot be confirmed, we say so on the page rather than approximate it.

Verbatim, never paraphrased

Violation and deficiency narratives are published exactly as the agency wrote them, including the agency's own spelling and grammatical errors, reproduced as recorded rather than corrected by us. We do not summarize, soften, or dramatize a finding. When an agency publishes only a standard number, we show the number. We publish counts and records, never grades, scores, or ratings.

Pinned by checksum

Each import records the agency dataset's SHA-256 checksum and row count. Our pages are rebuilt from that exact, pinned data; if the source and the pinned checksum disagree at build time, the build stops until the records are refreshed and re-verified.

Checked against the live portal

Before a state's records publish, we draw a random sample of facilities and verify each one, field by field, against the agency's own live public portal, capturing the exact quoted value. A batch must clear a 24-of-25 match bar to publish. Texas cleared it at 25 of 25.

Dated and disclaimed

Every facility page shows the agency it came from, a link to the official record, and the date we synced it, with a plain reminder that recent activity may not appear yet and that the agency is the authority on current status. Facility operators can dispute any record through our corrections process.

No person-level data

We publish facilities and their public records, never data about individual children, residents, or staff. Person-level fields in a source export (director names, email addresses, phone numbers) are stripped before the data ever enters our system. We also redact individuals' names and contact details out of inspection narratives, marking them [name redacted], so the narrative stays verbatim in every respect except a person's identity. Some home-based operations are licensed under an individual's name; that operation name is part of the public record and is shown as the state publishes it. Anyone can request further redaction through our corrections process.

Independent, and not the government

CheckedCare is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency. We are a mirror of the official record, not the official record itself; the agency is always the authority on a facility's current status.