Early Childhood Education and Family Services Portal

NewMexicoKids Resource and Referral

Find Child Care & Resources

To find child care in New Mexico, please visit the ECECD Child Care Finder at childcare.ececd.nm.gov/search or, to receive a free custom referral from a Family Specialist, call the Early Childhood Services Center at the University of New Mexico at (505) 277-7900.

Verify that a home-based provider is registered!

New Mexico Families who are looking for home-based child care can use this tool to verify if a childcare provider is registered with the State of New Mexico.

Submit a provider verification request
Mario's Search

Mario's Search The State of New Mexico wants to ensure that families have the information they need to make informed decisions when choosing care for their children. Any in-home child care provider licensed or registered by the state has, at minimum, completed a Child Care Health and Safety Orientation, CPR/First Aid training, a background check clearance for every adult living in the home, and a home inspection. Please use this request form to verify that the in-home care provider you are considering is currently licensed or registered with the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD).

Mario Archuleta was three years old when he suffered severe abuse from his child care provider in 2002. To help protect other families from similar trauma, Mario's parents advocated for the State of New Mexico to establish background check eligibility standards for registered child care home providers. In honor of their advocacy, New Mexico requires all state-registered and licensed home providers to pass strict background clearances. While public criminal databases are not directly searchable online, state verification confirms that a provider has satisfied these safety requirements.

To assist families in choosing safe, quality care, you can access helpful resources and tools 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
childcare.ececd.nm.gov/search.

To apply for Child Care Assistance to help pay for child care, please visit Am I Eligible.

Note to Families: If you have questions about an in-home care provider or child care options in your area, please call (505) 277-7900 .

Note to Providers: If you are registered or licensed through ECECD and would like to be referred out to the public for custom referrals, please call (505) 277-7900 or email resourceandreferral@unm.edu. If you would like to become a registered or licensed provider, visit Regulatory Oversight Unit | Early Childhood Education & Care Department.

1 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.
2 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.
3 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.