Infant Daycare in Maryland: How to Find the Right Program for Your Baby

More than 300,000 children under age six in Maryland need childcare while their parents work. For families with infants, that search is the most urgent version of this challenge. Infant spots are scarce, they fill fast, and the stakes of getting it wrong feel much higher when your child cannot yet tell you what their day was like.

This guide is written for Maryland parents at the beginning of that search. It covers how the state’s licensing system works, how to find regulated infant care where you live, what to actually pay attention to on a tour, programs worth knowing about across different parts of the state, and what care costs and where help is available. 

If you are in Howard County or central Maryland specifically, there is a program at the end of this guide that we recommend by name.

Start earlier than feels necessary. Quality infant programs in Maryland fill months ahead. Families who begin their search during pregnancy have more choices than families who start after the baby arrives.

How Maryland Licenses Infant Daycare

All licensed childcare centers in Maryland operate under COMAR 13A.16, the state regulation administered by the Maryland State Department of Education’s Office of Child Care. This covers everything from staff qualifications and background checks to safe sleep practices and how many infants a single caregiver can be responsible for at one time.

For infants specifically, Maryland caps the ratio at three infants per caregiver with a maximum group size of six. This is the tightest ratio in the state’s entire childcare system, and it exists because infants require continuous, individualized attention in a way that older age groups do not. In practice, a quality infant room is small, calm, and staffed by people who know every baby in it personally.

Maryland EXCELS is the state’s voluntary quality improvement system, rating participating programs on a scale from 1 to 5. A Level 1 rating means a program has met initial quality requirements. 

A Level 5 means it has demonstrated the highest quality standards the system recognizes. Not all licensed programs participate, but those that do have made an active commitment to going beyond the licensing minimum. 

When you are evaluating any infant program in Maryland, asking about their EXCELS participation and current rating is a fast way to understand their investment in quality.

You can verify the current license status of any Maryland childcare program, view inspection reports, and check complaint history at checkccmd.org, a resource maintained by the Maryland State Department of Education. This should be a standard step for any program you are seriously considering.

How to Find Licensed Infant Daycare in Your Part of Maryland

Maryland has well-developed tools for helping families locate regulated infant care, and they are free to use.

LOCATE: Child Care Through Maryland Family Network

LOCATE: Child Care is the state-sponsored, continuously updated referral service run by Maryland Family Network. It is the most useful single tool for parents searching for infant care anywhere in the state. 

Trained specialists will match you with licensed programs near your home, workplace, or school that have infant openings and fit your schedule and budget. 

You can reach LOCATE by phone at 877-261-0060, Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, by text at 410-752-7589, or by email at findchildcare@marylandfamilynetwork.org. The service is free and confidential.

Maryland EXCELS Search Tool

The Maryland EXCELS website lets you search for quality-rated programs by county, zip code, program type, and rating level. Filtering for infant-accepting programs at higher EXCELS levels narrows the pool to programs that have voluntarily demonstrated quality beyond the minimum. 

This is especially useful in densely populated counties like Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Baltimore where the overall number of licensed programs makes the list too long to browse without filters.

Check Child Care Maryland

At checkccmd.org you can look up any licensed Maryland childcare program by name or location and review its current license status, inspection history, and any documented violations. Use this for every program you tour before you commit. Centers that are confident in their record will not mind you checking.

What to Look for in an Infant Daycare Program

The physical building, the playground, and the promotional brochure are the least useful things to evaluate. Here is what actually tells you whether a program is right for your baby.

Who is in the infant room and how long have they been there

Infant brain development is relational. Your baby learns to trust, to regulate emotion, and to build the foundations of language through thousands of small responsive interactions with familiar adults. 

A room where the same one or two people show up every day and know every baby by name and temperament produces something qualitatively different from a room where staff rotate.

When you tour any program in Maryland, ask the director directly: how long has the lead teacher in the infant room worked here? If the answer is a year or more, that is a positive sign. If the answer involves recent turnover or uncertainty about who covers the room when the regular teacher is out, that is worth noting.

How caregivers respond to babies during your visit

Watch the room during the tour. Are babies held and spoken to when they fuss? Are caregivers on the floor with infants during awake time? Does the room feel calm and focused, or does it feel managed and rushed? You will form an impression quickly. Trust it.

Daily communication with parents

You need to know when your baby ate, how long they slept, what their mood was, and whether anything unusual happened. Ask every program what their communication format is. Daily digital logs, app updates with photos, or detailed verbal handoffs at pickup are all reasonable. Vague descriptions of “open communication” are not the same thing. Ask specifically.

Safe sleep practices

Ask to see the sleep area and ask how sleeping infants are monitored. Every infant should be in an individual approved crib, on their back, with no loose bedding. A program that takes this seriously will answer without hesitation and show you the space directly.

Infant Daycare Programs Across Maryland Worth Knowing

Maryland is a geographically diverse state with very different childcare markets depending on where you live. The Baltimore metro area has a dense supply of licensed centers. 

Montgomery County has the highest per-capita concentration of licensed programs in the state. Rural counties in the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland have significantly fewer options and families there often have longer commutes to reach licensed center-based care. Here is a regional overview of what is available.

Central Maryland and Howard County

For families in Howard County, the program we recommend most directly is Highland Playschool in Highland, Maryland. Located on Clarksville Pike, Highland Playschool has served families in this part of central Maryland for more than 20 years. 

The infant program accepts babies from 2 to 17 months and is staffed by a dedicated team including Mrs. Kattya, Ms. Janae, Ms. Mia, and Ms. Kallie, all of whom specialize in infant and toddler care.

The center follows the Reggio Emilia philosophy, which for the infant room means caregivers observe carefully, respond to each baby as an individual, and build the kind of consistent daily relationship that early development research shows to be the most important single factor in infant care quality. 

The program is Maryland State Licensed under COMAR 13A.16, participates in Maryland EXCELS at Level 1 with active work toward Level 3, and runs Monday through Friday from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

What distinguishes Highland Playschool from many other programs in the central Maryland area is staff continuity. The teachers in the infant room have been there long enough to know babies by name, temperament, and rhythm within the first week. 

For a parent dropping off a six-week-old for the first time, that is not a small thing. You can schedule a tour at highlandplayschool.com or by calling (301) 778-1020.

Also in Howard County, KinderCare operates locations in Columbia at Hickory Ridge and in Elkridge on Marshalee Drive, both accepting infants from 6 weeks with extended hours from 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM. 

Watchful Eye Daycare in Ellicott City and Columbia has been providing infant care for more than 25 years and holds the highest Maryland EXCELS quality rating, making it another strong option for families on the eastern side of the county.

Montgomery County

Montgomery County has the highest concentration of licensed childcare providers in Maryland. MCCA, the Montgomery Child Care Association, is the oldest nonprofit licensed childcare provider in the county and has been operating since 1968. 

It has been recognized by the Maryland State Legislature for its commitment to quality programs and serves infants across multiple Montgomery County locations.

Bright Horizons operates several centers in Montgomery County with dedicated infant rooms, structured curriculum, and parent communication apps. KinderCare has a significant presence in Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Germantown. 

For families in Montgomery County, the LOCATE: Child Care service is especially useful given the volume of options, and filtering on Maryland EXCELS participation is the fastest way to narrow a long list.

Baltimore City and Baltimore County

Baltimore City has more than 725 licensed childcare providers according to recent Winnie data, with average monthly costs for full-time care running around $911, lower than the Howard County and Montgomery County averages. 

The range of quality across Baltimore City programs is significant, making the EXCELS filter and the checkccmd.org verification step particularly important for families searching here.

KinderCare, Celebree Learning Centers, and Bright Horizons all have multiple locations in Baltimore County. Celebree in particular is a Maryland-founded, Maryland-focused chain with a strong presence in the greater Baltimore area and dedicated infant rooms across its network. 

For families near Johns Hopkins University, there is also a campus-affiliated childcare center that provides infant care for university community members.

Anne Arundel County

Anne Arundel County’s childcare market is centered around the Annapolis, Odenton, and Severna Park corridors. The county government’s Department of Recreation and Parks operates state-licensed childcare programs that meet Maryland State Department of Education standards. 

KinderCare has locations in Annapolis and Pasadena. For families near Fort Meade and the NSA corridor, there are several childcare resource programs specifically designed to serve military and federal contractor families with infant care needs.

Prince George’s County

Prince George’s County benefits from proximity to both Washington, D.C. and the growing Beltsville, College Park, and Hyattsville communities. Early Head Start programs have a strong presence in this county, providing federally funded infant and toddler care to income-eligible families. 

For families who qualify, Early Head Start programs in Prince George’s County offer some of the most comprehensively supported infant care in the state, combining childcare with health screenings, family support services, and parent education.

Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore

Families in Frederick, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett counties in Western Maryland, and in the Eastern Shore counties from Cecil to Somerset, face a more constrained infant care market. 

Licensed center-based infant care is available in the larger communities, particularly Frederick City and Hagerstown in the west and Easton and Salisbury on the Shore, but the overall supply is significantly smaller relative to the working parent population.

For families in these regions, the LOCATE: Child Care service at 877-261-0060 is especially valuable. Counselors are familiar with the specific availability patterns in each county and can often surface licensed providers that do not appear in general web searches. 

Family child care homes, which are licensed home-based providers rather than center-based programs, are more common in rural Maryland counties and are a legitimate, regulated option for infant care where centers are not available.

What Infant Daycare Costs in Maryland and Where to Get Help

Infant care is the most expensive form of daycare in Maryland. Full-time costs vary significantly by region: central Maryland counties like Howard and Montgomery run between $1,400 and $2,200 per month at licensed centers for infant care. 

Baltimore City averages closer to $900 to $1,200 per month. Rural counties are generally lower, though the supply constraints there create their own challenges.

The higher cost for infants versus older children reflects the staffing reality of the 3 to 1 ratio Maryland requires for this age group. You are paying for more individualized attention than any other age category receives, and that staffing cost is real.

Maryland Child Care Scholarship Program

The Maryland Child Care Scholarship Program provides income-based financial assistance for eligible working families at licensed providers. As of May 2025, the program paused new scholarship issuance while updating its systems. Check the current status at earlychildhood.marylandpublicschools.org or call Child Care Subsidy Central at 877-227-0125. Apply as soon as the program reopens to new families. Processing takes time and the earlier you apply, the better positioned you will be.

Early Head Start

Early Head Start provides federally funded infant and toddler care for income-eligible families across Maryland. Programs include comprehensive family support services alongside childcare. Use the Head Start Locator through the Maryland Head Start Association website to find programs near you.

Dependent Care FSA

If your employer offers a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, the before-tax contribution significantly reduces your effective childcare cost. Check with your HR department before your baby arrives, as elections must typically happen during open enrollment or at a qualifying life event.

Six Questions to Ask on Any Infant Daycare Tour in Maryland

• How long has the lead teacher in the infant room worked at this center? Tenure tells you more than a resume.
• What does a typical day look like for a two-month-old here? Ask for the actual schedule, not the philosophy brochure.
• How will I know what happened during my baby’s day? App, written log, or verbal handoff? Ask specifically.
• How do you store and label breast milk? This question reveals how carefully the program handles infant-specific protocols.
• Can I see the sleep area? Every infant should be in an individual crib, on their back, with no loose bedding.
• Can I see the most recent inspection report? Licensed Maryland centers are required to make this available to parents.

Finding the Right Infant Daycare in Maryland

Maryland’s licensing framework, EXCELS quality system, and free referral services through Maryland Family Network give parents real tools for this search. The programs listed above represent a range of what is available across the state’s different regions. 

None of them can be evaluated properly without visiting in person, and none of them are the right fit for every family.

What you are looking for is a place where your baby will be genuinely known by the people caring for them, where the staff have been there long enough to have earned that knowledge, and where you can drop off in the morning without spending the rest of the day worrying. 

That place exists in your part of Maryland. The tools and contacts in this guide exist to help you find it.

For families in Howard County and central Maryland, we specifically recommend starting your search with the infant program at Highland Playschool in Highland. 

More than two decades of history in the community, a stable and specialized infant room team, and a Reggio Emilia philosophy built around knowing each baby as a person make it a program that earns the confidence families place in it. Visit highlandplayschool.com or call (301) 778-1020 to schedule a tour.