Child care records

File HF-MI

Child care software in Michigan.

Licensing sits with LARA. Great Start to Quality is the separate rating parents look up. Detroit centers and Upper Peninsula homes share a state and almost nothing else about staffing. A lake-effect morning still starts with who is in the room.

Licensor
Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Affairs
Quality system
Great Start to Quality
Subsidy name
the Child Development and Care program

What a visit in Michigan usually asks to see

Family child care and centers are usually licensed on different rules, with different maximum group sizes. Honeyfold can run either. It does not collapse them into one ratio.

  • the LARA licensing file and today's ratio, before the quality binder
  • Who is in each room right now, and which staff are with them
  • The ratio printed on your license for that room
  • The authorized pickup list, and any custody order in the file
  • Today's attendance with in and out times if you bill subsidy
  • Allergy and medication notes for the children who are here
  • The immunization or health record your state actually asks for
  • Incident reports that are finished, not half-written in a notebook
  • Meal counts taken at the point of service, if you are on CACFP

Great Start to Quality

Great Start to Quality is not the same document as the license. Directors get in trouble when they bring the quality binder to a visit that asked for today's attendance, or the other way around. Keep them as two files that can be opened separately.

the Child Development and Care program

If you bill the Child Development and Care program, the attendance that matters is the attendance a reviewer can match to a child and a time. A mark that only says present is how a month gets rebuilt on a Sunday. Honeyfold keeps in and out times so you are not retyping the day into a portal. Portal layouts differ. A walkthrough is where we confirm the file your office wants.

Program names were checked against public descriptions in November 2026. Offices rename themselves, and ratios change. Confirm the current rule with your licensor before a visit. Honeyfold does not file your packet and does not set your ratio.

How Honeyfold fits

Honeyfold is the operating record: rooms, licensed ratios, authorized pickup, family notes, meals, and the file you would hand someone standing in the lobby. It does not replace Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, and it does not submit Great Start to Quality for you.

Introductory pricing does not change by state. See pricing, the ratio calculator, and the licensing-visit guide.

Cities

Detroit · Grand Rapids

Across the state line

Ohio · Indiana · Wisconsin

Questions about child care software in Michigan