Best Daycare in Matthews NC: Top 10 by State Records

There’s a good chance someone has told you the best daycare in Matthews NC is simply any five-star center. It’s true that five stars is the top license North Carolina gives a child care center, and 12 of the 23 center licenses for children under five in the two Matthews ZIP codes, 28104 and 28105, carry one. But only 4 of those 12 have gone the last three years without a state administrative action on the record, according to the NC Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) facility search, which I checked center by center on September 24, 2026.

So the star count gets you to a shortlist, and it doesn’t get you much further. Below you’ll find a top 10 built entirely from the state’s own records, what each measure means in plain terms, why three of the four cleanest five-star records sit in Union County rather than Mecklenburg, what full-time care costs here according to the state’s 2025 market rate survey, and how to check any center yourself.

16 min read | Living in South Charlotte

What This Story Covers

• What is the best daycare in Matthews NC?
• How the ranking works, in plain terms
• Is a Matthews daycare actually in Matthews?
• The top 10, one center at a time
• What the star count leaves out
• What does daycare cost in Matthews?
• The other centers in the two ZIP codes
• How to check a daycare yourself
• Frequently asked questions

What is the best daycare in Matthews NC?

On the state’s record as of September 24, 2026, the top of the list is KinderCare-Matthews on Lawyers Road, LeafSpring School at Matthews on Pleasant Plains Road and The Goddard School on Northeast Parkway. Those three hold five-star licenses and show no DCDEE administrative action in the three years of history the state publishes. The ranking below is ours, built from state data. North Carolina doesn’t rank centers against each other, and neither does any other agency.

Top 10 licensed child care centers in Matthews ZIP codes 28104 and 28105, ranked on the NC DCDEE record, checked September 24, 2026. Use it as your starting shortlist.

Top 10 licensed child care centers in Matthews ZIP codes 28104 and 28105, ranked on the NC DCDEE record, checked September 24, 2026. Use it as your starting shortlist.

Rank and center	County	License	Admin action, 3 yrs	Violations per visit	Sanitation (of 235)
1. KinderCare-Matthews	Union	Five star	None shown	0.60 (6 in 10 visits)	209, Approved
2. LeafSpring School at Matthews (two licenses)	Union	Five star	None shown	1.28 (23 in 18 visits)	221 and 222, Superior
3. The Goddard School	Mecklenburg	Five star	None shown	4.29 (30 in 7 visits)	231, Superior
4. Kids R Kids #9 NC	Union	Five star	Yes	0.33 (5 in 15 visits)	229, Superior
5. Mt Moriah Child Development Center	Mecklenburg	Five star	Yes	0.93 (13 in 14 visits)	233, Superior
6. Primrose School at Austin Village	Union	Five star	Yes	1.90 (38 in 20 visits)	225, Superior
7. Childcare Network #325	Mecklenburg	Five star	Yes	2.65 (61 in 23 visits)	225, Superior
8. Childcare Network #96	Mecklenburg	Five star	Yes	2.87 (43 in 15 visits)	220, Superior
9. COS Kids and Christ Our Shepherd Child Care (two licenses)	Mecklenburg	Five star	Yes	3.00 (96 in 32 visits)	233 and 227, Superior
10. Learning Jungle Sam Newell	Mecklenburg	Five star	Yes	3.80 (57 in 15 visits)	227, Superior

As a parent, I know the daycare question often gets settled before the house question does, and it can quietly decide which side of town you end up buying on. When I went through these records, what stood out was how little the star rating separates the top of the list. Twelve licenses carry five stars. The inspection history underneath them is where they start to look different, and that’s the part I’d want to read before touring anywhere.

How the ranking works, in plain terms

Every figure in this ranking comes from the NC Child Care Facility Search, the public record DCDEE keeps for every licensed program in the state, checked September 24, 2026. No review site or center marketing went into the order. I used three measures, in this order, and a fourth as context.

First, the star rated license. North Carolina licenses centers from one star to five. Every record carries the same note: a new center has to wait six months before it can apply for a two through five star license. Those higher levels are earned with points under the state’s rated license rules, which score two areas, program standards and education standards, and the education side looks at the credentials of the on-site administrator and the teachers. Five stars is the top of the scale, so it’s a fair place to start.

Second, administrative action in the past three years. Each record says in plain words either that DCDEE “has not taken any action against this facility for the current license number and location in the last 3 years” or that it “has issued one or more Administrative Actions for this facility in the past three years.” That’s the state’s own enforcement flag. Under North Carolina General Statute 110-102.2, that can be anything from a written warning or reprimand up to probation, suspension or revocation of the license, and a separate statute allows civil penalties. The record doesn’t say which kind was taken or when, so I treat it as a yes or no and nothing more. The state tells you to ask the provider or request the details from DCDEE, and the check-it-yourself section below covers how.

Third, violations cited per state visit. DCDEE consultants visit centers, many of those visits unannounced, and the record lists each visit from the last three years with every rule the consultant cited. I counted the citations and divided by the number of visits. A per-visit rate is fairer than a raw total, because a center that got 23 visits in three years had more chances to be cited than one that got 7.

As context, the sanitation score. Sanitation inspectors score each center out of 235 points and give it a classification, and the state record carries the latest one. It’s in the table, but it doesn’t move the ranking, because nine of the ten centers scored between 220 and 233.

What I left out matters as much. Online review ratings came out entirely, since a handful of reviews isn’t a measure you can compare across 21 programs. Tuition, hours and waitlists aren’t in it either, because the state doesn’t publish them.

Is a Matthews daycare actually in Matthews?

Often it isn’t, and it’s the part of the record most people miss. Every one of the 11 centers the state lists in ZIP code 28104 is licensed in Union County, not Mecklenburg, including KinderCare-Matthews, Kids R Kids #9 and Primrose School at Austin Village, all of which carry a Matthews mailing address. The Town of Matthews itself sits in Mecklenburg County. So the top two centers on this list, by the state’s own county field, are across the county line.

Several centers in 28104 don’t use Matthews on their state address at all. LeafSpring School at Matthews and The Learning Experience are both listed with a Stallings address, and Chesterbrook Academy is listed in Weddington. ZIP codes follow mail routes, not town limits, and 28104 runs well past the Matthews town line into Union County. We ran into the same thing in Mecklenburg when we looked at Sardis Forest, which carries a Matthews address and sits inside Charlotte.

Why does a county line matter for daycare? Three reasons, and none of them are about the centers themselves. First, the drive. Lawyers Road and Pleasant Plains Road sit on the Stallings and Indian Trail side of Matthews, so a daycare stop there points you away from Charlotte in the morning, and back toward it on the way home. Second, the state sets its child care subsidy rates county by county, which is why the cost figures later in this piece come in two columns. Third, and this one’s the big one, a home on the Union County side means Union County Public Schools later on, while a home inside the Town of Matthews is assigned to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. If you’re buying a house with a kindergarten year three or four years out, that decision is bigger than the daycare one. We covered what actually decides Union County school assignment separately, and it’s worth reading before you fall for a street.

None of this makes a Union County center a better or worse pick. It means you should map the drive from the house you’re considering, not from the word Matthews. Our Matthews community overview shows where the neighborhoods sit relative to the town center.

The top 10, one center at a time

Here’s what the state record says about each of the ten, with the license number you’d type into the state search. Capacity is the number of children the license allows at one time.

1. KinderCare-Matthews, 15000 Lawyers Road (license 90000534)

A five-star license since August 26, 2024, when it moved up from four stars. Licensed for 189 children from infancy through age 12, in Union County. The state logged 10 visits since January 2024; 4 of them produced citations, 6 rules in all, the second lowest rate on this list. No administrative action shown. Its one soft number is sanitation: 209 of 235 and an Approved classification at the June 12, 2026 inspection, the lowest score among the five-star centers here. That’s worth a question on a tour.

2. LeafSpring School at Matthews, 3420 and 3424 Pleasant Plains Road (licenses 90000490 and 90000494)

Two buildings next to each other, each with its own five-star license. The main building takes infants through age 12 with a capacity of 193, and The Village building takes ages 3 through 12 with a capacity of 199. Both are listed with a Stallings address in Union County. Across both licenses the state logged 18 visits, 8 with citations and 23 rules cited, for 1.28 per visit, with no administrative action on either. The main building’s license carries a line you won’t see on most records: “Short term care of mildly ill children.” If a daycare that can keep a child with a mild illness matters to your work week, ask exactly what that covers.

3. The Goddard School, 9631 Northeast Parkway (license 60003970)

The highest-ranked center on the Mecklenburg side. Five stars on a license effective March 20, 2026, a capacity of 148 from infancy through 12, and a 231 Superior sanitation score from August 3, 2026. No administrative action shown. The catch is the citation rate: 30 rules across 7 visits, or 4.29 per visit, the highest in the top ten. Most were paperwork, but one wasn’t. On March 17, 2026, the consultant recorded that an infant had been placed to sleep on the side rather than the back, and the record shows the center confirmed the correction by letter two days later. If you’re enrolling an infant, read that visit and ask what changed.

4. Kids R Kids #9 NC, 5549 Potter Road (license 90000284)

On citations alone, this would be first. The state logged 15 visits since November 2023 and cited 5 rules in total, 0.33 per visit, the lowest rate among all 23 licenses. It’s also the largest center here, licensed for 277 children, and it has held five stars continuously since at least March 22, 2017. The license notes that no children use the second floor and the stair door stays locked. What moves it to fourth is the administrative action flag. The record doesn’t say what the action was or when, so it’s one you’d want to ask the director about directly. Union County.

5. Mt Moriah Child Development Center, 381 Crestdale Road (license 60003197)

The only one of the 21 programs whose current license shows a perfect 15 of 15 star points, earned November 18, 2024. It’s also the smallest five-star center, licensed for 71 children, and its license carries a staffing note most records don’t: “Meets reduced enhanced ratios.” The state logged 14 visits and 13 citations, 0.93 per visit, and a 233 Superior sanitation score from July 30, 2026. It carries an administrative action flag. If you’d rather have a smaller building with fewer children, it’s the one on this list to look at first. Mecklenburg County, a short drive from downtown Matthews.

6. Primrose School at Austin Village, 5407 Potter Road (license 90000397)

Five stars since August 26, 2024, capacity 190, Union County, a short way down Potter Road from Kids R Kids. Twenty visits, 38 citations, 1.90 per visit, and a 225 Superior sanitation score. Administrative action flag shown. If you’re touring on Potter Road, it’s easy to see both in one morning.

7 and 8. Childcare Network #325 and #96 (licenses 60004319 and 60004324)

Two locations of the same regional operator, both five stars and both in Mecklenburg. Number 325 at 10540 Monroe Road is licensed for 199 and logged 23 visits, the most of any single license in the top ten, with 61 citations, 2.65 per visit. Number 96 at 210 Pineville-Matthews Road is licensed for 173 and logged 15 visits with 43 citations, 2.87 per visit. Both carry administrative action flags. A high visit count can reflect complaint follow-ups as well as routine checks, so if you’re weighing either one, read the visit types, which the record labels announced or unannounced.

9. COS Kids and Christ Our Shepherd Child Care, 226 West John Street (licenses 60000927 and 60003664)

One program at one downtown Matthews address, licensed under two numbers: Christ Our Shepherd Child Care for infants through 12 (capacity 99) and COS Kids for ages 2 through 12 (capacity 104). Both are five stars, both scored Superior on sanitation, and both carry administrative action flags. Together they logged 32 visits and 96 citations, 3.00 per visit. It’s the one center on this list you could walk to from the downtown Matthews shops on Trade Street.

10. Learning Jungle Sam Newell, 1208 Sam Newell Road (license 60004091)

Five stars since May 13, 2025, capacity 169, Mecklenburg. Fifteen visits, 57 citations, 3.80 per visit, a 227 Superior sanitation score and an administrative action flag.

What the star count leaves out

The star count tells you how a center scored on standards when its license was issued, and the visit history tells you what the state found when it showed up afterward, often unannounced. Those are different questions, and the gap between them is wide in Matthews. Twelve licenses share the top rating, yet their citation rates range from 0.33 to 4.29 per visit, and 8 of the 12 carry an administrative action flag.

Here’s the part that should calm you down a little. Read the citations one by one and most are paperwork: an expired medication authorization, 15 hours of staff orientation logged instead of 16, an emergency plan missing a file location. They’re real rules, but a raw count lumps them in with the few that touch supervision or safe sleep. That’s why the per-visit rate sits third in this ranking, not first.

So read the actual visits for the two or three centers you’re serious about. The record also shows how each violation was resolved: “corrected during visit” or “confirmed corrected by letter received from provider” on a specific date. A center that fixes things the same week tells you something too.

One quirk you’ll notice: on several records the point breakdown belongs to the previous license, not the current one. KinderCare-Matthews shows 10 of 15 points under a four-star license from 2022. That’s why this ranking uses the current star level rather than points.

What does daycare cost in Matthews?

For full-time infant care at a five-star center, a useful budgeting mark is $1,865 a month on the Mecklenburg side and $1,742 on the Union side. Those are the 75th percentile private rates the state found in its 2025 Child Care Market Rate Survey, which asked centers statewide what they charged private-pay parents in September 2025. The 75th percentile means three quarters of the enrolled children in that category were at or below that rate.

The price drops as children age. For a two-year-old at a five-star center, the same survey found $1,765 in Mecklenburg and $1,651 in Union. For ages three through five, it’s $1,668 and $1,569. That’s a gap of about $100 to $125 a month across the county line at every age.

There’s a second set of numbers, and it’s newer. DCDEE posted updated subsidized child care market rates that take effect October 1, 2026. For a five-star center serving infants and toddlers, the new rate is $1,733 a month in Mecklenburg and $1,690 in Union. Those are what the state reimburses for a child in the subsidy program, not a private tuition quote, and a center’s private price can land above or below them. Still, they’re a useful second reference point when you budget.

None of the centers on this list publish tuition to the state, so ask each one for its current rate sheet, what’s included (meals, diapers, registration and supply fees) and how much notice they want before you withdraw. For context on how that monthly line sits next to your housing costs, our breakdown of what Matthews costs you in taxes, tolls and time covers the rest of the monthly picture.

If I were choosing for my own child today, I’d build the shortlist from the state record first and tour second. A tour shows you a room on a good morning. The visit history shows you three years of unannounced mornings, and it costs nothing to read. That’s the order I’d use myself, and it keeps a scouting trip to the centers worth seeing.

The other centers in the two ZIP codes

Eleven more licensed centers take children under five in 28104 and 28105, and leaving them off the top ten isn’t a verdict on any of them. It reflects where they sit on the three measures.

Four stars, no administrative action shown: If one of these sits closer to the house you like, its record is worth your five minutes. The Learning Experience at 15055 Idlewild Road in Stallings (license 90000476, 1.40 citations per visit, current four-star license effective June 19, 2026), Chesterbrook Academy at 509 Weddington Road in Weddington (license 90000362, 1.73 per visit, with a 201 Provisional sanitation score from June 5, 2026) and Legacy European Academy at 801 South Trade Street in Matthews (license 60004240, 2.33 per visit).

Four stars, administrative action shown: Tutor Time at 2560 Plantation Center Drive (license 60002735, 2.38 per visit) and Idlewild Baptist Child Development Center at 12701 Idlewild Road (license 6055762, 5.08 per visit).

Newer or lower rated: Little Ladybug’s Place To Grow at 2251 Stallings Road opened on a temporary license August 7, 2025 and earned three stars February 8, 2026, about as soon as the six-month rule allows. Harbor View Creative Learning Center at 10836 Monroe Road holds a one-star license, the lowest level on the scale, and carries an administrative action flag.

Religious sponsored, so no star rating at all: Assembly of God Day Care, National Child Care Institute, The Sunrise Academy Child Development Center and the Elevation Church child care program operate under North Carolina’s religious-sponsored option, General Statute 110-106. They’re visited and cited like everyone else but don’t receive a star license, so this ranking’s first measure doesn’t apply. That’s a difference in licensing path, not a lower rating, so if you’re considering one, judge it on the visit history.

Six more licenses in these ZIP codes cover school-age programs only, so they’re outside a daycare list.

How to check a daycare yourself

You can pull any center’s full record in a few minutes, and you should, because a license can change the week after this piece was checked. Open the NC Child Care Facility Search, type the license number from this article into the license field, or search by ZIP code with the facility type set to Child Care Center.

On the record, go straight to three places. The current license details show the star level, the effective date, the age range and the capacity. The DCDEE Visits table lists every visit from the last three years; click Yes under Violations to read exactly what the consultant found and how it was fixed. At the bottom, the Administrative Action Information line tells you whether the state took formal action in that window.

If you see an administrative action flag, ask the director what it was, when it happened and what changed afterward. A good director will answer that plainly. The state also says you can request the details from DCDEE, and every center keeps its visit reports on file to show you.

Then tour, and ask the things the record can’t show: current openings in your child’s age room, teacher turnover in the past year, how they handle a sick child, and what the daily schedule looks like. If you’re flying in to look at houses, build the tours into the same trip. Our guide to planning a scouting visit shows how to fit that in without losing a day, and if you want the everyday side of the town, how Matthews is rebuilding itself for people on foot covers the downtown side of town.

If daycare sets your search radius, check the current Matthews housing market numbers too, so the two searches point the same way.

Frequently Asked Questions About Matthews NC Daycare

Which Matthews NC daycares have no state action on record?

As of September 24, 2026, four five-star licenses in ZIP codes 28104 and 28105 show no DCDEE administrative action in the past three years: KinderCare-Matthews, the two LeafSpring School at Matthews licenses and The Goddard School. The state itself does not rank centers.

How many five-star daycares are in Matthews NC?

Twelve of the 23 center licenses for children under five in ZIP codes 28104 and 28105 are five-star, as of September 24, 2026. Two programs hold two licenses each, so those 12 licenses cover 10 programs.

How much does daycare cost in Matthews NC?

The 2025 NC Child Care Market Rate Survey put the 75th percentile private rate for full-time infant care at a five-star center at $1,865 a month in Mecklenburg County and $1,742 in Union County. Rates fall as children get older.

Are Matthews NC daycares in Mecklenburg or Union County?

Both. All 11 centers the state lists in ZIP 28104 are licensed in Union County, even the ones with a Matthews mailing address. The centers in ZIP 28105 are licensed in Mecklenburg County, where the Town of Matthews sits.

How do I check a daycare inspection report in North Carolina?

Use the NC Child Care Facility Search at ncchildcare.ncdhhs.gov. Search by license number or ZIP code, open the record and click Yes under Violations in the DCDEE Visits table to read each visit summary from the last three years.

What does a five-star daycare license mean in NC?

It is the top of the North Carolina star rated license scale, which runs from one to five. Two through five stars are earned with points for program standards and education standards, and a new center must wait six months before it can apply for them.

About the Author

Steve Jarrell is a licensed North Carolina and South Carolina broker and the team lead of The Longleaf Group at eXp Realty, which he co-leads with his wife Amanda. Before real estate, Steve joined VisualTour as President, led its rebrand to Paradym, and led the company to its acquisition by Constellation Software in 2020. He holds an MBA from the University of Tennessee with concentrations in Marketing and Innovation. The Longleaf Group is an eXp ICON Team and a RealTrends Verified Top Team by Volume for 2026, with 140+ five-star reviews.

Steve is a parent himself and lives in Weddington, a short drive from the centers on this list. He helps buyers relocating to Matthews and the towns around it line up the house, the commute and the child care search before they commit to a street. You can reach him at 704-774-7170.

How we sourced this

Every license fact, visit, citation and administrative action flag comes from the NC Child Care Facility Search, pulled for all 29 center licenses in ZIP codes 28104 and 28105 on September 24, 2026. Citations per visit are our arithmetic from the visit table, which covers the past three years. County comes from the county field on each state record. Cost figures come from the state’s 2025 Child Care Market Rate Survey (Appendix D, 75th percentile) and the subsidized market rate table effective October 1, 2026.

• NC DCDEE, Child Care Facility Search
• NC DCDEE, Child Care Market Rate Survey 2025
• NC DCDEE, Subsidized Child Care Market Rates for Child Care Centers, effective October 1, 2026
• NC DCDEE, Market Rates page

What we left out: online review ratings, because they are not comparable across centers, and national accreditation status, because we could not confirm it for every center from a primary source in this check. The state does not publish the type or date of an administrative action on the public record, so this article reports only whether one exists. This article describes public records and is not an endorsement of any center.

Last updated: September 24, 2026