Chicago · Licensed center
Bright Start Learning Center
- Medium center, licensed for 70 children.
What these mean, and where they come from
Medium means the middle half of Chicago-area’s 1,949 licensed centers by state-licensed capacity: 49 to 118 children. Small is 8 to 48; large is 119 to 487.
Shortlist doesn’t have these yet: cost, teaching approach, ratios and staff, a typical day, sick and biting policies.
What the state has found
Routine visits: 4 of 6 cited something
Chicago-area centers: the state cites something at about 5 in 6 routine visits.
From Illinois DCFS’s published reports, last checked September 25, 2026.
Read every record and the state’s reports
State record — Illinois DCFS
- Last visit
- March 10, 2026
- On file
- 6 visits since February 2017 — 2 cited nothing
- Fixed?
- The latest correction deadline was March 10, 2026. Illinois DCFS does not publish whether it was made.
- Most serious
- Illinois DCFS does not publish a severity level for a citation, so there is no most-serious to name.
Illinois DCFS cites each subsection of a rule separately, so one audit of a filing cabinet can produce ten citations. It publishes the rule’s title and a correction deadline, but no description of what was observed.
Mar 2026 Monitoring visit 1 finding
Monitoring visit · March 10, 2026
Physical Plant/Indoor Space
1 citation · 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407.370(f)(2) · Violation corrected on site
DCFS compliance lookup On that page, enter provider number 546874 in the Provider box and choose Search; the compliance report downloads from the button on the result row.
Feb 2026 Monitoring visit 1 finding
Monitoring visit · February 10, 2026
Health Requirements for Children
1 citation · 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407.310(i) · Violation corrected
DCFS compliance lookup On that page, enter provider number 546874 in the Provider box and choose Search; the compliance report downloads from the button on the result row.
Feb 2024 Monitoring visit 1 finding
Monitoring visit · February 7, 2024
Staffing Structure
1 citation · 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407.90(a)(1) · Violation corrected on site
DCFS compliance lookup On that page, enter provider number 546874 in the Provider box and choose Search; the compliance report downloads from the button on the result row.
Feb 2017 Monitoring visit 1 finding
Monitoring visit · February 17, 2017
Provisions Pertaining to the License
1 citation · 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407.60(g) · Violation corrected
DCFS compliance lookup On that page, enter provider number 546874 in the Provider box and choose Search; the compliance report downloads from the button on the result row.
How the comparison is built
Routine visits: across Chicago-area centers, the state cites something at about 5 in 6 routine visits (19,088 visits).
A day here
- Hours
- 6:30 AM to 6:00 PM, 5 days a week
Details
- Website
- brightstartchicago.com
- Address
- 3522 N Central Ave
- License
- license issued (il)
Do you run Bright Start Learning Center? Shortlist has no tuition, ratios or policies for it, because the state does not publish that. Adding it is free and takes about ten minutes.
Add what is missingSources and dates
Where every fact on this page came from, and when Shortlist last checked it against that source. Anything Shortlist could not source is named here rather than left blank.
State record
Every state visit and complaint on file, shown in full and never edited. Open a date to read what the state wrote.
A day here
- Hours — Checked August 2026 brightstartchicago.com
Details
- Phone, Address, License — Checked July 2026 sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov. To check it, open sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov's Licensed Provider Lookup, enter "BRIGHT START LEARNING CENTER" under Provider Name and 60634 under Zip, and press Search (DCFS provider 546874).
- Website — Checked August 2026 brightstartchicago.com