Lake Forest · Licensed center
Gorton Children's Learning Center
A center in Lake Forest, licensed for 47 children. The state cited something at 3 of 5 routine visits (Chicago-area centers: about 5 in 6). Shortlist has found no website for it yet.
Small center. Small means the smallest quarter of Chicago-area’s 1,949 licensed centers by state-licensed capacity: 8 to 48 children. Medium is 49 to 118; large is 119 to 487.
Shortlist doesn’t have these yet: cost, hours and late pickup, teaching approach, ratios and staff, a typical day, sick and biting policies.
What the state has found
Routine visits: 3 of 5 cited something
Across Chicago-area centers, the state cites something at about 5 in 6 routine visits (19,088 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
- January 15, 2026
- On file
- 5 visits since May 2012 — 2 cited nothing
- Fixed?
- The latest correction deadline was March 9, 2024. 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.
Feb 2024 Monitoring visit 3 findings
Monitoring visit · February 8, 2024
Personnel Records
2 citations · 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407.120(a)(2) through (e)(2) · Violation corrected
89 Ill. Adm. Code 407.120(a)(2) · 407.120(e)(2)
Health Requirements for Children
1 citation · 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407.310(a) · Violation corrected
DCFS compliance lookup On that page, enter provider number 123935 in the Provider box and choose Search; the compliance report downloads from the button on the result row.
Jun 2022 Monitoring visit 1 finding
Monitoring visit · June 27, 2022
Grouping and Staffing
1 citation · 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407.190(a) · Violation corrected
DCFS compliance lookup On that page, enter provider number 123935 in the Provider box and choose Search; the compliance report downloads from the button on the result row.
May 2012 Monitoring visit 2 findings
Monitoring visit · May 8, 2012
Daily Arrival and Departure of Children
1 citation · 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407.260(f) · Violation corrected
Outdoor Play Area
1 citation · 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407.390(l) · Violation corrected
DCFS compliance lookup On that page, enter provider number 123935 in the Provider box and choose Search; the compliance report downloads from the button on the result row.
Details
- Phone
- 8472342778
- Address
- 400 E Illinois Rd
- License
- license issued (il)
Do you run Gorton Children's Learning Center? Shortlist has no tuition, hours or ratios for it, because the state does not publish that. Add what is missing. It is free and takes about ten minutes.
Sources 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.
All checked August 2026.
State record
Every state visit and complaint on file, shown in full and never edited. Open a date to read what the state wrote.
Details
- Phone, Address, License — sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov. To check it, open sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov's Licensed Provider Lookup, enter "GORTON CHILDREN'S LEARNING CENTER" under Provider Name and 60045 under Zip, and press Search (DCFS provider 123935).