How to Check a California Care Home Before You Choose

October 2026 · Families Facility search · By the Title22 team

Choosing a care home for a parent or a loved one is hard, and most families have little time to do it. California makes a lot of public information available for free. Here is how to use it, step by step.

Step 1. Look up the license

Go to the state's Find Licensed Care search. Search by the home's name, city, ZIP code or license number. Check three things:

The license is current and the address matches the home you visited.
The license type fits the person who will live there. For someone 60 or older that is usually an RCFE. For a younger adult with a disability it is usually an ARF. See RCFE vs ARF.
The capacity, meaning how many residents the home may serve.

Step 2. Read the reports

The search site holds five years of information on each facility, including complaint investigation reports (CDSS facility search page). Read them, and look for patterns rather than single events. One old citation that was corrected tells you less than the same problem showing up again and again.

For more detail, you can contact the Regional Office listed on the facility's page and ask to review the facility's file.

Step 3. Visit, and ask

CDSS publishes a free Resource Guide for Choosing Residential Care for Seniors in California. Good questions to bring on a visit:

Who is the administrator, and how long have they been here?
How many staff are awake and on duty at night?
How are staff trained, and how is dementia care handled?
How are medications stored and recorded?
What happens if care needs change? When would a resident have to move?
May I see the admission agreement, the rate sheet and the house rules before signing?

Visit at different times of day if you can, including a mealtime.

Step 4. Know who to call

Long-Term Care Ombudsman. Free, confidential help for residents of long-term care homes with care, safety and rights. The statewide line is 1-800-231-4024, 24 hours a day (California Department of Aging).
CCLD complaint hotline. 1-844-538-8766, or file online. The local office visits, unannounced, within 10 days (how complaints work).
Adult Protective Services. For an older or dependent adult who may be abused, neglected or exploited, call 1-833-401-0832 and enter your ZIP code. It runs in all 58 counties, 24 hours a day (CDSS APS page).
In an emergency, call 911.

CDSS keeps all of these in one list on its resources for residents and families page.

For care home owners reading this

Families are checking you the same way. Staying ready every day, with current staff files, training and clearances, shows up in your reports over time.

Keep your home ready every day, not just on visit day. Title22 keeps staff files, training hours, certificate and clearance expiry dates, and your compliance checklist in one place, with Tello, an AI helper that tells you each morning what needs attention. It holds no resident health records by design.

Start free on title22.app See what it covers on title-22.com