daycareProxy

A proxy API that scrapes NYC DOH Childcare Connect and outputs JSON

##Background The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is responsible for inspections of daycare facilites. They publish the inspections results and violation details at https://a816-healthpsi.nyc.gov/ChildCare/SearchAction2.do. The interface is clunky, and there is no API access to the raw data.

I wanted to make a web map that would allow people to quickly see daycares in their areas and allow them to explore the violations. Instead of building a scraper that periodically gets all the data and puts it in another database, I decided a proxy API would be best, as it can always get the data straight from the source.

I'll probably add another scraper to get the high-level data for each daycare and store it in a database so it can power the map, but this API will power the drill-downs.

Builds on this project, which I wrote a scraper for a while back.

##Endpoint

daycareproxy.herokuapp.com/id/:id

Replace :id with the ID of the daycare facility. You can find this by inspecting the HTTP POST for a daycare's listing at the above URL. TODO: scrape to get a good list of ids every so often.

Here's a working sample API call that you can inspect: http://daycareproxy.herokuapp.com/id/DC21475

It will spit out JSON that looks like this:

{  
   type:"Child Care - Infants/Toddlers",
   website:"http://www.2by2preschool.net",
   name:"TWO BY TWO CHILDCARE & CONSULTING, LLC",
   address1:" 418 KEAP STREET ",
   address2:"BROOKLYN, NY 11211",
   phone:"718-388-5600",
   status:" Permitted ",
   permitNumber:"21777",
   expiration:" 08/31/2016",
   ageRange(Years):"0 - 2",
   maximumCapacity:"36",
   siteType:"Private",
   certifiedtoAdministerMedication:"No",
   yearsinOperation:"3 ",
   inspections:[  
      {  
         date:"04/21/2015",
         result:"Compliance Inspection of Open Violations - Previously cited violations corrected",
         violations:[  
            {  
               summary:"Permittee/applicant submitted incomplete written safety plan.",
               category:" Violations requiring correction within two weeks (Critical Violations) ",
               subSection:"47.11 (b)",
               status:"CORRECTED"
            },
            {  
               summary:"Children feeding bottles observed stored/used without being properly labeled with child's name and date of preparation at time of inspection.",
               category:" Violations requiring correction within two weeks (Critical Violations) ",
               subSection:"47.61 (g)",
               status:"CORRECTED"
            }
         ]
      },
      {  
         date:"03/27/2015",
         result:"Initial Annual Inspection - Reinspection Required",
         violations:[  
            {  
               summary:"Permittee/applicant submitted incomplete written safety plan.",
               category:" Violations requiring correction within two weeks (Critical Violations)",
               subSection:"47.11 (b)",
               status:"CORRECTED"
            },
            {  
               summary:"Children feeding bottles observed stored/used without being properly labeled with child's name and date of preparation at time of inspection.",
               category:" Violations requiring correction within two weeks (Critical Violations)",
               subSection:"47.61 (g)",
               status:"CORRECTED"
            },
            {  
               summary:"At time of inspection it was determined that child care service fails to discard unused portions of child milk/food after meal service.",
               category:" Violations requiring correction within two weeks (Critical Violations)",
               subSection:"47.61 (h)",
               status:"CORRECTED"
            }
         ]
      },
      {  
         date:"02/25/2015",
         result:"Initial Annual Inspection - Passed inspection with no violations"
      },
      {  
         date:"09/18/2014",
         result:"Compliance Inspection of Open Violations - Previously cited violations corrected",
         violations:[  
            {  
               summary:"At time of inspection hand wash sinks are not supplied with an adequate amount of running water. At time of inspection water temperature exceeded 115 deg Fahrenheit.",
               category:" Violations requiring correction within two weeks (Critical Violations)",
               subSection:"47.43 (e)+",
               status:"CORRECTED"
            }
         ]
      },
      {  
         date:"09/16/2014",
         result:"Initial Annual Inspection - Reinspection Required",
         violations:[  
            {  
               summary:"At time of inspection hand wash sinks are not supplied with an adequate amount of running water. At time of inspection water temperature exceeded 115 deg Fahrenheit.",
               category:" Violations requiring correction within two weeks (Critical Violations)",
               subSection:"47.43 (e)+",
               status:"CORRECTED"
            }
         ]
      },
      {  
         date:"03/04/2014",
         result:"Initial Annual Inspection - Passed inspection with no violations"
      },
      {  
         date:"12/04/2013",
         result:"Initial Annual Inspection - Passed inspection with no violations"
      },
      {  
         date:"09/04/2013",
         result:"Initial Annual Inspection - Passed inspection with no violations"
      },
      {  
         date:"12/11/2012",
         result:"Initial Annual Inspection - Passed inspection with no violations"
      },
      {  
         date:"11/28/2012",
         result:"Initial Annual Inspection - Reinspection Required; Violations corrected at time of inspection",
         violations:[  
            {  
               summary:"Safe sleep environment not provided in infant toddler service; safe sleep environment does not comply with US CPSC and ASTM standards.",
               category:" Violations requiring immediate correction (Public Health Hazards)",
               subSection:"47.67(f)(1)",
               status:"CORRECTED"
            }
         ]
      }
   ]
}