U.S. News names top children’s hospitals for 2025-26

Some pediatric hospitals are earning honors for their patient care.

Today, U.S. News & World Report reveals its new rankings of the Best Children’s Hospitals for 2025-26. For nearly two decades, U.S. News & World Report has produced rankings of the nation’s top pediatric hospitals. Providers earning recognition typically tout the honors in their marketing campaigns.

The analysis honors 86 hospitals in a variety of specialties, along with the top hospitals in states and regions of the country. Ten hospitals were named in the U.S. News honor roll.

Parents will do whatever is necessary if their child is sick, and the rankings are designed to make it a bit easier to find the right provider, says Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News.

“The way our rankings are designed is to help families make informed decisions about the kind of care that their child needs,” Harder tells Chief Healthcare Executive®. “And each child is unique. Each family is unique, and the circumstances are unique. So our data isa starting point for them to make a decision in conjunction with their care providers, their child's physician and care team.”

(See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

Stability in rankings

The rankings have a good amount of stability, he says. Pediatric hospitals that have fared well in the U.S. News rankings last year are typically high performers in this year’s ranking.

That wasn’t necessarily a given, Harder says. U.S. News reduced some of the data it requested from pediatric hospitals, with the hope of making the workload a little more manageable.

Harder says there was some speculation that the rankings may see greater variability than in past years, but there weren’t great swings in the rankings he says.

“There was a great deal of support from hospitals for lightening up the survey and streamlining it, but there was some concern from some that that would result in volatility, that the results this year wouldn't look like the results in prior years. There's an understandable thing to wonder about. What I would say is that our results do look very similar to prior years, which is reassuring for me, that we could dispense with some of those data elements,” he says.

Hospitals shouldn’t infer too much if a provider moves a bit in the rankings, Harder says. If a hospital falls from 18th to 19th in a particular category, that’s not really a cause for concern for readers, he says.

“They're really looking at which of the hospitals that U.S. News has put its imprimatur on, and it is that these are great children's hospitals in the specialty that my child has …. and for families, that is the most reassuring thing,” he says.

Standing out

More than half of the rankings are tied to patient safety metrics and clinical resources, while a significant portion is tied to outcomes, including survival and surgical complications.

“Getting good outcomes, even with sometimes challenging case mixes, is definitely a hallmark, and it's sort of a core hallmark of an outstanding children's hospital,” Harder says.

Top pediatric hospitals also tend to follow best practices in patient care.

“This is an important thing to get good outcomes,” Harder says. “Some things are really basic, like good hand hygiene. Others may be, are you following the most advanced protocols for pediatric leukemia? So there's a range of different best practices that we look at.”

The hospitals recognized also tend to have the clinical resources to offer outstanding care, including top specialists and strong nursing staff.

“The hospitals that have all of the clinical tools at their disposal can take care of the broadest population and the most challenging cases when it comes to children who really need a hospital that can go above and beyond,” Harder says.

U.S. News also surveys pediatric specialties, with expert opinion accounting for 10% of the scores in ten rankings, and only 5% in cardiology and heart surgery.

More pediatric hospitals are dealing with cost pressures, and hospital leaders expect to see more difficulties with fewer people having Medicaid coverage in the coming years. Looming Medicaid cuts are going to post more challenges for children’s hospitals, analysts say.

While the U.S. News rankings don’t factor in financial indicators, Harder says pediatric facilities are facing a tough environment.

“There’s an enormous financial strain on hospitals nationwide, I think particularly for children's hospitals, because so many of them are heavily dependent on Medicaid. Often half their patient population or more can be insured by Medicaid,” Harder notes.

As state Medicaid programs remove more people from coverage, Harder says, “Those institutions could face enormous financial strain.”

• Read more: Children’s hospitals brace for overcrowding and staff cuts due to tax package

Here are some of the notable rankings from the U.S. News report.

Honor Roll

These 10 hospitals earned a spot on the Honor Roll. These hospitals ranked highly in multiple specialties and landed atop the regional rankings or tied at the top.

Boston Children's Hospital

Children's Hospital Colorado (Aurora, CO)

Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Children's National Hospital (Washington, D.C.)

Cincinnati Children's

Nationwide Children's Hospital (Columbus)

Rady Children's Hospital (San Diego)

Seattle Children's Hospital

Texas Children's Hospital (Houston)

Best in Region

Mid-Atlantic (tie)

1. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

1. Children's National Hospital (Washington, D.C.)

Midwest (tie)

1. Cincinnati Children's

1. Nationwide Children's Hospital (Columbus)

New England

1. Boston Children's Hospital

Pacific (tie)

1. Children's Hospital Los Angeles

1. Rady Children's Hospital (San Diego)

1. Seattle Children's Hospital

Rocky Mountain

1. Children's Hospital Colorado (Aurora, CO)

Southeast (tie)

1. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

1. Duke Children's Hospital and Health Center (Durham, NC)

1. Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt

Southwest

1. Texas Children's Hospital (Houston)

Specialties

Pediatric Cancer

1. Cincinnati Children's

2. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

3. Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center

4. Children's Hospital Colorado

5. Nationwide Children's Hospital

Pediatric Cardiology & Heart Surgery

1. Texas Children's Hospital (Houston)

2. Children's Hospital Colorado (Aurora, CO)

3. Duke Children's Hospital and Health Center (Durham, NC)

4. MUSC Children's Heart Network of South Carolina (Charleston, SC)

5. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Neonatology

1. Boston Children's Hospital

2. Texas Children's Hospital

3. Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford (Palo Alto, CA)

4. Cincinnati Children's

5. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia