Home Guides Texas memory care certification
What a Texas memory care certification actually is
In most of the country "memory care" is a marketing phrase, and any facility can print it on a brochure. In Texas it is also a licence endorsement — one the state either issued or did not, and one you can check before you tour.
Texas issues an Alzheimer's certification separately from the assisted living licence itself. A facility without one is not permitted to hold itself out as providing Alzheimer's or dementia care. That makes the certification the one dementia-care claim in this market a family can verify against a government record instead of taking on trust.
The count here is the state's, not the industry's
38 of the 100 state-licensed assisted living facilities published on this site hold the certification. That number is smaller than the number of facilities in the Houston area that use the words "memory care" in their advertising, and the gap is the entire reason this page exists.
Texas also certifies a number of beds, not just the facility. Across the 38 certified facilities published here, 38 of them publish a certified capacity totalling 1277 beds. A facility can hold a certification and still have no certified bed free.
Browse them: every assisted living facility published here that holds a Texas Alzheimer's certification.
This is general information, not medical advice. It describes what Texas and Medicare require, not what any particular person needs. Talk to your parent's physician about their specific situation.
What the certification does not tell you
It is a permission, not a grade. Texas publishes no star rating, no inspection score and no quality measure for assisted living or for the memory care provided inside it. Two certified facilities can be very different places and the state record will not distinguish them.
It also says nothing about staffing levels on the day you visit, about how long the staff have worked there, or about how the facility handles a resident who wanders at night. Those are tour questions, and the certification is the floor beneath them rather than an answer to them.
What to do with it
Check it before the tour, not after. If a facility describes itself as memory care and the state record shows no certification, that gap is worth raising directly — there may be an ordinary explanation, such as a certification applied for and not yet issued, and the facility is the right party to give it.
Common questions
Does Texas certify memory care separately from assisted living?
Yes. An Alzheimer's certification is issued on top of the ordinary Type A or Type B assisted living licence, and it is a separate record. A facility that does not hold one is not permitted to hold itself out as providing Alzheimer's or dementia care in Texas.
How can I check whether a facility is certified for memory care?
It is a state licensing record, so it is public. Every assisted living page on this site shows whether that facility holds the certification, taken from the Texas HHSC roster of July 2026. You can also ask the facility directly and ask to see the certification.
How many memory care facilities are there near Houston?
Of the 100 state-licensed assisted living facilities published on this site, 38 hold a Texas Alzheimer's certification. That is the state's count rather than the industry's — it excludes any facility that advertises memory care without holding the certification.
Does a certification mean the memory care is good?
No. It means the state has certified the facility to provide that care and has permitted it to say so. Texas publishes no rating, no inspection score and no quality measure for assisted living or for memory care, so there is no government number that grades one against another.
The certification sits on top of an ordinary Type A or Type B licence. What those two licence types permit is a separate question, and often the more consequential one.