The short answer: Boca Raton has 21 licensed, active assisted living facilities with a combined 1,375 licensed beds, according to AssistedLivingFacility.com directory data. There is no published Boca Raton–specific cost median, so the only sourced benchmark is the national assisted living median of $6,200 per month reported by the CareScout (Genworth) Cost of Care Survey, and the single most decision-relevant question for many Boca families isn't price at all — it's whether a community's kitchen is genuinely kosher-supervised and whether its AHCA license lets your parent stay as care needs grow.
How much does assisted living cost per month in Boca Raton?
There is no reliable published median for Boca Raton alone, and any site that gives you one to the dollar is guessing. Here is what is actually sourced: the national median cost of an assisted living community rose 5% to $6,200 per month, or $74,400 annually, in the CareScout Cost of Care Survey fielded July through November 2025.
CareScout publishes cost data for 434 U.S. regions and explicitly cautions that any particular provider's cost may differ significantly from the regional median. Genworth's earlier 2024 Ranked State Data Tables based those assisted living medians on 12 months of care in a private one-bedroom unit, from fielding conducted July through December 2024 — so when you see a "state average," that's the unit type and time frame behind it.
What that means in practice for Palm Beach County:
| What you're comparing | What the sourced number actually is |
|---|---|
| National assisted living median (2025 survey) | $6,200/month, $74,400/year (CareScout) |
| Unit type behind the median | Private one-bedroom, 12 months of care (Genworth 2024 tables) |
| Boca Raton-specific median | Not published by CareScout at city level — ask each community directly |
| Boca Raton licensed ALFs / beds | 21 communities, 1,375 beds (AssistedLivingFacility.com directory data) |
When you call communities, ask for the all-in monthly number: base rent plus the current care-level fee, plus medication management, plus any community fee. In upscale Boca buildings near Boca West, Broken Sound, and Mizner Park, base rent and care tiers are often quoted separately, and the care tier is what moves.
What do Florida's four ALF license types mean for aging in place?
Florida licenses assisted living facilities under four designations — Standard, Extended Congregate Care (ECC), Limited Nursing Services (LNS), and Limited Mental Health (LMH) — according to AHCA's FloridaHealthFinder Assisted Living Consumer Guide. This is the detail national directories skip, and it decides whether your parent gets to stay put or gets a 45-day notice.
| License | What it allows | Why it matters to your family |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Direct physical assistance with or supervision of activities of daily living, medications, and similar services (AHCA) | Fine for a parent who needs help with bathing, dressing, and pills — but has the narrowest ceiling |
| ECC | Nursing and support services to residents who would otherwise be disqualified from continued residence (Holland & Knight) | The license most associated with aging in place through rising needs |
| LNS | Specified nursing services beyond the standard scope (Holland & Knight) | Useful for wound care, injections, or other defined nursing tasks |
| LMH | Services for residents receiving SSDI or SSI due to a mental disorder, plus optional state supplementation (Holland & Knight) | Relevant when a psychiatric diagnosis is part of the picture |
Florida has also created a new ALF specialty license type specifically for memory care services, in addition to ECC, LNS and LMH, Holland & Knight reports. Ask every Boca community two questions: which licenses do you hold, and at what point would my mother no longer qualify to live here?
Which Boca Raton communities actually keep kosher — and how do I verify it?
Treat kosher dining as an operations question, not a brochure line. Boca Raton has a large Jewish population served by organizations including the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County and the Levis JCC (see bocafed.org) — and that demand has produced real differences between communities that say "kosher-style" and those that are actually supervised.
Take this checklist on every tour:
- Supervision: Is there a mashgiach on site, and which agency certifies the kitchen? Ask to see the current certificate.
- Kitchen build: Separate dairy and meat kitchens, or separate prep areas and dishwashing? Who handles it on weekends?
- "Kosher-style" vs. certified: A kosher-style menu means no pork or shellfish. It does not mean supervision.
- Shabbat: Is there a Shabbat elevator? Timed lighting? Is Friday dinner served in the main dining room, and does a rabbi or chaplain lead services on site?
- Passover: Does the kitchen do a full changeover, and does the community stay open to non-observant residents' preferences during Pesach?
- Staff language: Are there Yiddish-, Hebrew-, Russian-, or Spanish-speaking aides on the shift your parent will actually live through — nights and weekends included?
- Memory care dining: If your parent is moving to a memory care neighborhood, does the kosher program follow them there, or stop at the assisted living wing?
You can compare the licensed communities in the city on our Boca Raton assisted living page, then widen the search across Palm Beach County if the right kitchen matters more than the exact ZIP code.
Does Florida Medicaid pay for assisted living in Palm Beach County?
Florida's Medicaid help for assisted living comes through the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care (SMMC LTC) program, and eligibility starts with a clinical screening rather than a phone call to a community. In southern Palm Beach County, the intake point is the Area Agency on Aging of Palm Beach/Treasure Coast — Your Aging Resource Center / ADRC — which arranges the Department of Elder Affairs CARES assessment. Start at elderaffairs.org and youragingresourcecenter.org.
Two things families should understand before they plan around Medicaid. First, the program pays for long-term care services, not the full private-pay rent most Boca communities charge — so not every licensed building accepts SMMC LTC residents, and you have to ask. Second, Florida increased the personal needs allowance for assisted living facility residents through HB 5001, the 2024-25 General Appropriations Act — a $116.5 billion budget signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on June 12, 2024, according to the Home Care Association of Florida. Confirm current income, asset, and allowance figures with the ADRC before you make financial decisions.
How do I check a Boca facility's inspection history before I tour?
Look the facility up on AHCA's FloridaHealthFinder before you spend a Saturday touring. Search the community by name, confirm the license type and capacity, and read the inspection reports and any cited deficiencies — then ask the administrator directly what changed after the last survey. A good administrator will answer that without flinching.
For resident-rights problems after a move-in, the free channel is the Florida Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program's Palm Beach County district at ombudsman.elderaffairs.org. Ombudsman services cost nothing and are independent of the facility.
What should I know about Boca's hospitals, neighborhoods, and transportation?
Boca Raton Regional Hospital, part of Baptist Health South Florida, is the city's primary acute-care hospital, on Meadows Road just west of downtown. West Boca Medical Center on Glades Road west of the Turnpike serves the big west Boca retirement communities, and Delray Medical Center to the north is the area's Level I trauma center. Ask each community which hospital its residents are transported to by default.
Geography drives the shortlist here. The Glades Road corridor runs close to the 55+ condo corridors of Century Village Boca Raton and the Boca Lago area along Lyons Road. East Boca families often want walkability near Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place; country-club families near Boca West and Broken Sound usually want to stay inside a 10-minute drive of old friends.
For parents who no longer drive, Palm Tran Connection provides ADA paratransit and Transportation Disadvantaged door-to-door service countywide, with application-based eligibility — details at Palm Tran. In practice, many Boca assisted living communities run their own scheduled shuttles to medical appointments rather than relying on fixed-route bus service, so ask how many days a week the shuttle runs and whether it goes to your parent's specialists. Out-of-town adult children usually arrive through Tri-Rail's Boca Raton station on Yamato Road or Brightline's station in downtown Boca Raton.
If Boca doesn't yield the right fit, browse comparable options across Florida — Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Deerfield Beach are all within a short drive.
