Child Care Service Owners

Certification or Licensing

The Council for Professional Recognition offers the Child Development Associate (CDA) National Credentialing Program. To become a CDA, you must meet competency standards and have experience in child care. (Note: Some high school students who are enrolled in vocational training programs may also be eligible for the credential.) The National Child Care Association (NCCA) offers the national administrator credential. To receive this credential, you must complete a special 45-hour training course over the course of four to five days. The program provides education in 10 competencies:

1. History of Early Childhood Education, and Personal and Professional Development of the Child Care Professional
2. An Effective Organization
3. Internal and External Systems
4. Laws and Regulations
5. Staff Management and Human Resources
6. Educational Programming
7. Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations
8. Financial Management
9. Operational Planning
10. Leadership and Advocacy

The NCCA also offers the certified childcare professional credential, which is geared toward teachers who have not completed a college degree or who have a degree in a field that is unrelated to child care.

Requirements for the licensing or registering of child care workers vary from state to state. You can visit the Web site of the Office of Child Care (https://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ) to learn about your state's regulatory bodies and obtain contact information. Requirements for a child care administrator, director, or owner may include having a certain amount of child care experience or education, completing a certain amount of continuing education per year, being at least 21 years of age, and having a high school diploma. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training is also often required. National certification may not be required of child care service owners and workers in every state, but some organizations do offer it.