What is My CDA Exam and Verification Visit Deadline?

Won­der­ing how much time you have to com­plete your CDA exam and Ver­i­fi­ca­tion Vis­it? Try­ing to find the your CDA exam and ver­i­fi­ca­tion vis­it dead­line? You have come to the right place! 

Ready to Schedule Notice

The CDA Coun­cil for Pro­fes­sion­al Recog­ni­tion gives appli­cants a spec­i­fied time-win­dow in which you must com­plete your CDA exam and Ver­i­fi­ca­tion Vis­it. Once you have applied for your Nation­al CDA and received the “Ready to Sched­ule” notice from the CDA coun­cil, you have six months to take your CDA Exam and com­plete your Ver­i­fi­ca­tion Vis­it with the pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment spe­cial­ist. The end of this six month peri­od is your CDA exam and ver­i­fi­ca­tion vis­it “dead­line.”

There are two ways to schedule your CDA Exam

You can cre­ate a Pear­son VUE web account and sched­ule online. Or you can sched­ule by phone by call­ing 1–866-507‑5627. Sched­ule the CDA Exam any­time between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm Cen­tral Stan­dard Time (CST), Mon­day through Fri­day. Give your­self ample time to sched­ule the exam. COVID-19 Social dis­tanc­ing require­ments, lim­it­ed staff, and local gov­ern­ment guid­ance have lim­it­ed the avail­abil­i­ty of many test cen­ters. Because of this some test cen­ters in the Unit­ed States have extend­ed their hours to almost 24 hours a day.

After you’ve received your “Ready to Sched­ule” notice from the CDA coun­cil, con­tact your Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment Spe­cial­ist to sched­ule a time for your Ver­i­fi­ca­tion Visit. 

If you are work­ing at a cen­ter, make sure your Direc­tor grants you per­mis­sion to sched­ule your Ver­i­fi­ca­tion Vis­it since it usu­al­ly takes four hours. 

Have you not start­ed your CDA yet? Or are you look­ing for more infor­ma­tion? Check our the steps to com­plet­ing your Nation­al CDA here. Curi­ous what you can do with your CDA? Check out our blog on the subject!

Care Cours­es Support

Please let us know how we can be of addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us: 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!

Can I Use My High School Diploma From Another Country For My National CDA?

One of the require­ments to apply for your Nation­al CDA is to have a high school diplo­ma or equiv­a­lent. One ques­tion we often get at Care Cours­es is, can I use my high school diplo­ma from anoth­er coun­try for my Nation­al CDA? 

… Yes!

The Coun­cil for Pro­fes­sion­al Recog­ni­tion accepts high school diplo­mas from any coun­try for the Nation­al CDA. So, you can use your high school diplo­ma from anoth­er coun­try for the Nation­al CDA.

In fact, no doc­u­men­ta­tion of a high school diplo­ma is required to be sub­mit­ted to the Coun­cil. On the appli­ca­tion for the Child Devel­op­ment Asso­ciate (CDA), there is sim­ply a place where con­firm that you …

  • have a high school diplo­ma (com­plet­ed in or out­side the U.S.), or
  • passed the GED, or
  • are cur­rent­ly a high school junior or senior enrolled in an ear­ly education/child care devel­op­ment Career and Tech­ni­cal Program.

You might also be wondering if you are eligible for the CDA if you have other qualifications that you completed outside of the US

For exam­ple, what if you have some expe­ri­ence work­ing with young chil­dren out­side the U.S. or a U.S. mil­i­tary base? Could this make up part of the 480 hours of expe­ri­ence with young chil­dren that is required with­in 3 years before applying? 

No …

Expe­ri­ence out­side the U.S. does not count toward a CDA.

If you are apply­ing for a CDA with­in the U.S., the Coun­cil only accepts expe­ri­ence acquired in licensed pro­grams with­in the U.S. or on U.S. mil­i­tary bases abroad, or in pro­grams with­in the U.S. that are legal­ly exempt from licensing. 

Many states exempt spe­cif­ic kinds of child care providers from licens­ing, such as pro­grams run by reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions, school-age pro­grams run by pub­lic schools, and sum­mer camps (check with your state’s licens­ing agency to deter­mine what pro­grams are exempt). Expe­ri­ence gained from this type of exempt pro­gram typ­i­cal­ly will count toward a CDA.

Inter­est­ed in start­ing your CDA? Take our free CDA 101 tuto­r­i­al to learn the CDA process! Then read up on your CDA set­ting. On the fence about get­ting your CDA? Check out these top 5 rea­sons you should get your CDA.

The Coun­cil does have part­ner­ships with some inter­na­tion­al ear­ly edu­ca­tion orga­ni­za­tions and gov­ern­ment agen­cies. Only Can­di­dates apply­ing with these inter­na­tion­al part­ners can obtain expe­ri­ence hours out­side of the US. Please check with the CDA coun­cil or one of these orga­ni­za­tions before apply­ing for your Nation­al CDA out­side of the Unit­ed States.

Care Courses Support

Please let us know how we can be of any addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us: 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings, and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!

How old do you need to be to take Care Courses?

There is no age lim­it when it comes to tak­ing Care Cours­es! The only pre-req­ui­site for our cours­es is that you can read and write flu­ent­ly in English.

Child Care Licensing Requirements

How­ev­er, if you plan to use Care Cours­es to become a qual­i­fied care­giv­er or vol­un­teer, first check the reg­u­la­tions for your state’s age lim­it to legal­ly take care of chil­dren. Vis­it your state page to find out your state’s child care licens­ing con­tact infor­ma­tion. Con­tact licens­ing to learn how old you must be to work in child­care in your state! 

The CDA Credential

If you wish to use Care Cours­es to apply for the Nation­al CDA cre­den­tial, you must be at least 18 years of age and hold a high school diplo­ma or GED.

Inter­est­ed in learn­ing how to get your CDA cre­den­tial? We hear this ques­tion a lot here at Care Cours­es! Check out our blog on what you can do with a CDA. The CDA Coun­cil for pro­fes­sion­al recog­ni­tion requires appli­cants to be at least 18 years of age and hold a high school diplo­ma or equiv­a­lent, like a GED.

Curi­ous which CDA set­ting is for you? We have a blog on that, too: How do I choose my CDA Setting?

Want to learn more about child care?

Want to learn more about child care but don’t know where to start? Check out our free course, Play­ing Out­doors, to learn how our train­ing works. Then read up on time out to learn why you should nev­er use this dis­ci­pline tech­nique with children. 

Care Courses Support

Please let us know how we can be of any addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us: 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings, and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!

Top Five Misconceptions about Sun-Safety

In this blog, we will cov­er the top five mis­con­cep­tions about sun-safety.

As we dis­cuss in our blog about our course, Play­ing Out­doors, spend­ing time out­doors is an impor­tant part of chil­dren’s days. 

And, as we dis­cuss in our course, Sun Safe­ty, the out­doors offers chil­dren many oppor­tu­ni­ties to be cre­ative, social, and phys­i­cal­ly active. Typ­i­cal­ly, chil­dren can be loud­er, more intense­ly active, and engage in more unlim­it­ed explo­ration than they can indoors. 

Out­door games sup­port gross motor skill devel­op­ment, team build­ing, and unlim­it­ed spon­ta­neous dis­cov­ery and learn­ing moments. Addi­tion­al­ly, out­door play give chil­dren many oppor­tu­ni­ties for cre­ative, phys­i­cal, and social activities.

The benefits of sunlight

Sun­light ben­e­fits us phys­i­cal­ly, behav­ioral­ly, and emo­tion­al­ly. How­ev­er, sun­light can also be dan­ger­ous. Over­ex­po­sure to sun­light dam­ages the skin and eyes and can con­tribute to skin cancer. 

Pro­tect­ing chil­dren from the sun’s UV radi­a­tion, and teach­ing them life-long sun-safe habits, will allow them to safe­ly take advan­tage of every­thing the out­doors has to offer. 

Here are the top five misconceptions about sun-safe play

1. You cannot get a sunburn when it is cloudy.

(False!) UV radi­a­tion is present whether or not you can see the sun­shine. Even on cloudy days, it reach­es the Earth­’s sur­face and can cause sunburns.

2. As long as you are wearing sunscreen, there is no need to take any other sun protective measures.

(False!) Sun­screen should not be the only part of your sun pro­tec­tion plan. Even while wear­ing sun­screen, seek shade and wear pro­tec­tive cloth­ing, a hat, and sunglasses. 

Try Australia’s slo­gan to encour­age sun-safe behav­iors: “Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek and Slide.” “Slip on a shirt. Slop on SPF-30 broad-spec­trum sun­screen. Slap on a hat that shades your face, neck and ears, Seek shade, and Slide on sunglasses.” 

3. If you use sunscreen with the highest SPF available you don’t need to reapply it.

(False!) You should apply a broad-spec­trum sun­screen of at least SPF-30. High­er SPFs pro­vide only slight­ly more pro­tec­tion than low­er SPFs, and may mis­lead users into skip­ping reap­pli­ca­tion or stay­ing out­side for long peri­ods of time. 

Apply sun­screen at least 30 min­utes before going in the sun and reap­ply it at least every 2 hours. Addi­tion­al­ly, you should reap­ply sun­screen after get­ting wet or sweat­ing profusely. 

4. Not all children need sun protection. 

(False!) All skin can be dam­aged by over­ex­po­sure to UV radi­a­tion. Skin of all col­ors should be pro­tect­ed from the sun. Infants under six months should not use sun­screen, but instead should be kept out of direct sunlight.

5. It is easy to determine how intense UV radiation is just by looking or going outside.

(False!) It is not pos­si­ble to deter­mine UV radi­a­tion inten­si­ty with­out spe­cial equip­ment. For exam­ple, cloud cov­er and rain can mask the inten­si­ty of the sun. 

Know­ing the UV radi­a­tion expo­sure risk can help you plan when it is safe to spend time out­doors. If you know the risk, then you can plan pro­tec­tion you and the chil­dren should use. 

Use the EPA UV index tool on our web­site to learn the UV Index val­ue for your area.

Want to learn more about sun safety?

Take our course Sun Safe­ty! In this 2 clock-hour Care Course, you will learn key facts about the inten­si­ty of UV radi­a­tion from the sun and the dan­gers and ben­e­fits of sun­light. The course teach­es strate­gies that will help pro­tect your­self and chil­dren from the harm­ful effects of the sun and how to devel­op a suc­cess­ful sun safe­ty pol­i­cy and program.

Look­ing for more inter­est­ing ear­ly child­hood top­ics? Check out our blog on reduc­ing stress for chil­dren in child care. Learn how to use med­i­ta­tion, yoga, and mind­ful­ness to help chil­dren relax and de-stress.

Care Courses Support

Please con­tact us and let us know how we can be of addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us at 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day- Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!

Reducing Children’s Stress in Child Care

Being a child can be stress­ful. Reduc­ing chil­dren’s stress in child care is important.

Sources of Stress

Learn­ing new things, build­ing inter­per­son­al rela­tion­ships, and nav­i­gat­ing dif­fer­ent home, school, and care envi­ron­ments are exhaust­ing expe­ri­ences for many chil­dren. These expe­ri­ences have been even more tire­some dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, which placed many chil­dren in unpre­dictable situations. 

How­ev­er, unlike adults, chil­dren rarely have a space to take a deep breath, relax, and reflect on the stress­ful cir­cum­stances in their lives. This is where med­i­ta­tion, yoga, and oth­er mind­ful­ness prac­tices can help in reduc­ing chil­dren’s stress!

Reducing Children’s Stress in Child Care Through Meditation, Yoga, and Mindfulness 

Med­i­ta­tion, yoga, and mind­ful­ness also enable chil­dren to build strong cog­ni­tive and social-emo­tion­al skills. Mul­ti­ple stud­ies show that these prac­tices strength­en children’s atten­tive­ness and self-con­trol, while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly con­tribut­ing to improved empa­thy and respect for peers. Med­i­ta­tion has also been linked to a decreased risk of stress, hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty, and depression.

These prac­tices help chil­dren respond to neg­a­tive thoughts, while also improv­ing their self-con­fi­dence, focus, and behav­ior. They also give chil­dren a much-need­ed way to relax and breathe, which can be espe­cial­ly impor­tant in a busy, loud child­care setting.

Many areas of the coun­try have already begun for­mal­ly adopt­ing med­i­ta­tion in schools. In Ohio, the Skills for Life pro­gram teach­es ele­men­tary school stu­dents about the val­ue of deep breath­ing, med­i­ta­tion, and prob­lem-solv­ing skills. The results were astound­ing! After the program’s imple­men­ta­tion, chil­dren felt more in con­trol of their emo­tions; bul­ly­ing rates fell, excit­ing both teach­ers and stu­dents. Sim­i­lar stud­ies else­where in the coun­try report sim­i­lar results; an exper­i­ment in San Fran­cis­co found that intro­duc­ing med­i­ta­tion had sig­nif­i­cant­ly pos­i­tive impacts on stu­dents’ aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance. Intro­duc­ing spec­i­fied ‘qui­et times’ into school cur­ric­u­la also had resid­ual ben­e­fits, includ­ing improved grades, decreased sus­pen­sion rates, and enhanced atten­tion spans.

Guid­ing chil­dren through med­i­ta­tion can be easy and fun. One exer­cise, ‘The Bal­loon,’ is espe­cial­ly sim­ple for young chil­dren to under­stand. Try this exer­cise out with tod­dlers, preschool­ers, and school-age chil­dren in your care. 

To prac­tice this exer­cise, invite chil­dren to relax and slow­ly inhale and exhale through the nose for sev­er­al sec­onds as a warmup. Then, ask chil­dren to take a long, deep breath so their stom­achs fill with air, mim­ic­k­ing a bal­loon. Encour­age them to slow­ly let the air out of the ‘bal­loon’ by releas­ing their breath through their noses. Repeat this process sev­er­al times. Chil­dren can even add a hiss­ing noise as they exhale slow­ly, just like a real bal­loon would.

Younger chil­dren will espe­cial­ly ben­e­fit from the bal­loon exer­cise if they can add cre­ative imagery to it. Ask­ing chil­dren to think of the balloon’s col­or, size, and shape as they inhale and exhale adds to the prac­tice, and gives chil­dren anoth­er oppor­tu­ni­ty to relax and reflect in the moment.

Want to learn more about the effects of stress on chil­dren and how to help chil­dren reduce stress in child care? Take our Care Course Ear­ly Child­hood Stress: Seri­ous Stress in Chil­dren’s Lives.

Let us know how the chil­dren respond­ed to this activ­i­ty in the com­ments below! 

Reducing Your Stress

Inter­est­ed in learn­ing ways that you can reduce your own stress as an ear­ly child­hood pro­fes­sion­al? Check out our blog How to Man­age Stress in Child Care

Care Courses Support

Please let us know how we can be of addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us at 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day- Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!

How can I get Idaho STARS training?

Care Cours­es is an approved train­er for the Ida­ho STARS pro­gram, ready to assist you with con­tin­u­ing your pro­fes­sion­al development. 

Are you look­ing for STARS train­ing or annu­al clock hours or a CDA Cre­den­tial in Ida­ho? Then read on!

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Requirements

The Ida­ho Depart­ment of Health and Wel­fare accepts all of our cours­es for state and city day­care licens­ing require­ments, the Ida­ho Child Care Pro­gram (ICCP), Ida­hoSTARS Steps to Qual­i­ty (STQ), and the Ida­hoSTARS Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment Sys­tem (PDS).

This includes annu­al ongo­ing train­ing for staff, direct care staff, oper­a­tors, vol­un­teers and fos­ter par­ents in day­care cen­ters, fam­i­ly day­care homes, group day­care facil­i­ties, fos­ter homes and children’s res­i­den­tial care facilities. 

Care Courses is IdahoSTARS Approved 

All Care Cours­es are approved for Ida­ho STARS train­ing hours. For reg­istry cred­it, sub­mit your com­plet­ed Care Cours­es to the Ida­hoSTARS Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment Sys­tem by log­ging into your indi­vid­ual RISE account.

CDA Training and Level 2

Inter­est­ed in advanc­ing to Lev­el 2 by receiv­ing your CDA cre­den­tial? We offer CDA train­ing in each of the four CDA settings:

  • Preschool Cen­ter-Based
  • Infant/Toddler Cen­ter-Based
  • Fam­i­ly Child Care

Our CDA train­ing cov­ers the 120 hours that you need to receive your CDA. Vis­it our CDA train­ing page to learn more! You can also learn more from one of our help­ful CDA blogs!

If there is a spe­cif­ic require­ment you’re try­ing to ful­fill, call us and we’ll be hap­py help you deter­mine how Care Cours­es can meet it.

How you can get free childcare training in Idaho?

If you work 15 or more hours a week direct­ly with par­ents, chil­dren or staff, you may be able to use Ida­hoSTARS train­ing schol­ar­ships to cov­er your Care Cours­es tuition costs. To apply for an Ida­hoSTARS schol­ar­ship, login to your RISE account, join PDS, and click the “Schol­ar­ships and Awards” but­ton on your dash­board. From here you will learn how you can get Care Cours­es train­ing for free!

Idaho Core Knowledge Components

Upon suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of your course, upload your cer­tifi­cate of com­ple­tion to your RISE account and receive reg­istry cred­it. Your cer­tifi­cate includes the hours you receive under Ida­ho Core Knowl­edge Components. 

We offer cours­es that cov­er Child Growth and Devel­op­ment, Envi­ron­ment, Cur­ricu­lum, and Prac­tice, Char­ac­ter Build­ing and Devel­op­ment, Rela­tion­ships with Fam­i­lies, Observ­ing, Record­ing, and Assess­ing Child Out­comes, Pro­gram Oper­a­tion and Admin­is­tra­tion, Professionalism/Leadership, Health, Safe­ty, and Nutri­tion, and Spe­cial Needs.

Care Courses Support

Please let us know how we can be of addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us at 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day- Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!

Michigan Child Care Training

If you’ve come across this blog it’s prob­a­bly because you are search­ing for pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment cours­es that sat­is­fy Michi­gan child­care train­ing and fos­ter par­ent train­ing requirements.

At Care Cours­es we offer dis­tance learn­ing course that can be done ful­ly online or in a hybrid online and book format.

Michigan DHS and CDA Child Care Training

So… What can Care Cours­es do for a child care provider in Michigan? 

The Michi­gan Depart­ment of Human Ser­vices accepts all Care Cours­es toward their year­ly train­ing, pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment require­ments. Which means that in Michi­gan you can use Care Cours­es for your 16 hours of annu­al DHS child care train­ing if you’re in a child­care cen­ter, fam­i­ly child care, or group child care. 

Look­ing to get a CDA cre­den­tial? The Coun­cil for Pro­fes­sion­al recog­ni­tion accepts Care Cours­es for the train­ing require­ment for the CDA nation­al cre­den­tial­ing process. Use our cours­es to get train­ing for a CDA cre­den­tial and to renew a CDA.

Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease Training

Addi­tion­al­ly, we offer train­ing on pre­ven­tion and con­trol of infec­tious dis­ease train­ing, includ­ing immu­niza­tions, take either Man­ag­ing Health and Safe­ty in Child Care or San­i­ta­tion for Dis­ease Pre­ven­tion in Ear­ly Child­hood Pro­grams.

Michigan Shaken Baby Syndrome Training

If you are a pro­gram direc­tor, care­giv­er in a child­care cen­ter, or an assis­tant care­giv­er in either a child care or a group home and need a course on safe sleep and shak­en baby syn­drome, check out our 3‑clock-hour course, Keep­ing Infants Safe.

Lead Caregiver Qualification Training and Lead Caregiver for Infants and Toddlers

We also have course bun­dles for Lead Care­giv­er Qual­i­fi­ca­tion Train­ing, and Lead Care­giv­er for Infants and Tod­dlers Train­ing.

Michigan Registry (MiRegistry) Training

The Michi­gan Reg­istry (MiReg­istry) has approved all Care Cours­es toward Great Start to Qual­i­ty. All of our cours­es may be used towards STARS orga­ni­za­tion rating. 

Do you need MiReg­istry child care train­ing cred­it? Please ensure that your Michi­gan Reg­istry ID num­ber is entered in your Care Cours­es account. Once you have added it, please email us at info@carecourses.com so that we can report your train­ing. Your train­ing will be report­ed auto­mat­i­cal­ly after we have your reg­istry ID. 

Michigan Foster Parent Training

If you are a fos­ter par­ent in Michi­gan you may use our cours­es for your six hour annu­al train­ing require­ment. Speak with your agency licen­sor to have the topic/title approved.

If are not yet a licensed child care provider in Michi­gan, but want to become one, we rec­om­mend that you speak with a state licen­sor before pur­chas­ing any training. 

Con­tact licensing:

Michi­gan Depart­ment of Licens­ing and Reg­u­la­to­ry Affairs 
Child Care Licens­ing Divi­sion
Phone: (866)-685‑0006 

Care Courses Support

Please let us know how we can be of addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us: 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!

Where can I get Texas childcare training?

Texas Childcare Training

We’re proud to call thou­sands of child­care providers in the Lone Star State our stu­dents here at Care Cours­es. Our train­ing school was found­ed in Austin in 1990, and we still design cours­es specif­i­cal­ly for Texas child­care train­ing requirements! 

So whether you’re already using our cours­es for your train­ing needs or a new­com­er to us, take a minute to see every­thing Care Cours­es has to offer ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tors in Texas.

For Childcare Providers

Use Care Cours­es toward both your annu­al train­ing and oth­er Texas require­ments. The Texas Depart­ment of Fam­i­ly and Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices (TDFPS) accepts all Care Cours­es in accor­dance with their con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion require­ment for all child­care providers.

When it comes to annu­al train­ing, keep in mind that you can use Care Cours­es for some (but not all) of your annu­al hours. Texas does not allow more than 80% of the required annu­al train­ing hours to come from self-instruc­tion­al train­ing. Thus, child­care cen­ter care­givers can use Care Cours­es for up to 19 hours annu­al­ly and child­care cen­ter direc­tors for up to 24 hours annu­al­ly. In addi­tion, clock hours may not be car­ried over to the next year.

So, here are a few Texas child­care train­ing require­ments you can meet using Care Courses.

  • Ful­fill the SIDs, Shak­en Baby and Ear­ly Brain Devel­op­ment require­ments with our 3‑hour course Keep­ing Infants Safe.
  • Use our 2‑hour course Trans­porta­tion Safe­ty for the trans­porta­tion safe­ty require­ment for all providers who trans­port chil­dren under the age of nine.

Folks who are just com­ing into the ear­ly edu­ca­tion field can use Care Cours­es for the 24-hour Texas Pre-ser­vice train­ing require­ment. We offer a four-course train­ing bun­dle to cov­er this pre­ser­vice require­ment. One of the cours­es, Great Begin­nings, must be com­plet­ed before you can begin work­ing. The oth­er three cours­es in the bun­dle, Block Play, Music and Move­ment, and Prin­ci­ples of Child Devel­op­ment and Learn­ing can be fin­ished with­in the first 90 days of work.

TECPDS Registry Training

All Care Cours­es are approved by the Texas Ear­ly Child­hood Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment Sys­tem (TECPDS) reg­istry. Our train­er’s Texas work­force reg­istry num­ber is 94618.

CDA Credential Training

Use Care Cours­es to obtain a CDA or renew a CDA! Care Cours­es CDA train­ing is avail­able for three CDA settings:

Read our blog, “How Do I get a CDA?” to learn more about the CDA credential!

For Center Directors

Stu­dents who will be a direc­tor of a cen­ter with 13 or more chil­dren can use Care Cours­es to obtain the child devel­op­ment train­ing need­ed toward a child­care cen­ter director’s certificate. 

As long as you have at least three years of expe­ri­ence in a licensed child care cen­ter, you can use Care Cours­es to cov­er your child devel­op­ment train­ing require­ment. Just choose our child devel­op­ment train­ing bun­dle, which cov­ers 150 hours of child devel­op­ment training.

For Teachers of School-Age Children

You can also use Care Cours­es for Con­tin­u­ing Pro­fes­sion­al Edu­ca­tion (CPEs) for the Texas Edu­ca­tion Agency. This means that if you’re a class­room teacher, you can use this towards the 150 hours that you need for renew­al. If you hold a pro­fes­sion­al cer­tifi­cate you can use our train­ing for the 200 hours you need for renew­al. Click here to get your CPE hours!

Addi­tion­al­ly, you can use Care Cours­es to com­plete the 120 hours of for­mal child care train­ing need­ed to obtain your CDA cre­den­tial! Read our blog, “The 5 Rea­sons You Should Get a CDA”, and take a look at our Texas CDA page to learn how a CDA can help you specif­i­cal­ly in Texas.

So as you can see, Care Cours­es doesn’t mess around when it comes to Texas!

Care Courses Support

Please let us know how we can be of addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us: 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!

What Can You Do With A CDA?

The Child Devel­op­ment Asso­ciate (CDA) cre­den­tial is a nation­al­ly rec­og­nized pro­fes­sion­al cre­den­tial admin­is­tered by the Coun­cil for Pro­fes­sion­al Recog­ni­tion. The coun­cil is often called the CDA Council. 

Obtain­ing a CDA cre­den­tial will advance your pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment. This achieve­ment shows oth­ers that you know how to sup­port the social, emo­tion­al, phys­i­cal, and intel­lec­tu­al devel­op­ment of young chil­dren. Check out our blog “How Do I Get a CDA Cre­den­tial?” for more information.

So, once you know how to get your Nation­al CDA, you can check out our state child care train­ing infor­ma­tion pages to learn how it can be used in your state. The states accept the CDA for dif­fer­ent requirements. 

Not sure where to start? Go to our Care Cours­es web­site, select your state’s name, and then click on “how the CDA can ben­e­fit you in [the state you work in].” Or, give us a call and we can help!

Below are exam­ples of what you can do with a CDA in a few states: Mary­land, New York, Texas, and Illinois. 

What are the benefits of having a CDA Credential in Maryland?

In Mary­land, hav­ing a CDA:**

  • (plus addi­tion­al train­ing, col­lege cred­its, and expe­ri­ence) qual­i­fies you to work as a direc­tor in a preschool with 21 or more chil­dren, or a preschool with infants and tod­dlers, or in a large fam­i­ly child­care home.
  • (plus addi­tion­al train­ing and expe­ri­ence) qual­i­fies you to work as a direc­tor in a preschool with 20 or few­er chil­dren or a school age center.
  • (plus addi­tion­al train­ing and expe­ri­ence) qual­i­fies you to work as a teacher in a preschool cen­ter or large fam­i­ly child­care home.
  • (plus addi­tion­al train­ing) qual­i­fies you to work as a provider in a fam­i­ly child­care home.

**Look­ing for free train­ing reim­burse­ments in Mary­land? Child care providers with a MD Child Care Cre­den­tial at lev­el 2 or high­er are eli­gi­ble to receive up to $400 in reim­burse­ments each year for core of knowl­edge train­ing. Our CDA train­ing is ful­ly eli­gi­ble for the MSDE train­ing reim­burse­ment pro­gram. 

What are the benefits of having a CDA Credential in New York?

In New York State, hav­ing a CDA:

  • (plus either a plan of study lead­ing to a bachelor’s degree or a New York State Children’s Pro­gram Admin­is­tra­tor Cre­den­tial and addi­tion­al expe­ri­ence) qual­i­fies you to work as a direc­tor in a child day care center.
  • (plus addi­tion­al expe­ri­ence) qual­i­fies you to work as a group teacher for preschool­ers or infants and tod­dlers in a child day­care center.

If you are locat­ed in New York City, please refer to Arti­cle 47 of the NYC Health Code (sec­tions 47.13, 47.15, and 47.17) or speak with your con­sul­tant from the Depart­ment of Health for the guide­lines on how a CDA can be used and what require­ments you need in order to work as a Group Teacher and/or Day­care Director.

What are the benefits of having a CDA Credential in Texas? 

In Texas, hav­ing a CDA:

  • (plus addi­tion­al train­ing and expe­ri­ence) qual­i­fies you to work as a direc­tor in a child-care center.
  • (plus addi­tion­al train­ing and expe­ri­ence) qual­i­fies you to work as a pri­ma­ry care­giv­er in a licensed child­care home.
  • (plus addi­tion­al train­ing and expe­ri­ence) qual­i­fies you to work as a direc­tor in a school-age or before- or after-school program

What are the benefits of having a CDA Credential in Illinois?

In Illi­nois, hav­ing a CDA:

  • (plus addi­tion­al expe­ri­ence and col­lege cred­its) qual­i­fies you to work as a child­care direc­tor of a day­care center.
  • qual­i­fies you to work as an ear­ly child­hood teacher in a day­care center.
  • qual­i­fies you to work as a care­giv­er in a group day­care home.

Care Cours­es pro­vides sup­port through­out your train­ing and after. We are here to help make this expe­ri­ence pleas­ant and reward­ing! Start your train­ing today!

Please let us know how we can assist you fur­ther with the CDA process! Call us: 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help! 

How to Help Children Succeed


Are you try­ing to help chil­dren suc­ceed in your child care pro­gram or as a par­ent? In order to learn and devel­op, chil­dren need oppor­tu­ni­ties to expe­ri­ence suc­cess. This week’s blog comes from our Care Course Child Devel­op­ment and Guid­ance and has infor­ma­tion that will help you help your chil­dren succeed. 

Chil­dren feel suc­cess­ful when they do things on their own, in their own way. Chil­dren need the free­dom to meet chal­lenges and suc­ceed on their own. This is essen­tial for children’s learn­ing and devel­op­ment. How­ev­er, it is some­times dif­fi­cult for adults to allow chil­dren the free­dom to suc­ceed on their own.

One way for children to experience success is through experimentation.

By def­i­n­i­tion, the process of exper­i­ment­ing involves peri­ods of frus­tra­tion and fail­ure. An under­stand­ing of the func­tion of frus­tra­tion and fail­ure in children’s learn­ing process will help you give chil­dren the free­dom they must have in order to learn and feel successful.

Frus­tra­tion and fail­ure are not always neg­a­tive expe­ri­ences. While too much frus­tra­tion can indeed be over­whelm­ing, some frus­tra­tion is essen­tial on the path­way to suc­cess. Expe­ri­ences of fail­ure are also essen­tial before chil­dren can expe­ri­ence the joy of suc­cess. When fac­ing a chal­lenge or attempt­ing to solve a prob­lem, chil­dren must first expe­ri­ence what does not work to help them fig­ure out what does work. Allow­ing chil­dren to exper­i­ment and keep on try­ing on their own even if they don’t get it right the first time gives them the oppor­tu­ni­ty to feel a sense of tri­umph when they do suc­ceed. Their tri­umph shows in their eyes and their smiles. Such tri­umphs are the build­ing blocks of pos­i­tive self-esteem.

Fail­ing to allow chil­dren to exper­i­ment and keep on try­ing on their own teach­es chil­dren to expect either (1) that they are not capa­ble of fig­ur­ing things out on their own or (2) that mak­ing the effort to do so is not important.

Your inter­ac­tions with chil­dren teach chil­dren either (1) to exper­i­ment, keep try­ing even when they are frus­trat­ed, and final­ly suc­ceed, and thus build their self-esteem or (2) to expect that they can­not suc­cess­ful­ly com­plete a task on their own, and thus erode their self-esteem. 

Chil­dren who feel that they are inca­pable expect them­selves to fail. This atti­tude leads to feel­ings of self-doubt and low self-esteem. Chil­dren who are not allowed to keep exper­i­ment­ing on their own until they have dis­cov­ered what works will stop try­ing to do things by them­selves. They will lose their nat­ur­al curios­i­ty and per­sis­tence. They will learn to pas­sive­ly go along with the adult’s behav­ior rather than active­ly seek to solve prob­lems on their own.

Chil­dren do not mea­sure suc­cess in the same man­ner as adults. Chil­dren are more inter­est­ed in the process than the prod­uct. Successes—even the tiny ones that may seem insignif­i­cant from an adult point of view—are sig­nif­i­cant to chil­dren. Every suc­cess moti­vates the child to con­tin­ue learn­ing and con­tributes to the devel­op­ment of pos­i­tive self-esteem.

Chil­dren need many oppor­tu­ni­ties for spon­ta­neous, self-paced, child-con­trolled play. Play is the ide­al way for young chil­dren to learn. Read our blog on the ben­e­fits of block play!

Take our course Child Devel­op­ment and Guid­ance to learn more!

Let us know how we can be of addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us: 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings, and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!

%d bloggers like this: