Care Courses Blog

Which CDA Setting is Right for You?

The CDA can be obtained in four dif­fer­ent settings:

• the Fam­i­ly Child Care set­ting. This set­ting is for those who work in a reg­is­tered or licensed fam­i­ly home day care. There­fore, if you work in your home, this set­ting is for you!
• the Infant and Tod­dler Cen­ter-Based set­ting, for those who work in a reg­is­tered day care cen­ter with chil­dren ages birth to 3 years. So, if you work in a cen­ter with infants and tod­dlers, this set­ting is for you!
• the Preschool Cen­ter-Based set­ting, for those who work in a reg­is­tered day care cen­ter with chil­dren ages 3 to 5. There­fore, if you work with preschool­ers in a cen­ter, this set­ting is for you!
• the “Home Vis­i­tor” set­ting, for those who make home vis­its to fam­i­lies and/or work in a pro­gram that teach­es par­ent­ing skills to adults. 

So, how do you choose a CDA set­ting? Choose the set­ting that match­es your work setting!

How to choose your CDA setting

In order to decide which of these set­tings is right for you, you have to ask your­self 2 questions:

1. Which of these set­tings have I (or will I) be able to accu­mu­late a total of 480 hours of direct work expe­ri­ence (with­in a 3 year win­dow) work­ing with children? 
2. Which of these set­tings will I be able to invite a CDA rep­re­sen­ta­tive to come vis­it and observe my com­pe­ten­cy work­ing direct­ly with children?

So, if one of the CDA set­tings list­ed above match­es BOTH of these ques­tions, then you have found the set­ting that’s right for you! 

Now the ques­tion is, do you qual­i­fy to get started?

CDA Credential Qualifications

Do you…

1. …hold a high school diplo­ma (or equiv­a­lent) or cur­rent­ly take class­es as part of an ear­ly edu­ca­tion voca­tion­al pro­gram in a high school at the junior or senior grade level? 
2. …speak, read, and write well enough to com­mu­ni­cate with chil­dren and their par­ents, and demon­strate to a CDA rep­re­sen­ta­tive your com­pe­ten­cy as a child care provider through the com­ple­tion of a Pro­fes­sion­al Portfolio?

If you answered yes to BOTH of these ques­tions, then you are ready to get start­ed on the path toward earn­ing a CDA!

Inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about what you can do with a CDA Cre­den­tial? Check out our blog What Can You Do With A CDA?

Care Courses Support

Have ques­tions? 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!