What is a CDA?

The Child Devel­op­ment Asso­ciate (CDA) cre­den­tial is the most wide­ly rec­og­nized cre­den­tial in the ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion field. Earn­ing your CDA con­firms to employ­ers, par­ents, and oth­ers that you under­stand and meet the high­est stan­dards in ear­ly child­hood care and education.

The nation­al CDA Cre­den­tial is award­ed by the Coun­cil for Pro­fes­sion­al Recog­ni­tion in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. and is rec­og­nized through­out the Unit­ed States and its territories.

The Coun­cil fo Pro­fes­sion­al Recog­ni­tion awards the cre­den­tial to appli­cants meet­ing a set of com­pe­ten­cy stan­dards that include top­ics such as “estab­lish­ing and main­tain­ing a safe, healthy learn­ing envi­ron­ment” and “sup­port­ing social and emo­tion­al devel­op­ment and pro­vid­ing pos­i­tive guidance.”

Care Cours­es CDA train­ing aligns with these com­pe­ten­cy stan­dards. We are one of the first recip­i­ents of the CDA’s Gold Stan­dard Train­ing Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion award, which means that our train­ing meets the Council’s rig­or­ous cri­te­ria for pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment, stu­dent ser­vices, and sound busi­ness practices.

Let Care Courses Help You Earn Your National CDA!

We have writ­ten exten­sive­ly about the CDA process. Review the fol­low­ing blogs if you’re just get­ting started:

• How do I get a Nation­al Child Devel­op­ment Asso­ciate Credential?
• How do I choose my setting?
• Why should I get a CDA? Top 5 Reasons
• How do I Com­plete my Train­ing for the Child Devel­op­ment Asso­ciate Credential?
• Is there a time lim­it for the Child Devel­op­ment Asso­ciate Credential?
• Who is my Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment Specialist?
• What’s an ear­ly child­hood pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion membership?
• 5 Steps to Com­plet­ing the Pro­fes­sion­al Portfolio

We also rec­om­mend that you com­plete our free CDA tuto­r­i­al. This free online course tuto­r­i­al will help you under­stand the train­ing and appli­ca­tion process in detail and make sure you are ready to com­plete your for­mal child­care CDA train­ing with Care Courses. 

Once you have earned your Child Devel­op­ment Asso­ciate Cre­den­tial, you must renew it every three years. We’ve writ­ten about that as well! Look­ing to renew? Learn the steps to renew­ing your cre­den­tial on our web­site. You can com­plete your renew­al train­ing with us as well. Check out our dis­count­ed CDA renew­al train­ing sets. Thank you for reading!

We are hap­py to answer any ques­tions you have about the Child Devel­op­ment Asso­ciate Cre­den­tial. Call us at 1–800-685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends at info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!