Care Courses Blog

Are you look­ing for Wash­ing­ton MERIT hours for your annu­al train­ing? If so, Care Cours­es offers excel­lent dis­tance-learn­ing cours­es for com­plet­ing your required Wash­ing­ton STARS hours.

Washington’s State Training and Registry System (STARS) / Merit

Washington’s State Train­ing and Reg­istry Sys­tem (STARS) records all employ­ment, train­ing, and edu­ca­tion­al his­to­ries for ear­ly child­hood pro­fes­sion­als in the state. Run by Washington’s Depart­ment of Chil­dren, Youth, and Fam­i­lies (DCYF), STARS – also referred to as the MERIT reg­istry – is a great tool for learn­ing valu­able infor­ma­tion about child­care. It can also help you locate rel­e­vant train­ing opportunities.

Addi­tion­al­ly, ear­ly child­hood pro­fes­sion­als in Wash­ing­ton State must com­plete STARS/MERIT approved con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion. Providers in Wash­ing­ton who have been cumu­la­tive­ly work­ing in child care for 12 months must com­plete 10 hours of annu­al STARS hours train­ing each year. This require­ment ensures that child care providers in Wash­ing­ton State are con­tin­u­al­ly enhanc­ing and improv­ing their own skills.

Worried about completing your STARS hours on time? Look no further than Care Courses.

All Care Cours­es are approved through Wash­ing­ton STARS for con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion clock hours. Our con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion cours­es can be used for ear­ly child­care pro­fes­sion­als who work in child care cen­ters, fam­i­ly home child care pro­grams, and school-age child care pro­grams. Care Cours­es is for direc­tors, vol­un­teers, assis­tants, teach­ers, and every­one in between! To see our STARS hours approved cours­es, please vis­it MERIT’s web­site. Care Cours­es is found using the orga­ni­za­tion search.

When you cre­ate your Care Cours­es account, make sure to add your Wash­ing­ton state MERIT Reg­istry ID num­ber to your Care Cours­es account under the Info area of your account. We will report your train­ing to the registry.

Opening a center or home-based child care facility in Washington

Are you inter­est­ed in start­ing a day care or home-based child care facil­i­ty in Wash­ing­ton State? Please con­tact your state licens­ing agency first using the con­tact infor­ma­tion on our Wash­ing­ton State train­ing page. Wash­ing­ton DCYF will give you advice on the require­ments, rules and reg­u­la­tions for start­ing a child care program.

Care Courses Support

Ques­tions about Wash­ing­ton’s train­ing require­ments? 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!